Search:

Fashion and costume jewellery feed off each other, in fact, some of the accessories use fabric.
Our fashion jewellery always incorporates some textiles such as fabric buttons and braiding, lined items, ribbon and tape... Our autumn-winter 2010/11 collection has a large textiles component. As well as fabrics, natural stone, glass, metal and leather are the basis for our costume jewellery. We look our for elements from all over the world and then develop them.

“We make daywear with a difference: a Laga girl takes 10 minutes longer to get ready”

The Laga style is wearable and yet special . Who is your target?
Since we’ve had our own points of sale we’ve got more to go on. In a shopping centre, maybe not everybody will go into the Laga shop, but if they do, they buy. They know it’s there and deliberately go and look for it. The woman who wears our designs is between 25 and 50. We make daywear with a difference. A girl who wears Laga takes 10 minutes longer to get ready. Her style requires a little bit more preparation. We don’t make evening or party wear, but you can use our garments in combinations that will make them suitable for just that purpose. Our accessories do include items for the evening and for special occasions.

What are you doing about brand image?
We have a press office and are always working with the media. We go to international fairs and have showrooms in many cities in Europe and Japan. Then there are the points of sale already operating and those we’re due to open soon.

“In 2010, we’ll be opening three new Laga shops: two in Madrid, one in Valencia and another in the Canaries”

You have Laga shops in Madrid, Valencia and Valladolid. Where next?
In 2010, we’ll be opening four new shops: two in Madrid, one in Valencia and another in the Canaries. The Madrid stores are in Calle Fuencarral and the new Atocha Market, which will occupy an old fabric shop-cum-warehouse in Calle Atocha. We’re looking for locations that go with our philosophy. We don’t want to be with mass-market brands, we want something a bit more special. That’s what creating a brand is all about.

Italy is your main market after Spain, which countries will you be entering next?
For the summer collection, we have more than 80 POS in Italy and that’s great. But we’d like to have them in Milan, Rome and Paris, and a few more in Spain as well. We’ve been working in Italy market for four years now, two in France and a year and a half in Greece. We’ve had two phases in the UK. The latest started a year ago. In Japan, we’ve had two seasons, and this will be our third.

Do you have a recession-proof recipe?
Ours was to act early. We brought forward the opening of POS, which was important for brand visibility and gave us greater control over our product. What we did was build the business on the cornerstone of our own POS, in Spain and abroad, and they make up 30% of turnover each. We’d like to have around 30 POS in Spain and some abroad to help us promote the brand, like a mixture of showroom and shop. We don’t want to be a mass-market brand. We want to be known and we want to make something special that people value and want to buy.

LAGA CLOSE-UP:
Head office: Basauri in the Basque Country, although the brand started out in the historic centre of Bilbao
Employees: 40
Production: 300 articles per season, 420,000 units per year
Products: womenswear, accessories, fashion jewellery, accessories
Own stores: Madrid, Valencia, Valladolid
Multi-brand: 500 in Spain, 200 abroad
Export rate: 25%
Markets: France, Italy, UK, Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Japan
Main markets: Spain, Italy
Next fairs: Who’s Next (Paris), Eclat de Mode (Paris), CPH (Copenhagen), The Brandery (Barcelona), SIMM (Madrid), Bisutex (Madrid)
Showrooms: Rome (Italy), Queluz (Portugal), Thessalonica (Greece), Osaka (Japan), Wiltshire (UK), Paris (France)

www.lagabisuteria.com