CONCENTRATE, gentlemen, I am going to reveal to you the secret of fashion.
“Ours, ours, ours,” says Kim Winser, stabbing a well-manicured finger at a
spread in American glossy magazine Vanity Fair. She is pointing out all the
clothes featured this month made by her company, Aquascutum.
Then she reads from the blurb: “Aquascutum’s new Limited Edition vintage
collection, inspired by the glamour of the Hollywood Golden Age, is the last
word in luxury modern coats for women.”
She gives me a look. “So the point is, Andrew, when you have the right
product, you get free PR. And at London Fashion Week, you get all the media
looking at you, and the store buyers. They are both equally important. The
buyers really know what they are looking for, and they love it if the same
products are featured in the media.”
And so the top stores buy, and the fashion press gush, and consumers rush to
pay extra for the cachet. Then the catwalk ideas filter down to the high
street, by which time you have to think up the next hot items. Did I mention
hot items?
“You’ve got to have hot items,” says Winser, warming to the theme, “and we
have got THE hot item this autumn, the military coat. And we should have the
best ones, as we have a military background . . .”
Welcome to the world of Winser, chief executive of Aquascutum, who is dragging
her famous old brand out of British fustiness into a high-fashion niche. It
could, fingers crossed, be the next Burberry, the next Dunhill, the next
Pringle . . .
It’s nearly there, but just needs that final push at London Fashion Week,
which starts tomorrow. Winser, 48, a former head of womenswear at Marks &
Spencer, was responsible for Pringle’s flip seven years ago from boring
blokes’ golf jumpers to natty knits for men and women. She knows how it’s
done.
Now she is a year-and-a-half into revamping Aquascutum, the 156-year old firm
once famous for raincoats and suits. The British Army, Cary Grant and
Winston Churchill were fans. Then Mrs Thatcher. It was bought by the
Japanese holding group Renown in 1990, but since then has slumped into loss.
“I just thought what we could do here is amazing,” says Winser. “This
fabulous, elegant, glamorous British heritage, it’s got all the formulae for
being a strong global luxury brand, but they weren’t being used and
developed.”
Aquascutum’s new collection, unveiled on Wednesday, is another milestone for
Winser, as she attempts to push the £200m-turnover business back into the
black. She promises that the shift towards more womenswear, accessories, and
luxury items will pay off – by 2010 at the latest. It’s a gamble, but that’s
why bosses like Winser get hooked.
“A lot of big business is about the product lasting a long time before you
change it,” she says. “But fashion is really fast-moving, you need to take
risks. I love the pace of that, I love the speed of change, I love exciting
customers . . .”
She throws out a broad smile. Sitting in her panelled office above
Aquascutum’s flagship store in London’s Regent Street, Winser in full flight
is a sight to behold. Blonde, statuesque, wearing a black Chrissie skirt and
jacket from the new collection and teetering on four-inch Sebastian heels,
she is an engaging bubble of voluble enthusiasm. Born in Scotland to a Welsh
mum and English dad, and honed into a retailer by 22 years at M&S, she
comes with a reputation: chatty and warm, yet tough and ambitious. There’s a
photo of her and Prince Charles on the mantelpiece.
Winser is, say others, the complete retail talent. Stuart Rose, chief
executive of M&S, describes her as “an iron fist in a velvet glove”.
Rita Clifton, chairman of the consultancy Interbrand UK, calls her simply “a
great merchant”.
All agree that she doesn’t mess around. A single mother and former
county-level tennis player – once known for her crunching serve – Winser
started at Aquascutum by showing three senior executives the door. “Actually
it was more than three,” says Winser. “The vision for the company was to
become a global luxury brand and there were people on board who had no
experience or contribution to make in that category.”
And there’s a lot riding on success. Winser has been given £40m to invest as
she pushes Aquascutum into high fashion. She also gets a shareholding in the
business, which will grow as the results improve.
Key to success are the three components of luxury-brand revival: great product
quality, control of instore presentation, and consistency of message – in
particular, making sure the right people use your brand.
That requires rigid control. The old Aquascutum allowed overseas regions –
contributing 80% of sales – to do their own thing. Not any more.
Now actor Pierce Brosnan is “brand ambassador”. Model Giselle Bundchen – “not
too young, not too streety” – heads the latest campaigns. In a
celebrity-fixated world, they grab global recognition.
“I don’t really believe in celebrities just for interest’s sake,” says Winser.
“But if they represent the brand values, it helps communicate who you are.
If you haven’t got shops everywhere, that’s what people see.”
And just getting noticed isn’t easy. Many of the biggest luxury brands are
part of clutches owned by global groups – Louis Vuitton and Fendi by LVMH,
Gucci and Balenciaga by PPR; Cartier and Dunhill by Richemont.
Aquascutum, by contrast, is the only global brand wholly owned by Renown,
which in 2005 sold a 25% stake to the private-equity group Kaleido. The new
investors pulled Winser in, but it’s unlikely she can buy PR on the same
scale as bigger rivals.
