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fashion: overview
 A World of diversification
World has teamed up with Deane Apparel
with its first foray into corporate clothing, but diversification
is the name of the game in 2007
IT’S
NOT A
TOTAL SURPRISE
to see World, the New Zealand brand known for its avant-garde collections,
embrace the world of corporate wear. It is 2007, and companies would
be foolish not to examine brand extensions and diversifications:
Karen Walker has its partnership with Swanndri, Zambesi had its
foray into Air New Zealand uniforms. Globally, Hennes & Mauritz
has teamed up with Stella McCartney and Karl Lagerfeld, pursuing
what this magazine calls ‘accessible luxury’. In architecture,
Michael Graves designed a housewares’ line for Target in 1999.
One could argue that this has been going on since
Hubert de Givenchy started his prêt-à-porter
line. Perhaps this ultimately reflects the ideals of Bauhaus: that
everyone should be able to access good design.
World—officially spelt in all caps—has
teamed up with Deane Apparel, a New Zealand firm with 75 years’
experience in the uniform world to create a corporate range. Deane
Designed by World, as the range is known, might sound to be a meeting
of very different minds, but the results are actually quite pleasing.
There is a market for clothing that bridges office
and catwalk, and World seems to have admirably found a good middle
ground as it débuted the new styles last week.
Pieces, according to the release, include ‘soft
merino wrap cardigans, crisp cotton shirts in plains and pinstripes,
men’s tailored wool suits, lustrous silk ties and polka dot
scarves.’
Deane Apparel’s Corey Mulligan believes
that the collaboration will set a new trend for corporate wear.
‘The flamboyance of the World brand is just
what we were looking for to challenge our norms and help create
a top-of-the-line range that people would thoroughly enjoy wearing,’
he says. •
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