For the fashion designers, agents are the hot trend
By Rachel Dodes, The Wall Street Journal
Fashion designers used to spend most of their time worrying about one thing: designing clothes.
Now, their career options are exploding. Chloe Dao, the Houston designer who won the "Project Runway Season II" reality television show last March, has signed five brand-extension deals, including one to design iPod cases to be sold by Target Corp. and Circuit City Stores Inc. Los Angeles designer Monique Lhullier, known for her lace wedding gowns, will create a bridal suite at a new resort owned by Sir Richard Branson in Somerset County, N.J.
Wednesday, New York designer Alice Roi, who makes punk rock-inspired knit dresses, will host a party paid for by Dow Chemical Co. to introduce denim made with a next-generation stretch fiber. The tablecloths at the party will be made of the "XLA" denim.
These varied deals were all brokered by New York's Designers Management Agency, or DMA, which has positioned itself as the Creative Artists Agency of the luxury fashion industry.
The emergence of DMA comes at a time when fashion designers, both new and established, are eager to find ways to raise the profiles of their own brands and generate additional revenue amid stagnant apparel sales. "The only way to be in the market is to become a celebrity yourself," Ms. Dao says.
"Today, fashion designers have greater exposure -- we know more about them than just their names," says David Rand, executive director of interiors at General Motors Corp., which hired New York designer Dana Buchman to design the interior of a prototype Cadillac SRX. Her picks: snakeskin sun visors, silk carpeting and quilted leather seats.
In the past, fashion designers have struck their own bargains or gone through public-relations agencies. But the rising wave of options has created an opportunity for DMA and agencies like it.
"Fashion designers either don't have the business acumen, or they are creative types and they don't really care to focus in on the business side of things," says DMA founder Marc Beckman, who is married to Alice Roi. His company, he says, tries "to leverage that star factor they bring to the table."
Four-year-old DMA was the first company created exclusively to occupy this niche, but competitors have started sprouting up. In September, "American Idol" creator Simon Fuller launched a talent agency in London called 19RM. Its aim is "to take fashion into new areas of pop culture," Mr. Fuller told the British press at the time. His first deal was a dress-design collaboration for Gap Inc. with British designer Roland Mouret, who is a 50 percent owner of 19RM. Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Fuller declined to comment about 19RM's plans.
The Council of Fashion Designers of America, which has worked with DMA on a book-and-television deal, says it has plans to create a "job bank" service to help link member designers with large retailers. The CFDA also is a paying client of DMA, which organized a recent deal to produce a CFDA-branded coffee-table book about American fashion icons with the publishing house Assouline.
The proliferation of deals with retailers reflects a change of heart among fashion designers and luxury-goods executives, who once shunned the licensing business after logos for brands like Gucci and Yves St. Laurent started showing up on cheap T-shirts, cigarette lighters and luggage in the 1980s and 1990s. Those labels spent years buying back ill-conceived licenses and repositioning themselves with expensive marketing campaigns.
Isaac Mizrahi's successful collaboration with Target helped change the scene. When Target hired the designer in 2003, critics argued that Mr. Mizrahi, who shut down his unprofitable high-end label in 1998 when his backer, Chanel SA, pulled the plug, was ruining his career. But the Target collection caused a sensation and reinvigorated his brand.
Fashion designers' partnerships now take a variety of forms and are different from the licensing agreements of the past. A designer may sign on with a retailer to make a one-off collection for one season, or sign a multiyear contract. The design project is often for something other than clothes. And, a growing category is fashion entertainment -- bookings for fashion-themed television shows or guest appearances such as one Ms. Dao did recently for LensCrafters Inc.
DMA, which has 10 employees, has a client roster that includes such apparel makers as Jones Apparel Group Inc. and Liz Claiborne Inc., as well as consumer-product companies like Procter & Gamble Co. and Unilever NV. Companies seeking creative products are plugged into what Mr. Beckman calls his "fashion ecosystem" of designers, such as Luella Bartley, a British designer who is designing a suite in the new Branson resort and American designer Laura Poretzky, who recently extended what was supposed to be a one-season deal with Payless ShoeSource Inc. to 2010.
DMA is associated with 25 designers, some on a project basis and others on a long-term retainer. To keep DMA on retainer, some clients pay as much as six figures a month, Mr. Beckman says.
