ACCENT L I F E S T Y L E
VOLUME ONE
1
A
ccent Clothing was established in 1984 by Martin Schneider. After a couple of years working in Germany in a family run Aerial Photography business, with his father and uncle, Martin decided to return to UK. When back in the country Martin and his friends used to visit a store, which has now been closed for many years called Primo’s. It was situated in Leeds City Centre and at that time, was the only designer store in the city. Martin was a regular customer and became friendly with the store manager, who informed him that the store was about to go bankrupt and close. The store manager propositioned Martin with an offer to go into partnership and open a new store. Although, having no experience working in retail, Martin agreed. The first task was to investigate which type of brands would be suitable for the new store, as Primo’s was popular for bringing in top Italian designers. However, not everything was smooth sailing, the more Martin began to know his new business partner the more he realized something was not right. Martin explained that he was looking to stock designers such as Valentino and Armani. His new business partner took him to Bradford, a neighbouring town to Leeds and said
“We can get these trousers made for a £10 and sell them for £50.”
This was of no interest to Martin. After a while searching for a new store location, Unit 18 in the Queens Arcade became available (opposite the current store). However, when it was time for his new business partner to provide some money, it was nowhere to be seen. This was the final straw and the partnership quickly dissolved. Although not all was lost… As they saying goes, ‘Every cloud has a silver lining’ and that was the case for Martin. He fortunately had a friend who was more than happy to go into business with him and pick up the short fall, which was left behind by his previously unreliable partner. They both invested £4,000 each and headed to Paris with no knowledge of the retail industry, his
new business partner was a surveyor for a brewery after all. They landed in the city of love in search of stock. The first brand that they purchased was Liberto Jeans. They picked the styles which they liked and forward ordered, at a guess, all the sizes and quantities they think they needed. This was because everything had to be ordered at least six months in advance, unlike today when you can order a delivery within twenty-four hours. The new store didn’t even have a name until two weeks before the store opened as Martin said
“We were so busy trying to get the shop ready and get stock. We had a shop and no gear.” In 1984 the rent for unit 18 was only £2,000 a year, which is unbelievably cheap, compared to today’s market. Martin explained “The costs we’re not a lot, however, we didn’t take much money from it. I think in the first year it only took £50,000”. Eighteen months went by steadily until there was a flood, which was caused by a burst pipe from the hairdressers above the store unit. This meant immediate closure. This wasn’t the end of Accent; Martin was determined not to let this be a hindrance, so they made an insurance claim. Martin’s new business partner always wanted to go traveling the world and believed that Accent was not making much money for the both of them, so they made a deal. The store would be Martin’s and he would keep the insurance payout. Martin said “I remember thinking, oh bloody hell its up to me now”, fortunately Accent began to grow. As a year went by Martin met his wife, Louise, in 1985 where she started to work on the books for the growing business. In 1990 Accent expanded to an empty unit next door by knocking down the wall. This made the Accent store double the size to what it had previously been. The rent rates we’re still cheap and the shop became increasingly busy. Martin said “It had a nice buzz about it because
I was in there with a few other colleagues and it had a really good vibe in the shop”. Continuing on the success of the store, in 1995 a decision was made to purchase the empty unit opposite unit 18 (current store location). Martin explained that this was a really big decision as Harvey Nichols were about to open their first store outside of London, just at the bottom of the Queens Arcade. He said “I used to look through the window from my office in to the opposite shop and think, ‘that’s such a massive unit, it’s like an aircraft hanger. Then Harvey Nichols was coming and we decided we’d go for it”. Unlike previously when Martin had been able to obtain cheaper rent rates, this unit was high in demand due to Harvey Nichols being built. This meant a lot of competition, which in turn resulted in a much higher rent rate. Martin said,
“I’m glad we did it because I honestly think if we didn’t we would have been swallowed up by now.”
