Five minutes with: Phil Gregory – Senior Menswear Buyer at EQVVS

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CityX took five minutes to speak to Phil Gregory, Senior Menswear Buyer at EQVVS, to find out about the business, how this year has been and plans for the future.

Tell us about the business, what is it you do?

Expanding from a single aspirational store, to an online empire with four highly established High Street stores; EQVVS is a designer clothing retailer offering best selection of designer, luxury fashion to the high street consumer, whilst constantly pushing the boundaries in digital innovation and exceptional customer service. As the senior menswear buyer for EQVVS, my role is to stay ahead of the curve with the latest fashion trends and styles to add to our growing portfolio each season.

Tell us a bit about how your business has been affected by the pandemic this year?

This year we had to close our shops in Lincoln and Mansfield for a few months during the first lockdown and again for the second lockdown. Despite these closings, however, our websites have continued to function and we have implemented a number of new features to help customers shop from home.

Have you been doing anything to diversify your business in response to the pandemic? 

As a fashion retailer, we needed to make changes as fitting rooms were closed and many new shoppers arrived online. We added a new sizing technology and streamlined the delivery/returns process, while keeping our warehouse as clean and safe as possible.

Where possible, staff worked from home and they have adapted very well considering this year’s challenges. We even managed to convert our studios to accommodate social distancing for our models during photoshoots when we aren’t on location.

What lessons have you learnt this year? 

We have learned to adapt quickly so that we can focus our efforts from the shop to online. We used our shop floor as an extension of our warehouse during the second lockdown, to pick and pack clothing. This added space was necessary for social distancing for our staff and helped to prevent delays with dispatching orders.

Can you offer advice to businesses struggling during this time, whether they are in the same industry as yours or not?

It’s important to think outside the box and be as flexible as possible. Keep staff and customer safety at top of mind and be prepared to make important decisions. We managed to do so well this year by being prepared early on before the original lockdown.

What are your future plans for the business?

In future we would love to have a larger warehouse and office for our staff, and perhaps another shop location. Travel would also be welcome again as we would like to get our models and photographers out and about. For the time being however, our focus is growing our designer portfolio and obtaining even more brands available for our customers to shop from our stores and website.

What do you think the future holds for your industry?

I think you will definitely see more sustainability and an increase in ‘slow fashion’ as the ‘fast fashion’ trend dies out. We make sure the brands we carry are top quality therefore they last longer. Designer clothing is worth the investment and ultimately has less of a negative impact on the environment.