WWDFriday June 11, 2004
A Feud at Perry Ellis
By Eric Wilson
NEW YORK — Patrick Robinson is at odds with Public Clothing Co. over the direction of the Perry Ellis women’s line and the cancellation of its spring show.
While Robinson has earned rave reviews for his first two collections for the brand, a disagreement between the designer and the company that manufactures the collection over its fashion direction is threatening to end their relationship, according to sources familiar with the situation. The company has also canceled the spring 2005 fashion week presentation of Robinson’s collection for Perry Ellis, which would have occurred in September, they said.
Perry Ellis International relaunched the women’s better-priced sportswear collection in 2002 through a licensing deal with Public Clothing Co. In April 2003, Robinson was hired to revamp the look of the collection and has to a large degree succeeded, earning a nomination for the Swarovski’s Perry Ellis Award at the Council of Fashion Designers of America Fashion Awards this week. The award went to Zac Posen.
Reached on Thursday, Robinson said, “I sincerely hope we will continue this very successful relationship I have had with Perry Ellis International and Public Clothing Co. I truly believe we are all working toward one goal, which is to build a very strong women’s wear business. But over the next week I am in the process of negotiating with them what my future role is with the company.”
PEI and Public Clothing have invested millions of dollars in the relaunch of Perry Ellis women’s, a landmark label of sportswear in the Eighties and where Marc Jacobs designed until 1993, when the line was discontinued. Robinson’s spring and fall 2004 collections were shown in still-life presentations at Bryant Park in New York and were praised for a fresh and playful approach that mixed tweed with plaid and leather in a way that recalled the work of the late designer.
However, Robinson’s designs have a more contemporary approach than is customary in the better market, and that appears to be the crux of the debate currently playing out at the company. Robinson is said to be facing pressure from PEI and Public Clothing to take the collection in a more classic and commercial direction to compete in the better market with labels like Lauren Ralph Lauren, rather than in the contemporary realm of Marc by Marc Jacobs, and is said to be looking to win more control of the oversight of the collection.
Dan Shamdasani, chief executive officer of Public Clothing Co., declined to comment on the company’s aspirations for the collection, or its plans for spring.
“We are speaking to Patrick about an enhanced role at the company,” Shamdasani said.
A spokesman for PEI, which produces its own men’s wear under the creative direction of Jerry Kaye, declined to comment.
Although the negotiations remain unresolved, Robinson is said to have become increasingly frustrated since the departure of Elissa Bromer, who was president of the Perry Ellis women’s division, from Public Clothing Co. in December. She became group president at Donnkenny, where she is working on the launch of a licensed Nicole Miller better sportswear line.
Public Clothing has projected a $100 million volume for the Perry Ellis line, although its performance over the last year is unclear, and other companies, like Kellwood Co. through its Goodman Group, the previous licensee, have not been able to market the brand with much success in women’s wear.
While a number of stores like Henri Bendel and Selfridges have offered anecdotal evidence of strong sales of fashion looks like trenchcoats and tweed jackets, the performance of Perry Ellis at high-volume doors in department stores has remained unclear. In its first season under Public Clothing the line was designed by Niovi Forbes, but she was replaced by Robinson shortly thereafter.
...they cancelled the show!!!??!?!.................that's huge....hasn't the stuff been selling?!...i thought everbody loved it....and if it's not selling..that's probably because nothing is....and the contemporary market is completely oversaturated...