With the opening of Harvey Nichols and the new Accent store, Leeds City Centre also began to expand with other new shops, high street brands and designer stores. People would queue for 2 hours just to get into Harvey Nichols. The city had a new buzz, and the knock on effect was great. Martin explained why that year was special “I remember Christmas that year, we used to stay open till 10pm every Thursday. Twelve weeks before Christmas and they were busy… mega busy. I used to look into the arcade and there would be a sea of people. We had owners from top restaurants like Crab and Oyster and footballers like Fabrizio Ravanelli who played for Middlesbrough coming in and buying clothes from us”. Accent still dominates the independent fashion industry in Leeds after a successful 31 years stocking some of the biggest designer brands that include Replay, Bellstaff, Matchless and Armani.
Accent
S T YLI ST Be inspired by the latest trends and update your wardrobe this season. We’ve pulled out the very best outfits from our Men’s, Women’s and Junior departments.
VISIT US INSTORE OR GO ONLINE TO FIND EVEN MORE INSPeRTION.
WWW.ACCENTCLOTHING.COM
C.P. COMPANY - LIGHTWEIGHT CAMO GOOGLE JACKET £249.99 STONE ISLAND - 5 POCKET COTTON SHORTS £69.99 FINGER IN THE NOSE - DALTON T-SHIRT £24.99
Boss - Linen Mix Jacket and Trouser Suit £269.99 Boss - Striped long sleeve shirt £49.99 Boss - Chino Shorts £49.99
Junior
ELEVEN PARIS - KATE MOSST-SHIRT £23.99 FINGER IN THE NOSE - ANNIX MINI SKIRT £31.99
INSTORE EXCLUSIVE
Junior
Accent
STY L IST Part i
AQ/AQ - STATUS MINI DRESS £149.99 MATT&NAT - DREAMED BAG. £94.99
J.LINDEBERG - BETSY SANDED CUPRO DRAPE £249.99 PAIGE PREMIUM DENIM - VERDUGO CABALLO INSEAM ULTRA SKINNY JEAN £234.99 MATT&NAT - TARDY BAG £114.99 J. SHOES - BETSY SUEDE SHOES £94.99 MAISON SCOTCH - ALLOVER PRINT £39.99
wOMEN’S
Accent
S T YLIS T Part ii
NIGEL HALL - TOPKAPIT MAC JACKET £249.99 MATCHLESS - COURIER BAG ANTIQUECUERO £579.99 GRENSON - STANLEY BROGUE CALF WINGCAP OXFORD £199.99
WEEKEND OFFENDER - RAMPAGE JACKET £79.99 VICO - ALTONA FOOTWEAR COGNAC £164.99 HERSCHEL - SETTLEMENT RUCKSACK £54.99
men’s
ASK THE DIRECTOR
R T A I N M
What makes Accent Clothing so successful? “Hard work and knowing what the customer wants. We know what we do best even when fashion dictates something else; we’ve always done jeans. We’re probably the best denim retailer in the country. People know what they’re going to get when they come to Accent. They’re going to get great service and good products. We concentrate even more on Customer Service. I’m here on the shop floor every Saturday selling the gear and that gives me the buzz. When you send someone out the shop door knowing they look good and they thank you for it, that’s great. There was a guy who came in a couple of years ago with his wife from Barnsley who had no idea about fashion. He spent a bit of
money and bought a few different outfits. I remember he also bought this tweed jacket, which had a lilac and burnt orange windowpane checked pattern on its sleeve. It sound’s outlandish and it was a little bit, but it was a really nice jacket. So I put this outfit together and his wife loved it, he said “Oh people don’t wear stuff like this where I come from in Barnsley”. I said look, I promise you
to come in and thank you. I wore that jacket to the local pub and about 8 different people came up to me and asked me where I got my jacket from” he then said “Even though people don’t dress like that where I’m from, I felt so good I would never ever of bought that jacket”. He is now a really good regular customer now. I love selling the clothes and making people look good, eswhen it’s a new season I won’t send you out of pecially and you’ve got new stock in and here looking a mess, you open the boxes, it’s exciting. At Accent it’s a personal service. I’d never do that. I lead by example, we don’t really So he bought the jacket and a cou- do staff training, the main body of ple of weeks later he came back staff have been here a long time and looked through the window and been trained by watching and saw me on the shop floor. He me. It’s all about service, going came in and said, “Look I’ve got that extra mile for a customer.”
