Over the coming weeks Pedestrian will be profiling a few speakers from the forthcoming Higher Learning seminar – a two day fashion-centric conference that aims to “take you into the reality of the fashion industry and deliver you the tools needed to make it in one of the hardest industries in the world”. From the challenges facing young Australian labels to the future of retail, Higher Learning, which takes place from the 17th to the 18th of June, is essential viewing for anyone considering a future career in fashion. The seminar boasts speakers such as Romance Was Born’s Luke Sales, Merivale CEO Justin Hemmes, Russh Market Editor Emma Read and IMG Designer Relations Manager Michaela Griffiths-Leese among others but today we’ve caught up with General Pants General Manager Craig King about what it takes to run Australia’s number one youth retailer.
What does a day in the life of a General Pants GM entail? Generally each day you spend a little time in the present and a little time in the future. The present is your daily numbers coming through – constant feedback on whether your strategy is working to plan and meeting the markets expectations. Based on this feedback you try and read the winds, predict how long your current thinking will hold up and when will you have to change tack to meet the challenges ahead – the future. I get to work with a talented bunch of enthusiastic, bright people at General Pants Group. They are a creative passionate team so we are never short of new ideas. The Heads Of Department and myself try to corral all this creativity and condense it down into tangible initiatives to keep General Pants Co meeting the expectations of our ever more discerning customers.
And what do you see as your main role or duty? My role as Group GM is principally to meet the financial targets of the owners whilst building esteem for our brands and preserving the unique culture that Phil Staub has created for GPG. More specifically the front end of the business is divided up into five departments, retail operations, buying, merchandise planning, visual merchandising and marketing. Each has a head of department, my role is to conceive our brand message with the Heads Of Departments via product and marketing and then get out of their way so they can deliver on it.
Nurturing talent is a big part of the GP ethos and that probably started at “The Bubble” initiative – can you tell us a bit about that? We are very proud of the Bubble. One of our premises is to give back to the community we market to. The Bubble is a network of creative artists, writers, photographers, film makers, designers, etc. Starting out in the creative fields can be tough – few clients and minimal opportunities. The Bubble provides an online gallery space for Bubble artists to showcase their talents and hopefully pick up work. Its also a bank of talent that GP Co can pull from for our own photo shoots, installations and content.
Then how did this evolve into a Record Label? Well, Major Label sprang from the same premise as the Bubble – supporting fresh creativity, in this case music. A lot of fashion companies say music is fundamental to their business but they don’t really do anything about it. Major Label provides a vehicle for unsigned bands to cut a record and get it heard and sold through our GP stores. The really exciting thing is our retail staff and customers can find these bands and musicians when they are out at gigs, recommend them and then our partners meet with them and cut a track. Its again all about working and enriching our market.
Are there any collaborations on the horizon for General Pants? We are always open to the right approach but we are very selective about who we partner up with. Recently we launched a line with Australian model Jessica Hart. We met Jess through her boyfriend who’s a lead in the Aussie band Tamarama who we were supporting on their first album. Jess was hanging with some of our buyers and getting into the product. She suggested she’d like to do a t-shirt for charity and Phil suggested a whole line and that’s what became “Neon Hart”. The line is selling out at GP and a percentage goes to charity. We don’t have anything new I can talk about right now but it’s always an interesting area to develop.
For more information on Higher Learning head to www.ahigherlearning.com.au
Title Image by Jamie McCarthy via Getty
