Matthew Williamson Shifts Business Online

LONDON — Matthew Williamson is to concentrate selling his collections online with a renewed focus on licenses, and is to close his London flagship store, WWD has learned. A new Web site is set to launch in early 2016 that will offer free shipping worldwide, and same-day delivery in London. The move will also see the label streamline its wholesale order books and bricks and mortar retail. Williamson’s store on London’s Bruton Street will close this summer and relocate to another central London space that will serve as a showroom and appointment-only boutique for online customers. A second store in Qatar currently remains open. In a bid to appeal to what the label called a “buy-now, wear-now mentality,” it will produce six fashion collections a year, and present them directly to consumers at small events. Revealing details of a business restructure first announced by WWD last month, the London-based company still plans to have a presence at London Fashion Week, though “not necessarily through traditional fashion shows.” Matthew Williamson is the latest fashion label to seek alternatives to the traditional way of doing business. For the past few seasons, London designers such as Marios Schwab have been skipping the catwalk in favor of more intimate presentations and

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