Attire Accessories - Mar/Apr 2018 (Issue 69)

66 ATTIRE How often do you launch new lines and what are your best-selling designs? Tell me about your recent campaigns. David Hampton is known for true contemporary styling with understatement as our hallmark. Our collections are filled with timeless investment pieces that create the right style handwriting seasonally and transcend fashion trends.These are investment pieces and that is what the brand stands for. We look at each collection and, of course, we are inspired by the latest trends, but we also have a criteria and that is, each design must represent luxury and an everlasting style to make it into the final edit. David Hampton’s products reflect current trends in terms of colour and styling, however, the beauty of the brand is that it fits in with season upon season. Our best selling products are the bright coloured collections. Customers are increasingly embracing colour and for many purchases they will opt for a punchy hue, over and above the classics of black. What have been the key milestones in the business? David Hampton has had many key milestones, but if I had to pick a few then I would start with when we were commissioned to supply the Sultan of Oman with elaborate leather desk sets tooled in real gold for his palaces.This allowed us to develop some of our products further and was a great opportunity for the brand. It was an exciting project and a delightful experience. Another key milestone would be the launch of the website in 2010, which allowed us to sell more products and communicate with our consumers directly as well as being able to gain real insight into the products they liked best and get great feedback. We loved the suggestions of what else we could provide in the collection. It has enabled us to provide a developed offer and also contributed to our return to wholesale. So many customers said they loved our product and would like to see them in a bricks and mortar setting throughout the country that we stepped back and considered the best way to do this. How do you view the current market and what trends, in both product and business, do you see emerging over the current months? In the current market we see men’s accessories as a huge opportunity.The male consumer has played a large role in the development of product we offer and we now see this growing with the introduction of holdalls and accessories. Men are buying so many more bags than when we began the company more than three decades ago.There is a huge appetite to buy colour and this creates exciting opportunities to make impactful shades. We have found our products also fit the travel market, whether it be for long-haul or weekend getaways. We just seem to fit into this arena effortlessly and customers love that that they can purchase not only a bag but also accessories such as purses, wallets and luggage tags. A David Hampton +44 (0)20 7731 7688 davidhampton.com