Fast forward and having swapped polyester mix suits for cashmere sweaters and dresses studded with Swarovski crystal, Earl told Reuters she is now turning in double digit percentage sales growth and scouting for stores in New York and Hong Kong.
"Jaeger had some great times and some not so great times financially, but through it all the brand was relatively undamaged," Earl, 44, said in an interview. "What we've tried to do is to bring it back to being relevant and give it a sense of modernity.
" The result of plundering its century old archive and then updating it for today? "We're seeing double digit top line sales growth this year, more than 20 percent," Earl said. Jaeger's transformation makes a counterbalance to the dominant story in British retail: a drive towards selling vast volumes of clothes at prices so low teenagers can buy them on Friday, wear them on Saturday and throw them out on Sunday.
At its last audited year end in February 2005, the unlisted firm reported sales of 100 million pounds and said it was back in the black, after posting a loss the year before. Opting for the high road of luxury, Jaeger is sidling onto the turf of Burberry and Pringle, other brands building on peculiarly British textiles and styles - tweed and raincoats, tennis whites and regimental braiding. Burberry shares hit a record high this month after its US-born Chief Executive, Angela Ahrendts, unfurled a massive country and product expansion programme.
Jaeger is not yet ready to follow Burberry on to the stock exchange, Earl said, but it is ramping up a store rollout beyond its 120 British stores and outlets in Taiwan, Dubai, South Korea, Canada, Zurich and Copenhagen. "We're actively looking at New York and Hong Kong," said Earl, who was Britain's youngest-ever retail CEO when she was made head of department store chain Debenhams in 2000. To widen its audience, Jaeger's collection has expanded under Earl from one range to three - the original Jaeger line, a younger "Jaeger London" range and its highest end luxury "Jaeger Black", where the floor-skimming coats set out to rival Max Mara.
Earl also rolling out more accessories and shoes. Andrew Wade, an analyst at London brokerage Seymour Pierce, said Jaeger and Burberry's growth was outpacing the high street's discount clothing retailers, indicating a turnaround in Britain's pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap trend. "We're seeing that if you can get the product right, you can push into the higher end of prices - and there's a huge amount of flexibility there.
" Earl said that turnaround was not limited to Britain.
"In America, there's a fascination particularly with British brands. We've already shown the collections to North American department stores and there's been a strong degree of interest," she said.
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