Ownership & practice
Definition
Tags identifying specific ownership structures or operational practices that distinguish a brand's business model or values.
Note: B-Corp Certification indicates a brand has undergone third-party verification of its ethical and sustainability commitments, offering consumers measurable accountability beyond self-reported claims.
Tags
- Australian Made — Products manufactured in Australia
- First Nations — First Nations owned
- B-Corp Certified — Certified benefit corporation meeting verified standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency
Distribution model
Definition
How a brand delivers product to market. Multiple models may apply.
- Private Label: Sold exclusively through a single retailer or parent company
- App: Dedicated brand shopping application on mobile
- Digital DTC: Direct-to-consumer via brand-owned e-commerce
- Retail Partner (AU): Major retail partnerships (DJ, Myer, The Iconic, Incu)
- Vertical Retail (AU): Brand-owned physical stores in AU/NZ
- Vertical Retail (Global): Brand-owned physical stores in multiple countries
- Omnichannel (AU): Multiple independent stockists across AU/NZ not listed in Retail Partner
- Omnichannel (Global): International stockists outside AU/NZ
Baseline assumption stated in methodology: All 380 brands operate e-commerce websites. Distribution tags indicate retail infrastructure built beyond direct-to-consumer web sales.
Market segment
Definition
Market Segment is determined by a brand's dress price range. Prices are in Australian Dollars (AUD).
Note: When a brand's dress range spans multiple segments, classification is based on where the majority of styles are priced. This reflects the brand's core market positioning rather than outlier pieces.
Tiers
- Designer — $1000+
- Premium/Bridge — $600–$1000
- Contemporary — $250–$600
- Mid-Market — $120–$250
- Mass-Market — $50–$120
- Fast Fashion — <$50
Market position
Definition
How a brand differentiates itself in the fashion marketplace through its brand, creative and commercial approach to reach its target consumer.
Categories
- Directional: Influential to wider fashion industry, vision-first, fashion-media backed
- Fashion: Design-vision driven, editorial credibility, speaks to both early adopters and mainstream audience
- Trend-Led: Social media-driven, responsive to digital culture, produces multiple design codes in one season, does not have a singular design focus
- Commercial: Mass-market driven, broadly appealing
Customer focus
The secondary demographic or customer type after a general womenswear target.
- YW/Youth: Young Millennial and Gen-Z leaning audience
- Classics: The traditional womenswear customer that is not trend-driven. Typically addressed as 35+, or in the U.S. known as Missy or Lifestyle customer
- Universal: Size-inclusive, offering up to size 20 and up
- Indie: Intentionally niche or for the counter-cultural consumer
Category focus
Definition
Product categories a brand design and builds into and beyond dresses. Multiple categories may apply. Dresses and apparel are the focus of this database but additional categories such as Swimwear and Footwear were added to provide a more detailed view where possible.
Categories
- Contemporary Basics: Jersey and cut-and-sew basics
- Casualwear: Everyday, easy-wearing pieces in wovens to jerseys
- Denim: Denim dresses, skirts, jackets, jeans
- Resortwear: Trans-seasonal, vacation, travel-friendly clothing suitable for warm weather. Often targets a flexible 'day-to-night' and 'city-to-beach' setting.
- Workwear: Office-appropriate, professional wear
- Knitwear: Sweaters, cardigans, knitted garments
- Partywear: Going-out styles, flexible to statement dressing
- Occasionwear: Formal attire for events
- Activewear: Performance and workout wear
- Loungewear: Comfort-focused, at-home pieces
- Streetwear: Casual street style, influenced by sportswear
- Graphic Tees: Printed graphic t-shirts, often seen as 'merch'
- Swimwear: Bikinis, one-pieces, swim dresses, rash guards
- Accessories: Bags, jewelry, small goods
- Footwear: Shoes
Design codes
Definition
The key design approaches by brands that drives their product execution and marketing collateral.
Primary style
- Feminine: Typical feminine codes made up of A-line to draped silhouettes, light colour palettes and design accents such as pleating, tiers, and ruffles
- Bohemian: Free-flowing, relaxed silhouettes with an attention to nature-inspired prints and colour
- Minimalist: Pared-back, simplistic design with neutral colour palettes
- Maximalist: More-is-more approach to silhouettes and prints
- Sartorial: Echoes the tailoring and high-low approach to casual sportswear in menswear
- Glamour: A point of opulence or 'dressed-up'
- Corporate: Structured workplace dressing
- Romantic: An accentuated femininity – structural to delicate details that nod to archival vintage references define Romantic design.
- Utility: Functional, practical design. In womenswear, this is usually executed with utility jackets, shirt dresses, cargo details etc.
- Architectural: Sculptural, bold forms in angular lines
- Avant-Garde: Experimental, boundary-pushing
- Alternative: Counter to mainstream fashion
Design approach
- Modernity — A contemporary interpretation where the final design may not be minimalist, but its pared back approach to primary design codes echoes the philosophy. For e.g. a feminine modernity is an a-line shift dress with bold floral print; a bohemian modernity is a slip dress with a cubist scarf print.
- Subversive: Challenges norms, provocative
- Sensuality: Body-aware, usually slinky, fitted, draped. Replaces the use of 'sexy'
- Eclectic: Mixed references and off-kilter influences
Design emphasis
- Art: Art practice as initial point of design or demonstrates heavy artistic collaboration or inspiration
- Colour: Bold or considered palette
- Material: Fabric-led design, in particular, 100% linen, silk, cotton usage
- Print: Pattern-driven
- Graphics: Graphic design integration, usually as a statement graphic
- Craft: Artisanal techniques, handwork
- Tailoring: Precision construction
- Fitted: Body-con, body-skimming silhouettes
- Relaxed: Loose, easy silhouettes
- Structured: Engineered volume and architectural shaping
- Reconstructed: Reimagined garment construction
- Deconstructed: Exposed seams, raw edges, unfinished details
Periodic references
Vintage-Inspired buckets a mish-mash of historic references which has become a contemporary approach to referencing the past in our post-modernist state. An example is the use of 70's prints on a '2000s jersey dress. Specific periods tagged refer to that era: 2000's, 90's, 80's, 70's, 60's, 50's, 40's, 30's, 20's
Sub-cultural references
- Girlhood: Hyper-feminine codes that reference nostalgic, historic accounts of youth dressing comprised of exaggerated details. For e.g. 80's ruffle dress
- Prep: Collegiate, Ivy League codes, American sportswear
- Kidult: Nostalgia for a childhood playfulness instilled in adult clothing, typically through colour and print
- Cyber/Rave: Club culture, digital-age futurism
- Surf/Beach: Coastal lifestyle, surf culture
- Rocker: Leather, studs, music-inspired
- Gothic: Dark romanticism, Victorian-inspired
- Grunge: Raw, undone, distressed, originally emerged from the 1990's
- Punk: DIY construction, hardware, rebellious styling, nods to the music movement of the mid-1970's
- Skate: Skateboard culture, typically references the '90s
- Futuristic: Forward-looking, sci-fi inspired
- Sports: Specified sports influence for e.g. tennis, golf etc.