Wynn Hamlyn fashion label to close as founder Wynn Crawshaw shutters business
Wynn Crawshaw, the designer behind Wynn Hamlyn. Photo / Supplied
One of New Zealand’s most prominent fashion designers is closing down his business after more than a decade in the industry, as the impact of overseas wholesaling and rising costs takes its toll.
Wynn Hamlyn founder Wynn Crawshaw centred his designs around technical knitwear, precision tailoring and handcrafted details, some pieces taking hundreds of hours to create.
His designs and eye for fashion took his creations global, with former US first lady Michelle Obama wearing one of his pieces in October last year.
But after 11 years in business, Crawshaw has decided to close his flagship store in Auckland’s Commercial Bay.
Speaking to the Herald, Crawshaw said the business’ direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales remained strong, but wholesale – selling items via overseas retailers – had become more challenging.
“The thing about fashion businesses is that there’s a certain overhead structure that you have to have in place to just be able to physically make clothes,” Crawshaw said.
“If you don’t have the volume to go over and above that and cover those overheads then regardless of whatever your gross profit is, you’re going to come up short. The fluctuation in wholesale has just been tumultuous.”
Wholesale represented about 80% of Wynn Hamlyn’s business in 2020, with international retailers including Moda Operandi, Middle Eastern group Ounass, Bloomingdales in Kuwait and Harvey Nichols in Dubai all selling Crawshaw’s pieces.
That side of the business helped grow it on an international scale, but Crawshaw said the situation had evolved with two of the business’ biggest retailers, Neiman Marcus (owned by Saks Global) and Canadian luxury fashion retailer SSENSE, going bankrupt in the past 12 months.
Crawshaw said he was trying to recover money owed by the firms and while it was expected to be received, the business was in limbo while it awaited payment.
He said the direct-to-consumer part of the business was performing and would be scalable if he had the capital to invest. But that would require about 20% of the business’ revenue to be rerouted from wholesale to direct.
Crawshaw said closing the business would allow him to walk away without the risk of another loss or being forced into debt, and as someone with a young family he was determined not to be placed in that position.
“When you are child-free living an artist’s lifestyle it’s quite endearing, there’s a little bit more freedom to it. It’s certainly not as cute when you’re thinking about other people’s lives.
“I don’t want to be fighting for our financial freedoms as they get older.”
Crawshaw has launched what may now be his last collection, which he described as a development of his signature style.
He said the brand’s identity, that of intricate, handcrafted artisanal details, is part of the reason the business has reached this position, noting that since his pieces aren’t easily produced, the business’ cost structure is more than some of his contemporaries.
Despite that cost pressure, Crawshaw said he wouldn’t sacrifice what’s become his signature.
“It’s the identity of the brand, it’s what makes us who we are and what’s more special about the brand than something else. Even in dire straits, it’s what makes it worth saving.”
Wynn Hamlyn will close by August once the collection’s selling period has completed.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.
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