During the past three years, fashion companies have ramped up collaborative activities with designers, celebrities, and labels from underrepresented communities, in an effort to diversify their industry. That includes seeking out partners hailing from the Pacific Islands, which are situated across a vast area of the Pacific Ocean, extending from the U.S. West Coast to […]
Archive | Demographic groups
Finding Consumers Where They Work or Play
This past September, J.C. Penney paired with Warner Bros. Discovery Global Consumer Products to release women’s and men’s sweaters, dresses, shirts and tops, jackets, tote bags, and other apparel and accessories tied to the TV series Abbott Elementary. The collection was designed specifically for teachers, emphasizing comfort and affordability as well as a casual-but-professional style. […]
Augmenting Adaptive Apparel Assortments
By Karen Raugust on October 30, 2023 in Celebrity, Demographic groups, Diversity/Inclusion, Fashion, Licensing
The fashion industry has been slowly putting more focus on consumers with disabilities since the mid-2010s, when it began picking up the pace of adaptive apparel releases. The technique has been flourishing in the last 18 months, as the business has seen several launches of adaptive clothing lines from retailers and brands, not to mention […]
Diversity and Inclusion at Play
By Karen Raugust on October 9, 2023 in Demographic groups, Diversity/Inclusion, Licensing, Toys/Games
For many years, entrepreneurs have been at the New York Toy Fair launching ethnically and culturally diverse product lines, created because they could not find anything similar at retail for their own children. In the past, these initiatives most typically have consisted of ranges of diverse dolls, often accompanied by books outlining the characters’ backstory. […]
Grabbing the World by the Lapels
A handful of womenswear designers known for very feminine styles have been bringing their sensibilities into the menswear space of late. The move makes sense as the lines between womenswear and menswear are increasingly blurring, as illustrated by the rise of gender-neutral collections and gender-neutral pieces within womenswear and menswear lines. Some recent examples: Laura […]
Toddler IP Spurs TikTok Trends
By Karen Raugust on August 31, 2023 in Character/Entertainment, Demographic groups, Digital, Licensing
Until recently, owners of preschool properties have been a bit leery of having a presence on TikTok, even if their IP appeals to a nostalgic young adult audience as well as their core market of young children. And that continues to be the stance of many licensors even today. But now that the platform accounts […]
Bridal Brands Put a Ring On It
A number of wedding specialists—retailers, publications, gown designers—have been expanding their brands through licensing and collaborations. That includes the bridal jewelry category, a logical licensed brand extension if there ever was one. Each deal, at its core, focuses on engagement rings and wedding bands, but the collections typically also encompass other accessories such as earrings, […]
Making the Grade with Expanded Dorm Décor
In social media communities frequented by college-bound teens and young adults, dorm room décor is experiencing something of a golden age. Influencers and designers have been highlighting ideas for small spaces like dorm rooms and first apartments, students themselves have been gaining social media fame for sharing their creative college living spaces—sometimes put together at […]
Support and Self-Care for Monthly Cycles
In September, we wrote about collaborations focused on a topic not often represented in licensing, namely menopause. Another area of women’s health that has rarely been spoken of in the licensing business, but is starting to emerge as a viable area for partnership: menstruation. A handful of IP owners have recently entered the “period wear” […]
Collaboration, Not Appropriation
By Karen Raugust on November 14, 2022 in Demographic groups, Design and content themes, Diversity/Inclusion, Fashion, Licensing
Last month, the wife of Mexico’s president alleged that the Ralph Lauren fashion label had plagiarized a number of designs associated with Mexico’s indigenous Contla and Saltillo communities. The brand said it had thought all such goods had been removed from retail stores a few months earlier, when it had first recognized the issue, and […]