The Dress That Never Quits
Black Halo's 'Jackie O' dress has been selling steadily for seven years. Many people imagine that success as a fashion label requires designing scores of new looks every season. But success can come from a single long-living look.
By CHRISTINA BINKLEY (wsj.com)
It's the dress that looks good on women of all ages, sizes, and means. WSJ "On Style" columnist Christina Binkley takes Lunch Break inside the making of the blockbuster Black Halo "Jackie O" dress. Photo: Noah Webb for The Wall Street Journal.
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When Laurel Berman's blouse wouldn't stay tucked into her high-waisted pencil skirt, the fashion designer fixed the problem by stitching the two together. Several tweaks later, the "Jackie O" dress was born.
The Jackie O has since been worn by Tyra Banks, Scarlett Johansson, Kim Kardashian, Kelly Ripa and many other celebrities whose wardrobes inspire women to shop. For Black Halo, the label founded here a decade ago by Ms. Berman and her husband, Sean Pattison, the seven-year-old dress has become the foundation of a growing business.
Many people imagine that success as a fashion label requires designing scores of new looks every season. In truth, success can come from a single long-living look. These styles serve as a mainstay for the brand, selling strongly year after year. It is hard to imagine Izod without the golf shirt in a rainbow of shades, Levi's without 501s in the latest denim wash, or Diane von Furstenberg without the wrap dress.
Ms. von Furstenberg created the stretchy wrap dress for women like herself in the 1970s. Freshly divorced at the time, she wanted to be comfortable, powerful, sexy and modern simultaneously. As the wrap dress did, bread-and-butter fashion items must solve a common dilemma and be accessible to many consumers across a range of ages, sizes and wealth. For producers, they can be updated season after season without the cost of designing from scratch, boosting profit margins.
Black Halo's Ms. Berman didn't intend to create a bread-and-butter dress. In fact, she didn't want to design dresses at all. After years of designing for other people's labels, she made her first creations for her own brand out of denim.
These days, though, Black Halo is known for a variety of flattering dresses, which are sold at retailers from Saks Fifth Avenue to Scoop, as well as its own website. Ms. Berman and Mr. Pattison chose the name for their label because it seemed symbolic of the "beauty of contradiction."
After experimenting with the stitched-together blouse and skirt, the pair first put the Jackie O dress into their fall 2006 collection. It had a slightly draped chest with an asymmetrical neckline, which gracefully added volume for small women and was roomy enough for women with larger busts.
The high-waisted top transitioned into a dress that curved out around the hips—pencil-skirt style—to create a curvaceous line from waist to the knee. The high waist made the wearer's legs look longer, while seaming at the midsection offered subtle camouflage. Ms. Berman started with a cotton fabric with 5% stretch, which helped the design fit more body shapes, though the dress now comes in many fabrics.
The dress sold well, and some retailers reordered. In October 2007, a similar dress with a ruffle at the neckline but the same curvy silhouette appeared on the cover of Lucky Magazine on singer Mandy Moore. For Black Halo, it was the beginning of many magazine covers, red-carpet appearances, and who-wears-it-best photo spreads in celebrity fashion-oriented magazines and websites from Cosmopolitan to InStyle, Allure, and New York magazine.
Designers want their collections to be fresh each season, and Ms. Berman didn't keep the Jackie O in her seasonal collections. Nor did she place it on the "line sheets" from which wholesale buyers order. But retailers asked for the dress anyway. So Ms. Berman kept working on fresh colors and patterns—including versions with shorter skirts, off-the-shoulder necklines and a longer sleeve length.
At around $375, the dress is calibrated to attract a fashion-oriented consumer but not at a scary luxury-designer price. It appeals to working women, in part because the neckline doesn't reveal cleavage and the below-knee length is office-appropriate. "I consider it the power suit for women," Ms. Berman notes.
The label makes the Jackie O from size 0 to 14—a size larger than any of its other styles, because stores request the larger sizes for the versatile dress. The black version remains the most popular. "If I don't have 500 black Jackies in the warehouse at all times, I could be in trouble," Mr. Pattison says.
Nordstrom put the dress on its "replenishment" program, keeping a steady supply on the way to its department stores. "Our customers respond well to it and we bring in updated versions each season," says a Nordstrom spokeswoman. "For instance, at the moment we carry the dress in lace, a botanical print, color-blocked, and so forth."
Celebrity stylists turn with regularity to the Jackie O and other Black Halo styles, which have walked the red carpet from the Oscars to the Comedy Awards. InTouch Weekly ran a two-page spread in May 2009 featuring the Jackie O entitled "Hollywood Loves This Dress." It was worn by eight starlets, including Blake Lively, Katherine Heigl, and Fergie, in purple, black, white, crimson and blue. Valerie Bertinelli wore a blue-green Jackie O on the March 2011 cover of Good Housekeeping, with a headline, "You Can Choose to Be Happy."
Hollywood stylist Tara Swennen has dressed actresses Connie Britton and Lauren Conrad in the label's dresses in recent months. "The gowns are sexy and form-fitting and give [my clients] a beautiful silhouette," Ms. Swennen says.
images from new.blackhalo.com
Black Halo's 'Jackie O' dress has been selling steadily for seven years. Many people imagine that success as a fashion label requires designing scores of new looks every season. But success can come from a single long-living look.
