Jill Alexander, owner and designer at MADCAT Design Studio.
What is the proportion of your designer skirts and bridal wear business that comes from the baby boomer market?
A huge amount - I'd say 60 per cent. The business is not what I expected it would be. When I set it up in the early 2000s it had a strong fashion focus. I showed at Fashion Week for three years, had three shops, was selling my designs in 18 other boutiques around New Zealand and also exporting. That was the dream I was following, but it didn't work. I learned a hell of a lot through that experience, including seeing this need among baby-boomers that I feel so strongly now about filling.
How did you identify the boomer market for your products?
I've been taking the business in this direction since about 2011. I did some courses that made me think about reworking the business but I just kept thinking, 'Where are my customers coming from?' I'd make a skirt, and I'd get 30-year-old school teachers buying it and a few 70-year-olds, but it became clear that the majority of my customers were 40 to 60-year-olds. On the bridal side of my business, I tend to get second-time-around brides in their 30s and older. My brides are interested in fashion, but they're more interested in an enduring style; they're not like the young ones who want the latest film-star look.
