Marketing wool's Signature story

AT Signature Prints, the old is being reshaped into the new for a consumer world growing disenchanted with the industrial flood of ‘stuff’.

“Old” might not be a strictly accurate way to describe wool, or Florence Broadhurst screenprint designs: both have a lively existence in the 21st century. But they represent a reaching back to earlier values and ways of doing things. Today, that matters.

“It’s the time of the artisan,” says David Lennie of Signature Prints.

“Over the last 10-15 years people have been fed so much product just for the sake of product that there’s been a big swing to something done by hand, something that has a point of difference.”

One of the things that most excites him about his company’s alliance with small wool clothing manufacturer Woolerina - and through Woolerina, with Glenwood Merinos - is the unbroken story from the paddock to the design house.

“It’s the most marketable part of the whole program, because through every stage there are people involved. We will be pushing that to the maximum.”

Fifteen years ago Mr Lennie bought the dusty libraries of wooden printing screens that represent work done through the 1960s-70s by artists in Florence Broadhurst’s Sydney studio, and by Broadhurst herself. Through those years, Florence Broadhurst helped revive decorative printing in Australia, as William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement had done in England a century earlier.

But the wheel of taste had turned. By the time Mr Lennie bought the Florence Broadhurst library, he was advised to throw the designs out because they were worthless.

A businessman with long experience of decorative design, he fortunately decided not to heed that advice. He and wife Helen have spent 15 years rebuilding the reputation of Florence Broadhurst, who was sensationally murdered in Sydney in 1977.

The Lennies’ ownership of Signature Prints happened to coincide with a time when the wheel of taste was moving inexorably back to all things retro, artisan and not ‘Made in China’.

The company now exports to 27 destinations. Although its image is built around hand-printing, the process is slow, and the Lennies pragmatic.

They are also working with industrial processes to boost volumes, and strategically licensing their designs to other companies - but watchful for the overproduction and poor quality control that would devalue the currency they have carefully built.

Then Warwick Rolfe of Woolerina came through the door, bearing his zeal for wool, quality and Australian Made.

Helen Lennie said that in Mr Rolfe, Signature Prints saw “someone with a beautiful product, very ethical in his business”.

“I started buying his products straight away. I gave some of his singlets out to the top PR agents - I wanted to get some feedback - and I started getting calls from people saying ‘what’s this product, what’s this brand, I’ve never worn something so nice, so smooth against my skin’. These were very discerning people.”

When Signature Prints posted some of the newly printed Woolerina product on social media, “our agent in Japan phoned up, going crazy on the phone - she really connected with wool and our story”.

Importantly, Mrs Lennie said, neither business wants to shadow the other.

The Lennies respect Woolerina’s technical expertise; “Warwick gave us a lot of room to move, and that’s how we work best.”

To date, the Signature Prints-Woolerina relationship has been in the R and D stage - figuring out what garments to print, what inks to use, colour palettes. But even at this point, interest is strong.

Mr Lennie is a little puzzled himself as to why it’s taken so long to add wool to the company’s catalogue.

“These things are about relationships,” he said.

“I believe in all the cases we’ve been unsuccessful, it’s been a combination of factors, but one of those factors is the maturation of your own company. I think we’re much, much better equipped now to pick up a gorgeous wool product and add value to it.”

Perhaps, Mr Lennie said, the three-step wool alliance that has been formed might be a catalyst for rethinking some of the wool supply chain.

“I have a personal opinion: I think the wool industry lost its way some time ago.”

“I think that the art of adding value is to take a raw material and convert it within your own country. To send everything overseas and buy it back, at a greatly inflated price, has always been a concern.”

David and Helen Lennie make that a definite “yes”.

“There is a lot of dinner party conversation out there about whether people are interested in where their products come from,” said Helen Lennie, who worked with Chanel before moving across to Signature Prints after her marriage to David.

“Our clients - and we export to 27 countries now - are very interested in where their products come from, the ethics, and the people behind the brand. They are interested in the story, the experience - they want accountability.”

The strong ethics message in the Woolerina alliance - that Glenwood Merinos has strong environmental and animal welfare credentials, that Woolerina buys wool from Glenwood because of those credentials, and that Signture Prints prints with environment- and child-friendly waterbased inks - makes a clear point of difference for whatever products the alliance chooses to market.

That point of difference now also includes “Made in Australia”.

Mr Lennie said Signature Prints has always “unashamedly” had ‘Made in Australia’ on its products.

“That didn’t always work in our favour, but in the last 2-3 years Australia has become quite a sexy country. People admire it, they want to come and visit it. It’s a country that’s a long way from some of the bad things that are happening in the world.”

“Now, we push even more that we’re selling the world fashion that has come out of Australia. That’s a big shift.”

Tomorrow: The trade expert that brought them together

READ THE WHOLE SERIES HERE:

GALLERY: Click on the image for more photos from Signature Prints.

VIDEO: David and Helen Lennie tell the Signature Prints story.