The dream scenario is for customers to dabble in and across Bode’s ranges, if they’re able. “I love dressing the whole family,” Adams Bode Auijla says. “You see mums and kids coming in, and spouses and boyfriends and husbands and whatever, but that’s the goal: to really flesh out this entire universe and to dress the entire family.”
This ties into Adams Bode Auijla’s priority as she approaches a decade of business: to flesh out not only what she believes the brand to be, but also how it’s perceived in the wider fashion landscape.
Bode is known for its vintage-inspired embroidered shirts (often made of actually vintage textiles) and quilted jackets. But over the brand’s nine years, it’s expanded beyond these classic codes. These days, you can get a tailored Bode suit; a slinky, sheer dress or little bikini; or a structured corduroy pant. And if you have kids, you can buy them a mini patchwork shirt from Baby Bode, with a stuffed dog to match.
One avenue to introduce shoppers to Bode’s wider world is through retail. It’s via Bode’s stores that the designer has guided consumers through the label’s evolution to date — and learnt by what clicks. “It’s so interesting to see what didn’t move at the beginning when we opened our women’s store at Worth Street [in New York], and then what all of a sudden flies out the door this season,” Adams Bode Auijla says. The little lacy Tap shorts, for one. It took a second, because you don’t see them and immediately think ‘Bode’, she explains.
“It’s our job, for the next few years, to really tell the story of that product offering,” Adams Bode Aujla says. You might not think Bode is somewhere you can go to get a “really fun little lingerie thing for my bridal party”, she says. “You would think, ‘Oh, I’ll get a shirt for my husband.’” The focus now is on making sure the way in which the brand is perceived is in line with what it does.
Over the last eight years, consumers have gotten to know Bode largely through its wholesale accounts, the founder says — not with a view of entire collections. “Bergdorf’s assortment and Nordstrom’s assortment is so specific to their clientele,” she explains. “It’s specific racks of maybe only shirting one season, or whatever it is that the buyer is so inclined to for that collection. Maybe it’s all Americana things. So for us, it’s like, ‘How do we show the entire brand story going into this next decade?’”
This is where more owned retail comes in. Bode is gearing up to establish a global retail footprint. “I think over the next 10 years, that’s going to be our real focus,” Adams Bode Auijla says. When I ask where, she laughs: “Europe and Asia.”
In the US, though, there’s more room for play. For now, Bode is bicoastal, with stores in New York and Los Angeles. As for where’s next, the team is faced with a choice: go where they know they have a successful wholesale presence, or where they have a hunch the brand would hit. “Do you go to the next big city, or do you go somewhere that feels like a smaller, more intimate moment for Bode?” Adams Bode Auijla asks.
New Orleans, perhaps?
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