Street cred hitting the spot

Nick and Jenny Clegg started their business cutting patterns on their lounge floor. Picture / Greg Bowker

Nick and Jenny Clegg's new children's streetwear label Minti provides what they would want to wear if they were stuck in a pre-schooler's body.

That consists of worn-look denims and distinctive hand-printed T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts that carry the flavour of the Federation label the Cleggs started five years ago.

Customer demand for "baby Fed" led to Minti's launch this summer, said Jenny Clegg.

"Our customers wanted to dress their kids in cool stuff too."

Creating their own clothing label was something the couple had dreamed about for years.

Two years after completing her Bachelor of Arts in fashion technology, Jenny, 27, was working as a design assistant at Workshop when they started Federation.

Nick, 31, a former professional vertical skateboarder with a graphic design background, was working as brand manager for skateboard shoe brand Globe.

Early memories include late nights cutting patterns on the lounge floor in their pyjamas.

The plan was to create a "good solid range" of strongly-branded denim skirts, jeans, T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts and singlets.

They chose eight stores to stock the range and favourable reaction had them looking for a studio after only a few months.

Jenny subsidised the initial phase with some contract pattern work, and friends and family who helped were paid with clothes.

"It was our little baby, we didn't want to take anything from it," said Jenny Clegg.

The pair did everything together and, now with seven staff, they say it's great that between them they know the business inside out.

After outgrowing their Kingsland studio, they're moving to larger premises in Albany.

Federation is stocked in 50 stores nationwide and can be bought in two Selfridges stores in the United Kingdom, three stores in Melbourne and one in Sweden.

Most of these export opportunities were a direct result of their debut at New Zealand Fashion Week in 2002.

Although expanding the export market is part of the Clegg plan, it's not something they're chasing at the moment.

"We turn down stores all the time. We've got enough, we're being really careful not to saturate the market.

"Even if an item is extremely popular, we're careful to limit the run," said Jenny.

The Cleggs have also shied away from several parties who have expressed an interest in investing in the company.

They've listened to advice from other successful business people, but say a lot of Federation's success has been intuitive.

"We are Federation. We're not trying to invent something we don't understand," said Nick. "It's not like we've thought - hey, skateboarding's cool at the moment, let's get into that. It's just who we are."

He thinks being a small business is generally pretty tough.

"There are not many breaks for small businesses, there's not much help," said Nick.

Jenny, who's busy working to complete next summer's range before the arrival of their first baby next month, said she liked to define a theme for each season, like the "four seasons in one day" theme, inspired when the weather was "so crazy" last summer.

Some of the things that inspire them have worked their way into the studio, where Jenny's artwork and Nick's skateboards hang on the wall.

She describes Federation as "casual clothes with a point of difference" such as details on the seams, darts and the artwork.

It's designed mainly for 18 to 25-year-olds, a market Jenny thinks carries a lot of loyalty towards New Zealand designers.

All Federation and Minti garments are made locally at 10 different factories, but local manufacturing is becoming harder and more expensive. They have needed a good lawyer as they have struck several incidences of style "rip-offs".

"It's not a big problem, it's just annoying."

Their closest competitor in the local streetwear market is Huffer, although Nick is quick to point out this is only "friendly competition", as he is friends with its owners, Steve Dunstan and Dan Buckley.

Rather than be distracted by what other designers are doing and general trends, the Cleggs prefer to focus on exploring what Federation is as a label.

"We're aware of trends, but we just think, what's Federation?" said Jenny.

They seem to be taking success in their stride.

The last five years have been so busy there's been little time for back-patting.

Although they're starting to reap financial rewards from the business, they're also investing a lot back into Minti, which is stocked in 32 design stores so far.

www.federation.co.nz

www.minti.co.nz