Nom de Guerre: Combat Continues | Hypebeast

It seems as though there’s a fine-line between translating something conceptually into something tangible and practical. Arguably, we have genres of designers for that reason, but I think Nom de Guerre does strike a fine balance in the brand’s execution. Moving forward, we caught wind that Nom de Guerre has undergone some significant restructuring on the distribution level, resulting in lower price points all while maintaining your penchant for uncompromising quality. How important is this for the brand going forward? As a brand, does creating a more affordable product relative to its previous seasons sometimes change the brand’s image?

We have always worked on Nom de Guerre each season based on an ideal that we have in mind.  Our philosophy has been to consistently follow our own instincts and interests in creating the storyline each season and execute these things within certain set parameters. In addition to the overall direction, our vision of the brand has always included the construction and tailoring that we provide, using high-quality fabrics and an ideal price point. For us, the idea of sacrificing the quality of the garments has never been an option, which leaves us with the challenge of how to continue to produce exceptional quality while offering an affordable price-point all while being an independent start-up. In order to attain this balance, we have altered our distribution model, and effective spring/summer 2010, we will be utilizing our New York City retail store as a test ground to reduce our retail price point for our client by an estimated 30-40% of what it has been in the previous seasons.  By limiting our North American distribution to our own store and a handful of loyal accounts, and implementing a “cost to retail” strategy, we can realize our goal for the brand’s price point and additionally maintain a limited and specialized distribution.