How would you describe you relationship with your designer brands? “We’ve always been loyal to our brands, we’ve stocked Replay and Grenson shoes pretty much since we started Accent. We also had Diesel for 25 years and G-star for 15 years. We are really loyal, we don’t jump about a lot. People know what they get when they come here. Accent has always built brands up, when I first started stocking G-star I didn’t make any money for 3 years, we actually lost money on it. But I continued to believe in G-star and then it became a really cool brand… possibly even too cool. From then on we had 12 amazing years with it. We were the biggest G-star store in the world. We also started off with Lyle and Scott where I saw it in Florence on a little stand. I used to wear Lyle and Scott in the 70s. I had a jumper with a yellow logo and my friend had a red one, you know the little eagle. We passed the stand and I said to my assistant, “Oh I used to wear this, lets go in here” and liked it because I was playing golf at that time and I remember we spent £2000 on it and the next season we spent another £2000 and the next. At its peak we were doing seven and a half thousand pieces a season, massive amounts.
It went from not selling many pieces to then suddenly equalling the amounts that department stores would achieve.
It was a huge brand that just rocketed. Accent is a great shop and we’re in a different position now, I don’t really have to go looking for brands and designers because everybody comes to us. If there is a new brand out there, they want it in our store because there aren’t many other independent fashion retailers for a start, and not another one that does what we do. If you come to our shop it looks amazing, it’s big and impressive and new brands and designers want there product sitting next to the brands that we already have but it has taken us years to build that brand portfolio up. We didn’t have Armani for years but we kept knocking on the door and we finally got it and still have it. We’re in that much of a fortunate position we may even have too many brands. We’ve got a great relationship as in over 31 years we’ve never had one cheque bounce back, we’ve always paid everybody.”
Do you offer support to local designers who would just like to start out in the fashion industry? “We like to give a chance to young local designers. We currently stock one in the mens department now called Humble Kind. He is young kid who is a really bright lad and he came to me with his collection. You’ve got to start somewhere haven’t you? So we gave him a little bit of space on the shop floor and he worked every weekend last year in store, to promote his brand. Another great example of seeing success for a local designer was for a brand called LUKE. I was one of the first people to every buy LUKE. He recently graduated Design College and came to me with a little leather bag, which had a few T-shirt’s inside. It was about 12 years ago and I really liked the lad, so we bought them and now LUKE is a big brand for us. He has his own stores now too and he exports internationally. He even sponsors one of the best Golfers in the world. It’s an amazing business and he’s a wealthy lad now. I’ve seen that from the dream.
A young lad with a bag full of T-shirts and he’s made it.
However I’ve also seen it plenty of time going the opposite way. You see it and you just know it’s not right. But it does happen, people do make it.”
What advice would you give to other independent retailers starting out?
“For youngsters now, if you don’t have the money it’s almost impossible. Unless you start out of town, in a small shop. In all honestly the future looks bleak. People used to come to us for different brands, brands that nobody else had. But now all the department stores are doing the same brands that we do, all the big brands want two or three accounts in every major city. It’s hard to be different. We’ve still got big brands and we still strive to find product that nobody else has to make it more interesting. Without experience it’s difficult to be an independent retailer. You’ve got to have money behind you. New retailers and young people starting out have got to have something different, something quirky and they have to keep their costs down.”
“The Internet was a big thing for everybody and it’s driving prices down, the margins aren’t there that we used to have It’s a big job, everybody think it’s a great way to make money because you don’t have rent and rates to pay but you have. You have staffing costs and it’s very time consuming, photographing and describing. Then you have the cost of postage and you also receive a large amount of stock back because it’s the wrong size, it is very expensive. There were a lot of Independents like me who were doing really well online. I used to go buying and it used to infuriate me. The wholesalers used to tell me that this person is doing £4Million in sales online and that person is doing £2Million online and that other person’s company is doing £8 Million online. Sarah Coggles, Fallen Hero and Milan have now all gone Bust because so much was spent on stock, including My Wardrobe. It’s all about profit, not turn over and none of them were really making any profit. Online is great for us, because we use it as another catalogue. People come into to the shop with their phones and say, “I’ve seen this online, I’ve come to try it on.” But our red brick business is our store.”
