Harvey hoping to bag the fashion spotters
Ireland’s latest luxury retailing store said its research showed that €500 million was being spent by the Irish every year on fashion in London, New York, Paris and Milan.
“That’s criminal. That shouldn’t happen,” Harvey Nichols group PR manager Richard Gray exclaimed, confident that the designer labels in Harvey Nicks would lure the well-heeled to use their flexible friends at home.
“It is all about Harvey Nichols coming to Dublin and keeping money in the city,” he stressed, as the latest store opened in Dundrum yesterday.
Harvey Nichols decided that Dublin was “under-shopped” after noting that there were designer labels that were unavailable in Ireland.
“There is no point in being the same as everybody else. We spent three years researching all over the world trying to find niche and new brands that were not available and I think we have pulled it off,” Mr Gray added.
He also claimed the store has no designs to lure premium customers away from Brown Thomas, adding that the two stores are stronger together.
He said that when both stores share brand names, Harvey Nichols has the designers produce an exclusive range for them.
One example was Matthew Williamson who has designed a range of dresses especially for Harvey Nichols.
Mr Gray was also expecting a flow of customers between the two designer label stores.
“We have a very similar customer profile so people will shop at Brown Thomas and they will also shop at Harvey Nichols without a doubt. But that’s great. You can get things at Brown Thomas that you can’t get at Harvey Nichols and the two branched together make Dublin a stronger shopping city.”
Mr Gray also said: “We have catered for Irish tastes for decades. We have always been the first stop-off when Irish go to London.”
And, he said, what was great about Harvey Nichols was that a customer could purchase a €7 lipstick or a €7,000 leather jacket by Donna Karan.
Harvey Nichols also has a fine dining restaurant in Dundrum. It’s called First Floor and sits on top of the store and will open independently at night. It also has a dance floor and its own disc jockey.
A spokesperson for Brown Thomas welcomed Harvey Nichols to Ireland and wished it every success, agreeing with Mr Gray that there was plenty of room in the market for both stores.
The BT spokesperson pointed out that Harvey Nichols and Harrods sat very comfortably together on the same corner of Knightsbridge in London.
It remains to be seen, however, as to the type of customer who would frequent both stores in Dublin. As well as being different in size, they are in different parts of the city.
“Brown Thomas in Dublin would have 200,000 customers every year so, obviously it would be unrealistic not to expect a certain percentage to see what Harvey Nichols is all about,” she said.
