Designers Switching Houses & Moving to New Brands

[BetteT]

It's all in this other thread (DESIGNER & FASHION INSIDERS BEHAVIOR) in Rumor Has It: http://forums.thefashionspot.com/f6...ior-read-post-1-before-posting-249355-58.html Starts as post #861.

 

[TaylorBinque]

John Targon of Baja East exits Marc Jacobs after three months.

John Targon's Fast Exit Complicates Marc Jacobs Reboot
The Baja East designer was hired to overhaul the lower-priced product, which once accounted for 80 percent of the brand's revenue.
NEW YORK, United States — Baja East co-founder John Targon is out at Marc Jacobs, only three months after joining the brand to reboot its lower-priced product offering.

A representative for Marc Jacobs confirmed the exit, adding: “John Targon is a talented designer and we appreciate the work he has done here. Ultimately working together did not make sense for the brand and we wish him the best.”

While it is unclear what changed so quickly, BoF has learned that Marc Jacobs is now taking a more active role in designing the lower-priced product. (Targon did not report to him.) In the past, there were two separate teams that designed the runway collection and the contemporary collection. Much of the original contemporary team was laid off before Targon arrived so that he could bring in his own designers. Those new entrants have now exited as well, meaning that Jacobs and chief executive Eric Marechalle are essentially starting from scratch. It is unclear if the collection Targon and his team conceived will be produced.

What is clear, however, is that the struggling LVMH-owned brand needs to figure out its contemporary product strategy. Since 2015 — when LVMH combined the main Marc Jacobs brand and its contemporary sister brand Marc by Marc Jacobs, causing confusion among retailers and consumers — sales have suffered. The contemporary line was once one of LVMH's most profitable lines, accounting for as much as 80 percent of the brand's revenue.

But in the last three-to-four years, consolidated retail revenues (not including fragrance royalties) have more than halved from around $650 million to about $300 million, with much of that coming from outlet stores, according to a source familiar with the business.

Targon's appointment was the first significant hire since the arrival of former Kenzo chief executive Marechalle, who took the lead at Marc Jacobs last autumn.

businessoffashion.com

 

[zoom]

^ What exactly did he do during his brief time at Marc? Was he a part of styling the last F/W collection cause that was good, otherwise his entrance and exit is a non-event.

 

[fashionista-ta]

What genius decided to fold it (Marc by Marc) in in the first place ... dumb ideas like this make me think there are too many suits sitting around with nothing to do.

 

[Pricciao]

They folded it to make balance sheet look pretty for possible IPO at the time. the kill of diffusion lines was also at its momentum. I dont think it was dumb.

 

[Ed..]

I don't know if it's mentioned but Gaia Trussardi had left Trussardi.

 

[FadeToBlack]

I think it was dumb to close Marc by Marc.

 

[Pricciao]

Please, people hated what Katie Hillier and Luella Bartley did.(while I loved it)
Mbmj by Katie & Luella didn't perform well in store, the company needed to save up a huge bunch. So Marc combined what was meant for mbmj into his main line. It was a reasonable move.

 

[FadeToBlack]

^Oh yeah I agree with you there, but near the end they made so many mistakes in how the company took a downturn and that has now spread to mainline.

 

[fashionista-ta]

Having separate designers for Marc by Marc was also likely a bad move. It somewhat misses the point of 'by Marc,' no? There should be some relationship there. I don't see how it's possible to look at where the company is now and say the path to this point was a good one. However, it does also seem that the more beautiful Marc gets, the less beautiful his work is. It seems that p*rn stars may not be good for anyone's career.

 

[FashionMuseDior]

Having separate designers for Marc by Marc was also likely a bad move. It somewhat misses the point of 'by Marc,' no? There should be some relationship there. I don't see how it's possible to look at where the company is now and say the path to this point was a good one. However, it does also seem that the more beautiful Marc gets, the less beautiful his work is. It seems that p*rn stars may not be good for anyone's career.

:lol

Is marc dating a new p*rn star now?

 

[Lola701]

No, closing Marc by Marc was a good move. WHat was the bad move was to reposition the brand as a luxury brand. This revamp of Marc Jacobs was very much inspired by Dolce & Gabbana when in fact the MJ brand is closer to MK.

Dolce & Gabbana were able to focus on the mainline because that line actually made money and because they had different clientele for both brands and a clear distinctive aesthetic for each.

Marc Jacobs has the potential to be a great contemporary line. The sad reality is that Marc Jacobs is not a luxury brand for people and it will be very hard to change that perception.

What is very amazing is that the MJ model is very popular now. Back in the day, he used to sell a lot of stuff. I remember a line called stinky rats, he had those t-shirts with Naomi and Kate and all.
I guess the problem was his ego. When you're not doing Vuitton and have experienced that level of celebrity or luxury in terms of clothes making, it's hard to touch the ground again.

What he needs to do is to be totally involved with everything. It doesn't make sense to have another designer there. And as i said before, it doesn't make sense to sell 6000$ dresses under the name Marc Jacobs. And, the price range is actually ridiculous. 2500$-3000$ should be the price for the most expensive things for this brand. He can compete with Alexander Wang but not with Tom Ford.

 

[vetements]

No, closing Marc by Marc was a good move. WHat was the bad move was to reposition the brand as a luxury brand. This revamp of Marc Jacobs was very much inspired by Dolce & Gabbana when in fact the MJ brand is closer to MK.

Dolce & Gabbana were able to focus on the mainline because that line actually made money and because they had different clientele for both brands and a clear distinctive aesthetic for each.

