Leisure with an elegance suits you, ma’am

Posted at July 14, 2009

After 40 years, Fella Hamilton still dominates fashion’s least favourite category.

The glamorous 84-year-old next month celebrates four decades since her first line of towelling turbans for Brighton’s “ladies who lunch” blossomed into a brand of leisure wear for women aged 40 and older.

“I made clothes for over-40s because that’s how old I was,” she says. Hamilton used towelling, velour and later jersey and silks because they skimmed rather than clung, and “slenderised” the figure.

She elasticised waistbands, cut to a bigger block with generous sleeves, lowered bustlines and kinked waistlines. She perfected techniques to flatter the mature figure that could be compared to those a skilled tailor uses to flatter the softening physique of a middle-aged man.

It was never the hippest market niche and younger fashion brands were more than happy to leave her to it. But they might not be so snobby soon. Hamilton’s niche market is filling up and going gangbusters despite the slumped economy. She opened her 12th shop in Bondi recently and another will open in August.

Older women increasingly complain they have money to spend but few places to spend it where they are not scorned by frosty young sales staff and racks of unsuitable clothes. “They want elegance, these women,” says Hamilton. “They want comfort and a big range, very good quality and very good service.”

Hamilton is still involved in her company, now run primarily by her son and daughter, David and Ann Hamilton, but pulled back from daily operations three years ago. She says the formula now being replicated by her rivals evolved in regular visits to her shops. She talked to women, she says, and acted on their comments. Astonishing brand loyalty was the result.

According to the 2007 census, the proportion of Australia’s population aged 50 to 59 has increased from 10 per cent to 13 per cent since 1996.

theage.com.au