There has also been a lot of brand revival going on. Does Aquascutum really
have anything special to set it apart? And is Winser’s M&S
experience the best background?
Yes, yes, says Winser, pointing at the hand-picked partners she’s bringing in.
“We’ve got Zegna making men’s accessories for us – they only work for Gucci,
Tom Ford and us. Sebastian is doing shoes . . .”
On the retail side, she wants more wholly owned stores in Europe and America,
and franchises in the Middle East. She already sells through 280 outlets in
the Far East, mainly concessions. An exclusive feel is vital.
Yet the Regent Street store still mixes £400 men’s suits with bespoke
tailoring. Old colleagues warn that getting the balance right will be hard.
“It’s a really tough task,” says Rose, “but she’s got a great eye, and great
experience.”
And Winser has never lacked confidence, infused during childhood as a sports
star. The second of four siblings, brought up near Portsmouth – where her
father was based with the Royal Navy after Scotland – she was so good at
tennis she almost followed the sport to America.
Instead, aged 18, she joined M&S, taking her on-court style into business.
“I was just always a really positive player. And at M&S people
used to say to me, ‘you are so lucky, nothing ever goes wrong for you,’ but
everyone gets problems, it’s just how you tackle them.”
She rose to become head of womenswear, responsible for £1.5 billion of
revenue. Those who dealt with her then were struck by her upbeat style.
“She’s hands-on, a natural enthusiast,” says Clifton. “If you get spanked by
Kim, it’s with a smile.”
Winser took a year off to have a son – during a 10-year relationship with a
colleague – then surprised many by leaving M&S to join
£10m-turnover Pringle, owned by Hong Kong-based Kenneth Fang. “I just loved
the idea of running my own company,” she says. Was she looking to emulate
Rosemary Bravo at Burberry? She shakes her head, then recounts how she had
the same conversation with Bravo in 2000. “I told her, ‘everyone says I’m
trying to do a Burberry’. Rosemary said, ‘don’t worry, everyone said I was
trying to do a Gucci.’ ” She went on to win plaudits for her revamp of
Pringle, but never pushed the business into profit. She walked away in 2005
with a 10% stake – sold back to Fang – and then nearly bought La Perla, the
underwear brand.
The offer from Aquascutum cut that short. She couldn’t resist. “Making a
brand successful, taking it international, keeping it relevant and luxurious
– that’s a very exciting challenge.”
Some feel she is already on the right track. “Aquascutum’s getting a good
press,” says one fashion PR, “but it’s still second tier.”
Winser will be trying to rectify that this week. She’ll be grilling Anna
Wintour, editor of American Vogue, and Suzy Menkes, International Herald
Tribune fashion editor, then checking feedback from store buyers.
Cracking America is vital. Aquascutum is already stocked by New York’s
exclusive Bergdorf Goodman store. A wholly owned Aquascutum store will
follow.
But what if that elusive cachet can’t be grasped? Winser’s prediction of a
break-even date for Aquascutum gets further away. Last year she said 2008,
now it’s 2010. “2010 is my target,” she says firmly, adding that others
predicted 2008 wrongly. “It just takes time,” she smiles, before showing me
a new book she likes. It’s a history of the trenchcoat. Now that’s niche."
KIM WINSER’S WORKING DAY
The Aquascutum chief executive wakes at her home near Windsor at 6am. “I spend
an hour with my son,” says Kim Winser. “We normally swim or play a game.”
Winser then drives to London, taking calls from the Far East. She is at her
desk in Regent Street by 8.30am. “I’ll be looking at architectural work for
new stores, or new ad campaigns, or sorting out resources and logistics.”
She has eight senior executives reporting directly to her.
She will often lunch at Le Caprice. She only attends work functions at night
once a week. “Then I’ll try and fit three in at once.”
VITAL STATISTICS
Born:March 11, 1959
Marital status:single, one son
School:Purbrook Park Grammar, Hampshire
First job:M&S management trainee
Salary:undisclosed
Home:Windsor, Berkshire
Car:silver Mercedes SL
Favourite book:The World According to Clarkson, by Jeremy Clarkson
Favourite music:James Brown, Kaiser Chiefs
Favourite film:Breakfast At Tiffany’s
Best gadget:digital dictaphone
Last holiday:South of France
DOWNTIME
KIM WINSER spends most weekends standing at the side of sport pitches
watching her nine-year-old son. “It’s rugby, football or tennis. He’s really
good at tennis.” They often play at their court at home, although Winser has
tennis elbow at present.
Otherwise she likes scuba diving and fast cars. “I’d love an Aston Martin,”
she says. She spends a lot of money on her home, where she has a walk-in
wardrobe with clothes hung in colour-co-ordinated racks.
All her time is split between business and her son. She thinks she scares men
off. “There will be time for myself [later], when my son doesn’t want me
around so much.”
