Q) Can I just ask you about the agencies that they have now in London and Manchester. If you want Fila or Tacchini you can go to Manchester to see an agency and order. In the early 80s were there any of them agencies in the UK? If you wanted the European brands like Chipie and Chevignon would you have to go to France?
A) I think the agencies for the European labels didn’t really kick in until the late 80s. Again, like with Fila and Sergio not being available in the UK during the late 70s and early 80s which Borg and McEnroe were wearing, it was the same for many designer jeans wear labels. But they quickly set up London agents. Once again the Liverpudlians had set the ball rolling. Armani wasn’t available wholesale until the Liverpudlians had established it. Armani had a stockist on Bold Street [Giancarlo Ricci] selling Giorgio Armani in 1982, Emporio didn’t open in London until 1983/84. But I don’t think they set up the UK Armani jeans business until after that. So the Liverpudlians were buying it before it was available, there was a thread running through it really, trying to get the next exclusive label and there has been all sorts of labels coming out of Italy that were unheard of. Stone Island and things like that probably came out of Italy first. Unusual brands came along often three or five years before they set up the UK agencies.
Q) So what I’m trying to say is, were these agencies were being set up because of the fans going abroad, bringing stuff back. The brands were seeing what was happening and were saying, “lets get over there to the UK and set up”.
A) I think it would have happened anyway as the European market grew. When the UK went into the Common Market around 1970 there was a lag anyway. There was a good ten year lag. Exchange rates with the Deutschmark, the French Franc, and the Italian Lira were always fluctuating quite badly which made the cost of importing to the UK quite high. The Deutschmark would one year be four Deutschmarks to the pound and three or four years later it would only be two Deutschmarks to the pound. So you had those fluctuations going on but I think the general European market opened up probably ten years after the Common Market and the boom in everything that was German, French and Italian including obviously the car business. You know in 1975 there were probably four BMWs in the whole of the North West of England so it was running parallel to the European market opening up. So right through the 80s many of the exclusive labels began to establish agencies. The fact that the Liverpudlians were bringing it forward I think it certainly opened the eyes with opportunities for the Italian, French, and German labels like Hugo Boss and brands like that. So I’m sure that Liverpool helped with the emergence of that whole business.
And later on the American labels like Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein started to spread world wide. The Japanese thing never really took off, you know the Miyake’s etc. Asics Tiger were very slow to take off in sports. You know obviously Comme des Garçons and Yohji Yamamoto or whoever out of Japan never really took off. I don’t quite know why the Japanese thing never really did.
ROBERT WADE SMITH 2009.