Liberty unveils B2B platform and campaign for expanding Fabrics business

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jul 18, 2019

London’s Liberty had big news on Thursday with the launch of a new B2B platform for its important Fabrics division and a new campaign supporting that part of its business.

While remaining a multi brand luxury department store, London’s Liberty has been investing heavily in its own brands for both retail and wholesale in recent years and following the unveiling last month of its new fashion collection, this new support for Fabrics is a further step in that strategy.

The company, which also unveiled own-brand nightwear and swimwear earlier this year, said it has launched the online B2B platform at libertyfabrics.com  in order to “meet the demands of international growth.” And next month it will also launch the Liberty Fabrics brand on Instagram (@libertyfabrics) with a platform “devoted to the expansive Fabrics community with plans to engage consumer and trade audiences.”

The Liberty Fabrics business currently has wholesale representatives across 32 countries and the printed materials are frequently used by designer labels for special collections with recent link-ups coming from Loewe and Paul Smith. This has helped the operation achieve double-digit growth in its latest year.

The new launch will be the company’s first ever B2B trade platform and the MD of Liberty Fabrics/Liberty London, Andrea Petochi, said: “We want the new e-platform to be a touchpoint for new business customers to learn about our offering and how we continue to innovate as a design brand. This is an important moment of growth for Liberty as we continue to evolve the business in a way that also benefits our customer journey and experience.”

Meanwhile the new campaign that can be seen in-store celebrates the “heritage, design and innovation of the collections, dating back to early 19th century.”

The West End store’s windows have been made over, taking inspiration from the print and manufacturing process of the fabrics. The company’s Visual Concept team has lifted elements from the industrial environment and played up the contrast of traditional and cutting-edge printer technology against the metres of Liberty print fabrics. Film footage also showcases the details of the production of the fabrics.

It all highlights the bespoke element that “has been finely-tuned by Liberty experts over the last 100 years.”

While that could sound like hyperbole, it’s undeniable that the company has an impressive heritage to share. The materials have been hand-drawn by the in-house London design team for many decades and screen-printed in the Liberty Printing Mill close to Lake Como in Italy.