January 18, 2008
Claiborne Looking to Mizrahi and Bartlett for Quick Fix
Bill McComb, CEO at Liz Claiborne, told The Wall Street Journal that Isaac Mizrahi is the “pied piper of women of 35.”
He better be, seeing that Mr. McComb hired Mr. Mizrahi as the new creative director of the Liz Claiborne with the expectation that women will be dancing out of retail stores with the clothes he designs.
“We’ve been disappointed with the performance of the line for several seasons running,” Mr. McComb told The New York Times. “The results have called out that a strategy change is needed.”
Mr. Mizrahi’s hiring comes at a time when Mr. McComb is making numerous changes to help his company’s revive lagging sales.
Last week, John Bartlett was hired to design a menswear line called “Claiborne by Bartlett.”
Dave McTague, executive vice president, Partnered Brands for Liz Claiborne Inc., said in a press release to announce Mr. Bartlett’s hiring, “What the everyday man needs right now is a collection that can dress him from work to weekend with an updated yet classic look – but what’s out in the market right now doesn’t fit his lifestyle. John is known throughout the industry as a talented, cutting edge menswear designer and we feel that he is the perfect partner to help Claiborne give this customer exactly what he needs.”
In another move, Claiborne announced yesterday that it had made an exclusive deal with Kohl’s to sell its Dana Buchman line.
In addition to looking to put new life into some brands, Mr. McComb has decided to cut and run on others. Claiborne recently announced the sale of C&C California and Laundry by Design brands to Perry Ellis.
Discussion Questions: What will the recruitment of Isaac Mizrahi and John Bartlett mean for Liz Claiborne? What are your thoughts on the other moves Bill McComb is making as part of his strategy for turning the company around?
- Liz Claiborne Taps?Star Designer?to Relight Brand – The Wall Street Journal
- Isaac Mizrahi Leaves Target to Revamp Liz Claiborne – The New York Times
- Kohl’s will carry Dana Buchman line – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
- John Bartlett to Design for Claiborne Menswear – Liz Claiborne Inc./ PRNewswire-FirstCall/CNNMoney.com
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Liz Claiborne died in June at age 78. Fashion brands benefit from charismatic figures at the helm. Look at Ralph Lauren. He’s always photographed looking great. He doesn’t use the name Ralph Lifschitz. The business called Liz Claiborne needs excitement. Either stars need to wear the clothes or the designers need to be stars themselves or the clothes need to make their customers look like stars. All three would be a home run.
Liz milked the mid level deptartment store cash cow (Dayton Hudson, Federated, et al) until it was dry. Now with just Macy’s left, the line and the store are stuck in the middle between up market quality and fashion (Saks, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Neiman’s et al) and disposable fashion and low price (Target, H&M, Zara’s et al) and Liz and Macy’s have reverse synergy at the moment…that is, they are magnifying each other’s problems. Mr. Mizrahi cannot be a quick fix as this is now “very broken” but he may be an excellent long term solution.
I agree with previous comments that the middle is a hard place to be in apparel retail right now. And I also think retailers at all price points have been harming themselves by overbuying some recent trends that flatter very, very few women. It’s true that women have become more price-conscious, yet I notice that they continue to spend good money on full-priced clothing when it makes them look fantastic and has a quality of being current yet not too trendy.
To provide a concrete example, James Perse does a fitted peacoat-style jacket out of stretchy, heavyweight cotton jersey at $215 retail. I’ve sold it to women between the ages of 18 and 70 because it’s a casual, everyday, machine-washable piece that makes you look sharp–try it on, and you just can’t argue with it!
If you look at sale racks right now, you’ll see hundreds of loudly printed babydoll tops with “jewel” embellishment at the neckline, and very few pairs of well-cut slim black pants….
Good grief. Where to start? Are celebrity names on apparel important? Michael Jordan would tend to agree. And while the names Mizrahi and Jordan appearing in the same sentence causes heterosexual males to chuckle, the principle behind the use of their names to hawk apparel is exactly the same. Wearers buy designer-named goods to both impress and fit in with their peers. A popular designer can get the gullible to wear nearly anything. Seriously, would you purchase and wear MJ’s latest, stone-ugly Air Jordans if they didn’t carry his name? And, how many of the total pairs sold will actually be worn on a basketball court, taking advantage of their so-called “performance?” They’re fashion accessories, plain and simple, and fashion is fleeting. This is a good thing for fashion retailers, of course, because they designed their system that way. It’s akin to the old-time annual model changeover among automobile manufacturers. Fashion retailers count on shopper interest in the latest designs, and their abandonment of last season’s designs.
McComb will have to go overboard to carve a foothold for his brands with their changes. Big splash, big print coverage, and many lobster dinners for the retail stores’ buyers. Fashionable apparel does not succeed on looks, but on cachet.
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Liz Claiborne died in June at age 78. Fashion brands benefit from charismatic figures at the helm. Look at Ralph Lauren. He’s always photographed looking great. He doesn’t use the name Ralph Lifschitz. The business called Liz Claiborne needs excitement. Either stars need to wear the clothes or the designers need to be stars themselves or the clothes need to make their customers look like stars. All three would be a home run.
Liz milked the mid level deptartment store cash cow (Dayton Hudson, Federated, et al) until it was dry. Now with just Macy’s left, the line and the store are stuck in the middle between up market quality and fashion (Saks, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Neiman’s et al) and disposable fashion and low price (Target, H&M, Zara’s et al) and Liz and Macy’s have reverse synergy at the moment…that is, they are magnifying each other’s problems. Mr. Mizrahi cannot be a quick fix as this is now “very broken” but he may be an excellent long term solution.
I agree with previous comments that the middle is a hard place to be in apparel retail right now. And I also think retailers at all price points have been harming themselves by overbuying some recent trends that flatter very, very few women. It’s true that women have become more price-conscious, yet I notice that they continue to spend good money on full-priced clothing when it makes them look fantastic and has a quality of being current yet not too trendy.
To provide a concrete example, James Perse does a fitted peacoat-style jacket out of stretchy, heavyweight cotton jersey at $215 retail. I’ve sold it to women between the ages of 18 and 70 because it’s a casual, everyday, machine-washable piece that makes you look sharp–try it on, and you just can’t argue with it!
If you look at sale racks right now, you’ll see hundreds of loudly printed babydoll tops with “jewel” embellishment at the neckline, and very few pairs of well-cut slim black pants….
Good grief. Where to start? Are celebrity names on apparel important? Michael Jordan would tend to agree. And while the names Mizrahi and Jordan appearing in the same sentence causes heterosexual males to chuckle, the principle behind the use of their names to hawk apparel is exactly the same. Wearers buy designer-named goods to both impress and fit in with their peers. A popular designer can get the gullible to wear nearly anything. Seriously, would you purchase and wear MJ’s latest, stone-ugly Air Jordans if they didn’t carry his name? And, how many of the total pairs sold will actually be worn on a basketball court, taking advantage of their so-called “performance?” They’re fashion accessories, plain and simple, and fashion is fleeting. This is a good thing for fashion retailers, of course, because they designed their system that way. It’s akin to the old-time annual model changeover among automobile manufacturers. Fashion retailers count on shopper interest in the latest designs, and their abandonment of last season’s designs.
McComb will have to go overboard to carve a foothold for his brands with their changes. Big splash, big print coverage, and many lobster dinners for the retail stores’ buyers. Fashionable apparel does not succeed on looks, but on cachet.