Wrongly or rightly, I’d always seen Target Australia as a brand that ticked the box for affordability, but wasn’t exactly ahead in the style stakes. Yet after checking out their Autumn Winter 2015 range yesterday, I can confidently say my mind’s been changed.
What came as absolute news to me, was this time last year there was no Target Home design team, meaning everything you saw in store was designed by suppliers. However, jump to today and Target Home now have six designers, creating all their products in-house from scratch.
“Home had been neglected for a long time,” says Target Home design manager Bruce Summers. “But now, with our own design team, we have really been able to focus on our products and designing them to be much better. We’ve also streamlined our range. At one time in bed linen we had 140 quilt covers on the floor, now we’ve gone down to 40!”
As well as more than halving their range, they’ve also divided their products into three themes: colour, monochromatic and casual living. “We chose those themes based off different people’s homes and the way they like to shop,” explains Bruce. “Our last colour theme was Retro Modern and now that’s evolved into our current theme, Soft Pop. They have a similar palette and common elements, which means everything sits together well and it makes it easier to shop season after season as you can mix and match. Before, we had pretty much every colour and it looked really fragmented.”
Alongside Soft Pop, which is inspired by 60s minimalism, there’s the monochromatic Global Luxe, which features metallics, tribal iconography and luxurious textures and the casual living Lodge, which is all about whites, natural timber, knits and warm neutrals.
With many of the products having hit stores in recent weeks, the remainder of the season will drop end of March. For more information.