By CHRISTINA BINKLEY (wsj.com)
It's the dress that looks good on women of all ages, sizes, and means. WSJ "On Style" columnist Christina Binkley takes Lunch Break inside the making of the blockbuster Black Halo "Jackie O" dress. Photo: Noah Webb for The Wall Street Journal.
</div>
When Laurel Berman's blouse wouldn't stay tucked into her high-waisted pencil skirt, the fashion designer fixed the problem by stitching the two together. Several tweaks later, the "Jackie O" dress was born.
The Jackie O has since been worn by Tyra Banks, Scarlett Johansson, Kim Kardashian, Kelly Ripa and many other celebrities whose wardrobes inspire women to shop. For Black Halo, the label founded here a decade ago by Ms. Berman and her husband, Sean Pattison, the seven-year-old dress has become the foundation of a growing business.
The Jackie dress comes in solid colors, as well as lace, tweed, floral and color-blocked. It has a slightly draped chest with an asymmetrical neckline, which gracefully adds volume for small women, and is roomy for women with larger busts.
"We're the house that Jackie built," says Mr. Pattison, gesturing around Black Halo's sprawling downtown warehouse. Behind him, thousands of dresses await shipping. They hang on racks arranged mazelike, corridors hung with Jackie Os of every color—greens, blues, reds and other solids, as well as lace, tweed, floral and color-blocked Jackie Os. Today, Black Halo has sold roughly 50,000 Jackie Os, Mr. Pattison says. Many people imagine that success as a fashion label requires designing scores of new looks every season. In truth, success can come from a single long-living look. These styles serve as a mainstay for the brand, selling strongly year after year. It is hard to imagine Izod without the golf shirt in a rainbow of shades, Levi's without 501s in the latest denim wash, or Diane von Furstenberg without the wrap dress.
Ms. von Furstenberg created the stretchy wrap dress for women like herself in the 1970s. Freshly divorced at the time, she wanted to be comfortable, powerful, sexy and modern simultaneously. As the wrap dress did, bread-and-butter fashion items must solve a common dilemma and be accessible to many consumers across a range of ages, sizes and wealth. For producers, they can be updated season after season without the cost of designing from scratch, boosting profit margins.
Black Halo's Ms. Berman didn't intend to create a bread-and-butter dress. In fact, she didn't want to design dresses at all. After years of designing for other people's labels, she made her first creations for her own brand out of denim.
These days, though, Black Halo is known for a variety of flattering dresses, which are sold at retailers from Saks Fifth Avenue to Scoop, as well as its own website. Ms. Berman and Mr. Pattison chose the name for their label because it seemed symbolic of the "beauty of contradiction."
After experimenting with the stitched-together blouse and skirt, the pair first put the Jackie O dress into their fall 2006 collection. It had a slightly draped chest with an asymmetrical neckline, which gracefully added volume for small women and was roomy enough for women with larger busts.
The high-waisted top transitioned into a dress that curved out around the hips—pencil-skirt style—to create a curvaceous line from waist to the knee. The high waist made the wearer's legs look longer, while seaming at the midsection offered subtle camouflage. Ms. Berman started with a cotton fabric with 5% stretch, which helped the design fit more body shapes, though the dress now comes in many fabrics.
The dress sold well, and some retailers reordered. In October 2007, a similar dress with a ruffle at the neckline but the same curvy silhouette appeared on the cover of Lucky Magazine on singer Mandy Moore. For Black Halo, it was the beginning of many magazine covers, red-carpet appearances, and who-wears-it-best photo spreads in celebrity fashion-oriented magazines and websites from Cosmopolitan to InStyle, Allure, and New York magazine.
Designers want their collections to be fresh each season, and Ms. Berman didn't keep the Jackie O in her seasonal collections. Nor did she place it on the "line sheets" from which wholesale buyers order. But retailers asked for the dress anyway. So Ms. Berman kept working on fresh colors and patterns—including versions with shorter skirts, off-the-shoulder necklines and a longer sleeve length.
At around $375, the dress is calibrated to attract a fashion-oriented consumer but not at a scary luxury-designer price. It appeals to working women, in part because the neckline doesn't reveal cleavage and the below-knee length is office-appropriate. "I consider it the power suit for women," Ms. Berman notes.
The label makes the Jackie O from size 0 to 14—a size larger than any of its other styles, because stores request the larger sizes for the versatile dress. The black version remains the most popular. "If I don't have 500 black Jackies in the warehouse at all times, I could be in trouble," Mr. Pattison says.
Nordstrom put the dress on its "replenishment" program, keeping a steady supply on the way to its department stores. "Our customers respond well to it and we bring in updated versions each season," says a Nordstrom spokeswoman. "For instance, at the moment we carry the dress in lace, a botanical print, color-blocked, and so forth."
Celebrity stylists turn with regularity to the Jackie O and other Black Halo styles, which have walked the red carpet from the Oscars to the Comedy Awards. InTouch Weekly ran a two-page spread in May 2009 featuring the Jackie O entitled "Hollywood Loves This Dress." It was worn by eight starlets, including Blake Lively, Katherine Heigl, and Fergie, in purple, black, white, crimson and blue. Valerie Bertinelli wore a blue-green Jackie O on the March 2011 cover of Good Housekeeping, with a headline, "You Can Choose to Be Happy."
Hollywood stylist Tara Swennen has dressed actresses Connie Britton and Lauren Conrad in the label's dresses in recent months. "The gowns are sexy and form-fitting and give [my clients] a beautiful silhouette," Ms. Swennen says.
images from new.blackhalo.com