Marc Jacobs has the potential to be a great contemporary line. The sad reality is that Marc Jacobs is not a luxury brand for people and it will be very hard to change that perception.

What is very amazing is that the MJ model is very popular now. Back in the day, he used to sell a lot of stuff. I remember a line called stinky rats, he had those t-shirts with Naomi and Kate and all.
I guess the problem was his ego. When you're not doing Vuitton and have experienced that level of celebrity or luxury in terms of clothes making, it's hard to touch the ground again.

What he needs to do is to be totally involved with everything. It doesn't make sense to have another designer there. And as i said before, it doesn't make sense to sell 6000$ dresses under the name Marc Jacobs. And, the price range is actually ridiculous. 2500$-3000$ should be the price for the most expensive things for this brand. He can compete with Alexander Wang but not with Tom Ford.

haha! i remember that line!
it had all these cheap touristy memorabilia type of things, like t shirts at $5 and backpacks at $20 etc.
I also remember shopped at bookmarc in melrose place..

I dont know but the MJ brand never had a distinct identity, at least not for me, i never liked his own brand or his version of LV.
its either prada inspired for some period or cheap tacky looks that doesnt look consistent AT ALL from one season to the other.

 

[andrew]

speaking as a dude consumer of MJ collection for running on ... 15 years now (AGING HOLY ****), once the brand shifted from gibo to staff it lost its way both in quality and identity... granted menswear is probably a tiny piece of the pie, but to me indicative of the overall lack of direction and purpose.

I'll agree that shuttering the marc by marc line is a good idea; the price points while not terribly close just confused people in my experience. hard to latch onto the idea of a dowdy-ish $1000 cashmere when the equivalent thing in a diffusion by the same company is a third of the price or less at a discount retailer.

and why even hire the baja east dude? what exactly in his resume makes him desirable in this? might as well try the enfants riches deprimes guy. who is making these inane decisions.

 

[fashionista-ta]

:lol

Is marc dating a new p*rn star now?

Not at all ... he has upgraded to a candlemaker, and they are engaged. It all happened at Chipotle, and video of the moment is available to one and all online. I hate to be all judgey, but I truly found that tacky

Marc Jacobs has been expensive for a long time. Separates (like a tweed jacket or full skirt) were in the $2500 range some years ago, when I was still wearing the brand. It's not something brand new.

 

[fashionista-ta]

haha! i remember that line!
it had all these cheap touristy memorabilia type of things, like t shirts at $5 and backpacks at $20 etc.
I also remember shopped at bookmarc in melrose place..

I dont know but the MJ brand never had a distinct identity, at least not for me, i never liked his own brand or his version of LV.
its either prada inspired for some period or cheap tacky looks that doesnt look consistent AT ALL from one season to the other.

That drove me nuts when I still cared about the brand ...

 

[GivenchyHomme]

That drove me nuts when I still cared about the brand ...

I didn't mind, when it was good. I can't really forgive Spring 2011. I feel like when a designer does a Punk Collection or an Asian inspired collection that usually means they ran out of ideas. Even if LV was a mess, at least it was interesting. Not everyone wants to wear Ghesquière's stiff, boring, and commercial clothes. Women want variety and they want fun! It was Louis Vuitton after all!

Speaking of MBMJ, if your main collection wasn't your bread and butter then why on earth would you put everything on it? It seems like a stupid decision if you ask me.

 

[Lola701]

^^
But Nicolas’s clothes are selling better than Marc. Marc’s clothes helped to sell bags and of course were the driving force for his collaborations.

They wanted to do an IPO (i don’t know if that’s the word in English) and it’s not good to have 2 brands under two different designers under one umbrella (Marc Jacobs).

Marc Jacobs has been expensive for a long time. Separates (like a tweed jacket or full skirt) were in the $2500 range some years ago, when I was still wearing the brand. It's not something brand new.

But that was when the brand was hot and when he had the Louis Vuitton aura to back-up that.
Without Vuitton and with the sea of mid-priced products available in department stores, it didn’t make sense to continue with that «*luxury*» thing.
Look at Kenzo, it was slowly dying and suddenly, it’s making money again. The same for Karl Lagerfeld’s own line.

Marc Jacobs has a more prestigious aura than Kenzo and KL. And the creativity is MJ real value.

The reality is that, no matter how good his collections are, if he doesn’t adapt his business model, it will never work.

Personally, I haven’t bought an MJ rtw piece at full retail price in a decade...

 

[TaylorBinque]

I still think it's a bad idea to kill MBMJ. I get that it was at the height of all brands killing a diffusion line. But most people I knew were buying stuff from that brand and they knew that it is essentially Marc Jacobs redux but still it is his name. MBMJ was the bread and butter for the brand. Now, the company only has $300M revenue and it started to fall down since they killed the diffusion line. For me the new business model is very weird because once they merged to two, an MJ bag becomes cheaper but then you have a dress that costs $5,000. It doesn't make sense to me and probably to most consumers. Now, the only saving grace is beauty and perfume which they don't own 100%

Being attached to "American brand" have people expecting to buy lower priced stuff and that's why Michael Kors is able to sustained the model and make the IPO. Now not only that the IPO is out of reach, they need to do something to survive.

 

[maimon]

Felipe Oliveira Baptista exits Lacoste

Felipe Oliveira Baptista is stepping down as creative director of Lacoste, after an eight-year tenure. The Spring/Summer 2019 collection will be designed by an in-house team. After graduating from Kingston University in London, Baptista held positions at Max Mara and Cerruti before launching a namesake label in 2003. The designer closed his brand in 2013 to focus on his work at Lacoste.

businessoffashion