Where do you see Accent Clothing in 10 years time?
“I wont be here, I’ll be 65. I’m teaching my son Jack and my daughter Becky. They’ll take it over. We’ve got a great set up, Men’s, Women’s and Junior’s all under one roof, including our offices, it’s all self contained. I don’t want the hassle of having 10 shops. When times are good it’s great, when times are bad, it’s tough. All my pals who had multiple shops have all gone bust. I don’t really have an interested in expanding by opening another Accent, I’d rather expand what I’ve already got here. Although I’m never going to say never but personally I’m happy with what we’ve got and my lifestyle. I know the business inside out. You can’t spread yourself too thin. It’s happened before. We had a store in Huddersfield and you find yourself doing twice the amount of work and not making any more money. One store starts to suffer when you’re not there and then the other isn’t doing too well and you can’t be everywhere at once.
FAMILY TREE
How do you find operating Accent Clothing online?
Louise
WIFE
Becky
JACK
Daughter
SON
Available
INSTORE OR ONLINE
HERITAGE take a look at Accent Clothing’s longest running brands. Since our opening in 1984 we have stocked some of the biggest names in the fashion industry. These include Belstaff, Replay, Matchless and Grenson. We have individually hand picked and put together a range of stylish looks inspired by accent clothing’s heritage. They may have some history, but they’re still our best sellers!
SHOP
INSTORE & ONLINE WWW.ACCENTCLOTHING.COM
GET
THE LOOK
REPLAY ANBASS SLIM TAPERED HYPERFLEX JEANS These unwashed/ dark blue Anbass HYPERFLEX jeans in a five pocket design have contrast top stitch detail and a zip fly. The slim fit jeans with great elasticity can be identified to the brand by a red R on the rear right pocket, diagonal tab on the front left pocket, a red tape threaded around the front left belt loop and grey leather brand patch on the waistband.
Stretch to your limits with the amazing HYPERFLEX collection from Replay. Replay has had over 30 years of experience of working in and refining denim and has provided us with some great new innovations such as Laserblast yet has bent all the rules of denim with their new HYPERFLEX collection. HYPERFLEX combines special fibres in the material of the denim to ensure that the jeans have amazing stretch and recovery yet also means that they are superbly comfortable. Your super soft HYPERFLEX jeans offer you complete freedom of movement and promise to hold their shape with sagging or deforming
GRENSON
ARCHIE CALF BROGUE SHOE Grenson footwear is synonymous with quality, style and comfort; the company have been producing excellent quality men’s footwear since 1866. Taking the best features form the stacked leather soles and uppers with exaggerated brogue detailing and brown fabric laces.
MATCHLESS KENSINGTON VENT JACKET Matchless is the oldest motorcycle company in Britain; founded in 1899 and prides itself on maintaining its quality English heritage. The luxury of the leathers and fabrics makes it clear why this brand is popular with celebrities such as; Gerard Butler, Bradley Cooper, Kate Moss and Cara Delevingne. This Matchless men’s Kensington jacket in antiquecuero is a classic motorcycle jacket a leather exterior and vented panels to the side panels and sleeves. The jacket features a front zip fastening concealed by a press stud panel, exaggerated shoulder panels, a stand collar with adjustable press stud fastening, and a multi pocket front including a mixture of flap and zipped pockets. Brand features include the Matchless logo on the upper left sleeve and a patch on the right front lining detailing the Matchless history.
GET THE
LOOK
BELSTAFF
ROADMASTER COTTON ICON 4 POCKET JACKET This Belstaff Roadmaster Cotton Jacket in dark terracotta/ brown is a classic style that will last you for years to come. The terracotta brown jacket has a two way zip down front which is concealed by a press stud placket with throat buckle. The Roadmaster jacket has a 4 accordion style pocket design with the left chest pocket featuring a union jack label. Brand features on this cotton jacket include a black and bronze brand patch on the sleeve, engraved press studs and a silver and black Roadmaster 1981’ metal badge on the inside of the press stud placket.
