Attire Accessories - Feb/Mar 2019 (Issue 74)

RETAIL INTERVIEW 103 TRACEY NEULS T: +44 (0)203 746 0928 W: traceyneuls.com @traceyneuls Are you active on social media, and how do you use it for your business? We use Instagram and love engaging with our international customer base there, seeing their pictures around the world and sharing our site-specific installations with them. Promoting our shoes through the Instagram shopping tool is an active part of our online business too. What are your future plans for the space? We are always driven by transforming and evolving our exhibition spaces, collaborating with various artists and designers to bring an element of creative surprise into the shopping experience every season. Our new Coal Drops Yard space has square floor cavities that can be filled with plants in the summer or coal in the winter – we have a lot of plans for the space for our customers to explore. On a design level, we have just received some new men’s samples that have been developed and are taking a different direction, which is exciting. Do you attend any trade shows, and if so, which ones and why? We attend Premiere Classe occasionally, but these days, we especially favour a private salon in Paris. We like to be very selective about the shows we engage with, as our own retail spaces in London are becoming the bigger animal. We still wholesale internationally and have a showroom in London’s Marylebone. What has been your standout moment since opening the store, and why? The private view and public opening events we held. We had an amazing turnout, and you could really feel the buzzing energy of the public ready to enjoy the space. You could see the neon ribbons swaying when looking into the shop, meaning lots of movement! The drinks were provided by the French-Japanese drink Ui, which hasn’t been launched yet, so we were lucky to be serving it. How do you view the fashion accessory retail market at present, and what advice would you give other retailers? We see lots of conventional, template formats – it’s rare to find designers who know how to value expertise and craftsmanship in production. There are so many designs that are simply pre-fab, factory shelf components stuck together. To have something that is more design-led stays true to Tracey’s individuality, design vision and allows for a point of difference within the footwear market. What are your plans for the future of the brand? Our plan is to build the brand presence internationally at carefully curated locations and to keep developing our own thought-provoking retail spaces, especially in Coal Drops Yard. We are working on expanding our men’s footwear collection to cater to our growing male customer base. Our long-term goal is to firm up Tracey Neuls as a premium, iconic British brand while remaining steadfast to the sincerity of the company ideals and our personality.