The 33-year-old Vancouverite, in
business since 1995, has seen her own exclusive couture line become a
must-have for well-dressed women in Vancouver, Tokyo and Hollywood. Fans
of Eto's fashions include Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, Susan
Sarandon, Sarah McLachlan, Calista Flockhart, Diahann Carroll, and, yes,
Madonna.
Already an icon in the select world of
high fashion, Eto is about to burst borders and seams, and go global with
a ready-to-wear collection -- her first.
At her Homer Street studio, Eto and her
team are putting the final touches to the collection for fall 2002, to be
presented to buyers this month at the Canadian Consulate during fashion
week in New York. Her couture pieces cost from $950 to $5,000, but the
ready-to-wear will be priced at levels comparable to Donna Karan, Michael
Kors or Jil Sander, says Valerie Fabre, who is in charge of Eto's sales
and marketing. That means wider distribution, higher sales, and Yumi Eto
becoming as valuable a Canadian export as, say, Michael J. Fox or Celine
Dion.
Eto's approach has been methodic and
full of care. "As a designer it's taken me three years to evolve our
design esthetic, which started at couture. We can [now] transpose into the
ready-to-wear," says Eto, who recently brought production of her
fashions back from Milan to Vancouver. "We're a Canadian company, and
now we have a wholly Canadian product [with the exception of the
fabrics]," she says.
The most important focus for the
company, Eto says, is to maintain the image of the clothes, which are
feminine, sculptural, very detailed and engineered in terms of the design.
Eto's reputation as a designer deserves
such care. In 1995, after training and apprenticing for four years with
fashion school owner and couturiere Helen Lefeaux, Eto presented a small
but beautifully executed collection of elegant dresses and separates at
Holt Renfrew in Vancouver.
The details and sumptuous fabrics,
which were textured or cut to create patterns, made her clothes both
original and distinctive.
That one-night trunk show was a
success. It was an auspicious beginning. Eto took orders for $20,000 worth
of couture in one evening. However, Holt Renfrew wasn't ready to sign her
up as a regular label.
Undaunted she carried on, keeping the
focus on the detailed art of her pieces. Three years later she went to New
York where she rolled a rack of her designs down the street from her hotel
to Barneys. The buyer was overwhelmed by Eto's designs and immediately
wrote an order.
Then she took Japan. To celebrate the
new millennium, the owners of Isetan, one of Tokyo's most prestigious
retail stores, conducted a global search for a new collection that would
fit with the store's existing labels -- Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Marc
Jacobs. Isetan was so impressed that, in an unprecedented move, all the
windows of the store were devoted to Eto's clothes.
It was a deep compliment to her design
integrity because it is rare in Japan for a big store to take a chance on
a little-known label.
"It just happened very
quickly," says Eto who adds the store opening was huge, and "a
little overwhelming when we were trying so hard to get the products
made."
To accommodate the large order, it was
necessary to find a suitable manufacturer, and one was found in Milan, and
the European connection took root.
In the United States, her clothes are
also carried by Neiman Marcus, where they hang between those of John
Galliano and Chloe. The store also features her bridal collection.
In January 2001, Eto's company received
a boost when Marie-Jeanne Becker-Godard signed on as CEO and provided the
financial expertise necessary to help Eto tackle the lucrative
ready-to-wear market. Becker-Godard brings considerable management and
marketing experience to the fledgling company. She previously had a chain
of 85 eponymous cosmetic stores in France. When Bernard Arnault of LVMH
(Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton) came knocking at her door, she agreed to
sell. At the time, Becker-Godard had been planning to expand her
operations on Canada's West Coast. She and her family's Canadian visas had
come through, so, despite selling the business, they decided to stay in
B.C. Through mutual friends Eto and Becker-Godard were introduced, and the
French woman now had a new challenge to thoroughly open the U.S. and
Japanese markets then concentrate on Canada. Europe, which she understands
well, would follow.
"I have the amazing team of
people, and we have this very inspiring person giving us so much
experience in business," says Eto of her new CEO.
