Law firm praised over designer clothing website

Aug 26 2009 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

DICKINSON Dees law firm has been praised for its “high-quality advice and unrivalled personal service” by the company behind a pioneering fashion website.

Stockton-based Visualsoft believes that DesignerClothing.com has entered the online fashion retail market by bringing together contemporary collections from hundreds of designer boutiques all on one website.

The retailers already looking to sell their designer ranges via DesignerClothing.com include Triads, Karen Millen, Jules B, Sarah Coggles of York, Barkers of Northallerton, MatchesFashion.com, Psyche, and Office.

The York and Tees Valley offices of the Newcastle-based firm played a pivotal role in setting up DesignerClothing.com for Visualsoft, one of its long-standing clients.

Dean Benson, director of Visualsoft, said: “I cannot praise Dickinson Dees highly enough. They have been helping us for 11 years now and have always provided the very best, high-quality advice, together with unrivalled personal service. What’s more, their fees are competitive and they are tremendous value for money.

“They have played a very important part in helping to set up DesignerClothing.com by looking after the terms of business, the shareholders’ agreement, the relationship between the investors, Visualsoft and DesignerClothing.com, and the retailers’ contracts.”

Alistair-Scott Somers, the associate who led the deal from Dickinson Dees’ York office said: “Visualsoft has been one of our clients since it was a small, yet dynamic, outfit. It has since grown into an award-winning company with over 40 employees and is one of the leading web solutions companies in the North of England. We are delighted to be associated with their success.

“The beauty of the DesignerClothing.com concept is its simplicity. By providing one website where fashion lovers can visit and buy all their clothes with the minimum of fuss, it will do for clothing and accessories what Rightmove has done for estate agents and developers,” he said.

Alistair Scott-Somers worked on the project with Nigel Williams, partner at the Tees Valley office, and Gill Hough, solicitor in the corporate and commercial team at the York office, to complete the deal.

Richard Bendelow, who runs Visualsoft with Dean Benson and will be leading DesignerClothing.com, said: “We are tremendously excited about our new project. Ever since we started Visualsoft in the 1990s, we have been fascinated by the amazing possibilities of the Internet. By applying them to the thriving fashion retail market, we think we have come up with a winning idea.”

“When people visit DesignerClothing.com, we will build up a personal profile for them to make it easier for them to find and buy the clothes they want. Too often in the past it has been difficult to find the right brand, size, colour and price on one website but now that’s all resolved with DesignerClothing.com and just a few clicks.”