Mr. Beckman won't disclose his firm's revenue but says it more than tripled last year from the year before. Last year, DMA completed about 150 deals, compared with 75 deals the year before. The value of the agreements range from $5,000 for a designer's appearance at an event to more than $50 million for a big guest-designer contract involving a five-to-10 year collaboration with a major mass-market retailer, including fees and royalties. DMA takes a 20 percent to 40 percent cut.
A lawyer and former cosmetics company entrepreneur, Mr. Beckman started DMA in 2002 after selling the rights to his cosmetics brand's name "Defile" to Christian Dior. The idea to serve as a liaison between high-end designers and mass-market manufacturers and retailers came to him in the wake of the sale, and Sam Sohaili, a marketing executive who designed the striking packaging for the Defile cosmetics line, became DMA's creative director.
"Bringing in people like DMA who are good at marrying the commercial with the creative advances the progress that we are making at a faster clip," says Peter Boneparth, CEO of Jones Apparel Group, which started working with DMA three years ago.
Not all deals have turned out to be long-term successes. A collaboration between New York designer Tara Subkoff, known for her "Imitation of Christ" brand, with Jones's Easy Spirit line lasted several seasons. Her subsequent team-up with Los Angeles denim maker Blue Concept LLC was discontinued after a brief run. Jones's Nine West label didn't extend its recent one-season ventures with designers Vivienne Westwood and Sophia Kokosalaki. "This is a constantly moving business," says Stacy Lastrina, executive vice president of marketing at Jones Apparel.
In a market saturated with products branded with designers' names, Mr. Beckman is seeking to parlay designers' star power in new ways.
One involves fashion designer Stella McCartney, who in May will host a cocktail party at her Los Angeles boutique for famous friends. A video of the event will appear on the Web site for Max Factor, the cosmetics brand owned by Procter & Gamble Co. There will be no brand endorsements at the party, and Ms. McCartney is not required to say anything about Max Factor. In return, Procter & Gamble will pay for a significant portion of Ms. McCartney's upcoming fashion show.
"Stella has double value as a brand," says Marco Bizzari, chief executive officer of Stella McCartney, which is owned by PPR SA's Gucci Group. "She is a designer, and she has a lot of connections in media and entertainment."
By Rachel Dodes, The Wall Street Journal
Fashion designers used to spend most of their time worrying about one thing: designing clothes.
Now, their career options are exploding. Chloe Dao, the Houston designer who won the "Project Runway Season II" reality television show last March, has signed five brand-extension deals, including one to design iPod cases to be sold by Target Corp. and Circuit City Stores Inc. Los Angeles designer Monique Lhullier, known for her lace wedding gowns, will create a bridal suite at a new resort owned by Sir Richard Branson in Somerset County, N.J.
Wednesday, New York designer Alice Roi, who makes punk rock-inspired knit dresses, will host a party paid for by Dow Chemical Co. to introduce denim made with a next-generation stretch fiber. The tablecloths at the party will be made of the "XLA" denim.
These varied deals were all brokered by New York's Designers Management Agency, or DMA, which has positioned itself as the Creative Artists Agency of the luxury fashion industry.
The emergence of DMA comes at a time when fashion designers, both new and established, are eager to find ways to raise the profiles of their own brands and generate additional revenue amid stagnant apparel sales. "The only way to be in the market is to become a celebrity yourself," Ms. Dao says.
"Today, fashion designers have greater exposure -- we know more about them than just their names," says David Rand, executive director of interiors at General Motors Corp., which hired New York designer Dana Buchman to design the interior of a prototype Cadillac SRX. Her picks: snakeskin sun visors, silk carpeting and quilted leather seats.
In the past, fashion designers have struck their own bargains or gone through public-relations agencies. But the rising wave of options has created an opportunity for DMA and agencies like it.
"Fashion designers either don't have the business acumen, or they are creative types and they don't really care to focus in on the business side of things," says DMA founder Marc Beckman, who is married to Alice Roi. His company, he says, tries "to leverage that star factor they bring to the table."
Four-year-old DMA was the first company created exclusively to occupy this niche, but competitors have started sprouting up. In September, "American Idol" creator Simon Fuller launched a talent agency in London called 19RM. Its aim is "to take fashion into new areas of pop culture," Mr. Fuller told the British press at the time. His first deal was a dress-design collaboration for Gap Inc. with British designer Roland Mouret, who is a 50 percent owner of 19RM. Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Fuller declined to comment about 19RM's plans.
