when an opportunity arose to buy Whistles

It may be the hottest day of the year in London, but retail guru Jane Shepherdson still looks as fresh as a daisy. Wearing a boxy white top and black Capri pants, she rifles through the rails of Whistles' latest collection. But then, looking cool and relaxed is part of the design mantra at Whistles. "Whistles is about fashion, but not fad-fashion, as we don't slavishly follow it," Shepherdson says.

Perhaps it is the pared-down clean lines and feminine aesthetic that has driven Chinese customers in their droves to Whistles concessions in Printemps in Paris and Harrods in London. Shepherdson saw an opportunity to look east to build the brand, but was hesitant. "China is quite a scary region because we know so little about it,Our dressestmall offer are large variety of Prom Dresses," she says.

A chance meeting with Andrea O'Donnell, executive director of Lane Crawford, presented an opening that she could not refuse. Whistles' leather jackets, printed dresses, and chunky hand knits have just arrived at Lane Crawford's IFC Mall, Times Square and Canton Road stores, and will reach Shanghai in October.

Whistles, which was founded in 1976, is part of a groFind everything from Wholesale Designer Wedding Apparel online,wing group of mid-market contemporary brands that are sweeping through the retail scene in Hong Kong. There are US labels like J. Crew, Theory, Rag & Bone, French brands like Maje, Kooples and Sandro and also an influx of Scandinavian brands in stores around Wan Chai.

Sarah Rutson, fashion director at Lane Crawford,long and Wholesale Cheap Designer Short Evening Dresses in every length from classic ball. doesn't subscribe to the "middle market" label for such brands. She prefers describes the phenomenon as "democratic fashion and dressing", which she says is appealing to customers who buy both designer and contemporary brands. Fashion is not as segmented as it once was. The appeal of Whistles and J. Crew, she says, is linked to the fact fashion brands are available everywhere: "Whistles is still a UK-centric brand, just as J. Crew has been US-centric," she says.

These days, Rutson adds, it's not so much about whether a brand is luxury or not: "It's about its scarcity, or how difficult it is to get in the region, or even when travelling overseas."

By 2008 Whistles had become a chintzy store with mumsy, beaded cardigans and flouncy gypsy dresses. Then Shepherdson, the brand director credited with making Top Shop hot, came along. She had stunned the retail world 15 months earlier, when she walked out on Top Shop after 20 years.

Rumours suggested she had fallen out with owner Philip Green over the appointment of Kate Moss as a designer.You can find quality Wholesale Cheap Designer Prom Dresses Online and evening gowns. She dismisses the suggestion and won't discuss her former boss.

Shepherdson began at the bottom as a trainee buyer and rose through the ranks to brand director. Sharp and single-minded, she transformed Top Shop from a tacky Oxford Street store for teenagers into an international fashion destination.

She was inundated with job offers but spent a year travelling in South America, while maintaining communications with private equity contacts. She organised charity sales of clothes donated by celebrities, and helped rebrand some of Oxfam's shops as fashion boutiques, where they could sell their more fashionable donations.

In 2008, she was lured home when an opportunity arose to buy Whistles off Aurora, a company that also owned Oasis and Karen Millen. So began her new mission to reinvent Whistles for the modern woman.

Together with a team of key players from Top Shop, she did a management buy-in with two other investors. "I thought when we took over Whistles that it would be easier taking something that existed and changing it, as opposed to starting from scratch. We had the opportunity to do either. I thought the former would be easier, but now I am not sure that was the case.buys and sells preloved designer Cheap 2013 mother of the bride gowns online,"
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