We’ve all heard of the creative economy, but the creative wardrobe? Not Just a Label had that in mind when ideating its first capsule collection dropping Thursday.
The global online marketplace for emerging designers is releasing eight styles inspired by what its community wears in their ateliers.
What started as an idea for a social media campaign spotlighting some of the site’s 50,000 registered brands turned into the NJAL Collection No. 1 crowdsourced capsule of recycled, organic cotton soft basics, created with botanical dyes, including an atelier blazer, a hoodie, crop top and shorts in colors like leafy green, rubia and eco orange. The pieces, $80 to $250, are designed to be functional with extra pockets for scissors, notebooks and other tools of the trades.
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(The methodology involved a questionnaire being sent to 1,000 designers in the Not Just a Label network asking what they were wearing while continuing to work during the pandemic, and what they wanted to wear.)
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“We were inspired by their passion and tenacity,” said brand founder Stefan Siegel of creating the line, limited to 2,000 pieces.
Not Just a Label was established by Siegel in L.A. in 2008, and in response to COVID-19, added business-to-consumer to its business-to-business platform in July 2020.
“At first, there was still a reluctance from brands to jump on the d-to-c [direct-to-consumer] bandwagon, especially those based in London, Paris and New York where designers were being taught in school you have to sell at Dover Street Market to be successful,” Siegel said. “At the time, not many of them had their own websites, but now over 90 percent do, they know how to ship, and that’s changed out of necessity. D-to-c is helping them and their margins are completely different. Even if they sell through us, we take a 30 percent cut, but they still get 70 percent. If they went through any other store, they would see 10 percent, then have to deduct the cost of a show or showroom. There has been a huge shift.”
The site now has 200 to 300 new collections uploaded each month.
The retail side has been growing, too, Siegel added, noting that the customers have been responding to the made-to-order section of the site in particular, and are willing to wait for everything from $650 choker necklaces to $6,000 silk mikado gowns. “It solves a lot of problems around sustainability because there is no waste or overstock, every piece is made for the customer, and there are no returns,” he explained.
In September, Not Just a Label signed a wholesale partnership with Zalando for four seasons of product from 50 designers. “We have some brands that have never sold in a store before that are now selling on a website with a $11 billion business,” Siegel said.
Depending on how the first Not Just a Label capsule collection goes, he’s not ruling out the possibility of going into private label in a more serious way: “We named it number one to potentially follow up with another mini collection, so that option is open.”