TRUE RELIGION CHRISSY MIDRISE SUPER SKINNY
Premium American Denim brand True Religion is instantly recognisable from their horse shoe logo and striking stitch details. These blue stonewash super skinny jeans with contrast orange top stitching and horseshoe stitch on the coin and rear pockets in light blue have a classic five pocket design and zip fly.
WWW.ACCENTCLOTHING.COM
WWW.ACCENTCLOTHING.COM
REPLAY DENIM JACKET STONEWASH This classic style denim jacket from Replay features a silver button up front and single button fold over flap pockets to either side of the chest. Channel the 90s style double denim look by wearing this jacket with your favourite jeans or for the more adventurous out there go for triple denim with the addition of a Replay denim shirt.
REPLAY ANBASS RIP REPAIR SLIM TAPERED JEANS Accent has been official stockists of Replay Clothing since 1984 and continues to embrace the reinventions of denim offered by the Italian brand. The effortless style of Replay jeans can be seen from these distressed finish Anbass Rip jeans. These heavily distressed Anbass Rip jeans have a slim tapered fit and a five pocket design. The distressed finish jeans including leg abrasion, whiskering and bold broken effects has a zip fly.
Belstaff K Racer Blouson The Belstaff K Racer Blouson is made with tumbled lambskin leather making it super soft and pliable. The vintage style jacket with gunmetal hardware is a nod towards the cafĂŠ culture of the 1960s. The zip fronted jacket has ribbed panels on the shoulders as well as featuring a slanted zip pocket to the left chest, vertically zip pockets on the waist two press stud throat buckle and an embossed logo tab on the left sleeves.
WWW.ACCENTCLOTHING.COM
WWW.ACCENTCLOTHING.COM
DANIEL FOOTWEAR MASBALDO STILETTO
These stylish black ankle boots are easily adaptable to your work and evening wear wardrobes. They are black suede and with elasticated upper panels around the ankle allowing the boot to be a pull on design. The 3 inch heel and pointed toe make it a must have shoe for any fashion conscious woman.
R E P L AY ALANIES HYPERFLEX JEANS
The dark blue wash Alaines jeans from Replay’s Hyperflex collection are skinny fit jeans with biker style inspired details. The ladies’ skinny jeans feature a five pocket design with zipped coin pocket, applied rear pockets and leg hem vents. Wear these resin coated dark wash jeans with biker style boots for an edgy rock chick look.
MATCHLESS
M I S S K AT E L E AT H E R B L O U S O N L A DY
Matchless’ Miss Kate jacket in black is a soft Nappa leather blouson with silver stud detail. The biker jacket has an adjustable belt to the waist as well as featuring zipped cuffs, one fold over flap pocket with stud detail as well two further zipped pockets on the waist.
REGULAR
LOOSE Relaxed, comfortable and easy to wear. The loose fit is still popular choice among many of our customers.
The fit that suits everyone. This Jean fits all leg shapes and is great for the everyday and can be smarted up by just adding a pair of brogues and a blazer.
tapered
Slim A slim jean helps give a great silhouette to any look. A Great choice that will definitely get you noticed.
The tapered jean, also known as ‘the carrot’ is a more fashion forward fit; with a loose saddle and waist and slim taper from below the knee.
skinny
Loose Our Loose fit is great when you looking for those comfy jeans which are always there to throw on when you don’t know what to wear. The boyfriend jean suits most body types and is perfect for the more relaxed laid back look.
Skinny Jeans are a classic staple item for any woman’s wardrobe as they suit all body shapes and are always in style. Fitted throughout the leg, often with added stretch for the perfect fit the Skinny jean is so versatile.
High waisted
STRAIGHT If you are looking for a pair of flattering jeans then you have come to the right place. Straight styles are fitted from the top and fall straight down past the knee, for a streamlined fit
High waisted jeans are great for creating that feminine silhouette and can help pull in your stomach, lift your bum and elongate your legs. Every woman should have a pair of high waisted jeans in their denim collection.
WWW.ACCENTCLOTHING.COM QUEENS ARCADE, LEEDS, LS1 6LF