Shop Dutty has been forced to rebrand after 13 years of trading. // Credit: Shop Dutty.

How resilient Shop Dutty won’t be closed down by a threatening rebrand.

Dutty was founded in 2003 by Louisa initially as a club night, opening soon after as a small shop in St. Nick’s market selling both her own brand and vintage clothing under the name ‘The Dutty Girl Shop’. She started stocking designs from Joh. The pair soon began working together thinking ‘if we put our two heads together we can make something much bigger and better between us‘. The Dutty business plan was born, Dutty opened shop in Stokes Croft in 2008.

Just over two years ago the name came under fire from Spanish brand ‘Massimo Dutti’, owners of Zara, Berhska and Pull and Bear, who have held their EU trademark of the name since 1996. The case came to an end this summer with the decision ruled in favour of the Spanish brand. The legal-decision causes Bristol’s Dutty to undertake a complete rebrand.

In order to reach their £12,000 rebranding target, the brand are hosting The Dutty Whine Up; Rebrand Showcase x Club Night on 5th December. The money will go towards the unavoidable lawyer and solicitor’s fees, and the cost of rebranding the entire store and clothing line; from branded tees to stickers and clothing tags.

dutty
Give it a go and become a Dutty catwalk model at the upcoming Dutty Whine Up club event. For more information email info@shopdutty.com. // Credits: Shop Dutty

We spoke to Joh about the rebrand plan; ‘it’s really important for us that we give something back as a thank you to everyone who’s supported us over the years and make an event happen rather than going for an appeal scenario and ask for money’.

A key part of the brand is that the business is ‘modular’. What’s meant by this is that ‘if one aspect doesn’t work we’ll take it out, so the way we run our business is all flexible; our desire to do this is so much a part of us that we couldn’t not do it; we’ll always try to continue no matter what. We’re resourceful and think on our feet and think for the future, we’ll always try and make it work.’

Despite this rebranding push-back, it’s being seen as a silver lining as they’ve had a lot of thinking time in the two and a half years the case has taken to go through. The indisputable name change has been ‘turned into a positive’. Dutty is finally able to be excited about the new, secret name saying ‘it will sit well in the future; just continuing this shop… that is our dream basically.’

The new name is announced on 5th December at a secret Bristol location with secret headliners, guest DJs and a fashion showcase with tickets available via the Facebook event page. Alternatively head to their Crowdfunder page.

 

By Alicia Brooks