The Council of Fashion Designers of America, which has worked with DMA on a book-and-television deal, says it has plans to create a "job bank" service to help link member designers with large retailers. The CFDA also is a paying client of DMA, which organized a recent deal to produce a CFDA-branded coffee-table book about American fashion icons with the publishing house Assouline.
The proliferation of deals with retailers reflects a change of heart among fashion designers and luxury-goods executives, who once shunned the licensing business after logos for brands like Gucci and Yves St. Laurent started showing up on cheap T-shirts, cigarette lighters and luggage in the 1980s and 1990s. Those labels spent years buying back ill-conceived licenses and repositioning themselves with expensive marketing campaigns.
Isaac Mizrahi's successful collaboration with Target helped change the scene. When Target hired the designer in 2003, critics argued that Mr. Mizrahi, who shut down his unprofitable high-end label in 1998 when his backer, Chanel SA, pulled the plug, was ruining his career. But the Target collection caused a sensation and reinvigorated his brand.
Fashion designers' partnerships now take a variety of forms and are different from the licensing agreements of the past. A designer may sign on with a retailer to make a one-off collection for one season, or sign a multiyear contract. The design project is often for something other than clothes. And, a growing category is fashion entertainment -- bookings for fashion-themed television shows or guest appearances such as one Ms. Dao did recently for LensCrafters Inc.
DMA, which has 10 employees, has a client roster that includes such apparel makers as Jones Apparel Group Inc. and Liz Claiborne Inc., as well as consumer-product companies like Procter & Gamble Co. and Unilever NV. Companies seeking creative products are plugged into what Mr. Beckman calls his "fashion ecosystem" of designers, such as Luella Bartley, a British designer who is designing a suite in the new Branson resort and American designer Laura Poretzky, who recently extended what was supposed to be a one-season deal with Payless ShoeSource Inc. to 2010.
DMA is associated with 25 designers, some on a project basis and others on a long-term retainer. To keep DMA on retainer, some clients pay as much as six figures a month, Mr. Beckman says.
Mr. Beckman won't disclose his firm's revenue but says it more than tripled last year from the year before. Last year, DMA completed about 150 deals, compared with 75 deals the year before. The value of the agreements range from $5,000 for a designer's appearance at an event to more than $50 million for a big guest-designer contract involving a five-to-10 year collaboration with a major mass-market retailer, including fees and royalties. DMA takes a 20 percent to 40 percent cut.
A lawyer and former cosmetics company entrepreneur, Mr. Beckman started DMA in 2002 after selling the rights to his cosmetics brand's name "Defile" to Christian Dior. The idea to serve as a liaison between high-end designers and mass-market manufacturers and retailers came to him in the wake of the sale, and Sam Sohaili, a marketing executive who designed the striking packaging for the Defile cosmetics line, became DMA's creative director.
"Bringing in people like DMA who are good at marrying the commercial with the creative advances the progress that we are making at a faster clip," says Peter Boneparth, CEO of Jones Apparel Group, which started working with DMA three years ago.
Not all deals have turned out to be long-term successes. A collaboration between New York designer Tara Subkoff, known for her "Imitation of Christ" brand, with Jones's Easy Spirit line lasted several seasons. Her subsequent team-up with Los Angeles denim maker Blue Concept LLC was discontinued after a brief run. Jones's Nine West label didn't extend its recent one-season ventures with designers Vivienne Westwood and Sophia Kokosalaki. "This is a constantly moving business," says Stacy Lastrina, executive vice president of marketing at Jones Apparel.
In a market saturated with products branded with designers' names, Mr. Beckman is seeking to parlay designers' star power in new ways.
One involves fashion designer Stella McCartney, who in May will host a cocktail party at her Los Angeles boutique for famous friends. A video of the event will appear on the Web site for Max Factor, the cosmetics brand owned by Procter & Gamble Co. There will be no brand endorsements at the party, and Ms. McCartney is not required to say anything about Max Factor. In return, Procter & Gamble will pay for a significant portion of Ms. McCartney's upcoming fashion show.
"Stella has double value as a brand," says Marco Bizzari, chief executive officer of Stella McCartney, which is owned by PPR SA's Gucci Group. "She is a designer, and she has a lot of connections in media and entertainment."
Last edited by a moderator:
