Summer in the northern hemisphere is the season for many of the major global tennis tournaments, including the French and U.S. Opens and Wimbledon. It is also a key time for new product announcements involving well-known players, who have long been active in lending their names to fashion lines beyond their on-court endorsement deals. Tennis […]
Archive | Fashion
Western Brands and Wanghong
Chinese social media celebrities—also known as key opinion leaders (KOLs), or wanghong—are increasingly becoming involved in product collaborations. This is especially true of a large and fast-growing group of Chinese fashion and style bloggers, who have been designing limited-edition capsule collections for Western luxury brands. A handful of recent examples: Tao Liang (Mr. Bags) teamed […]
Believing in the Beautiful Game
With the 2018 FIFA World Cup coming up this summer in Russia, it seems like a good time to take a look at the growing number of football-inspired lifestyle labels on the market, many of which are linked to licensing in some way. These are apparel and accessories brands that capture the sensibility of the […]
Remixing Fashion for Ravers
DJs from the world of electronic dance music (EDM) have become increasingly active in fashion collaborations over the past five or six years, with both the number of musicians involved and the number of deals being done continuing to rise. Compared to other genres of music, such as country, classic rock, or rap, EDM stars’ […]
Walking in Chefs’ Shoes
Chefs who enter the licensing business typically focus on items closely related to their vocation, such as kitchen gadgets, cook- and bakeware, tableware, and sometimes foods. A category that seems to be outside the scope of traditional chef-based licensing but has been growing rapidly over the past five years: sneakers. While at first glance there […]
Saving the Earth Through Fashion
Fashion labels’ use of synthetic fibers created from recycled plastic bottles continues to grow, including some licensed examples. Among the recent eco-friendly apparel, accessories, and footwear initiatives of this type, industry-wide: Gant paired with Seaqual, a company that makes polyester thread from plastics harvested from the ocean. They are producing a line of shirts for […]
Where the Rubber Meets the Sidewalk
Tire companies have long extended their brands into the footwear category, not only lending their names to the collaborative shoe lines, but also providing rubber for the soles. In many cases, their brand name appears only on the bottom of the shoe. Some examples: Michelin’s footwear licensing business includes hiking boots, athletic shoes, non-slip shoes […]
Gender-Blind Basics
Licensing deals involving unisex lines of apparel, which are designed in such a way that they fit and appeal to both genders, have been on the rise for some time, and the trend seems to be accelerating. Agreements typically focus on t-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, and other basic items, although they can extend beyond that. Some […]
Prom Dates
Last month Discovery Consumer Products and Macy’s announced they were extending their licensing agreement for Discovery’s Say Yes to the Prom, creating a new line of dozens of prom dresses and accessories for high school girls. Say Yes to the Prom is a community-outreach spin-off of the Discovery series Say Yes to the Dress that […]
Art x Fashion
Collections pairing the imagery of established artists with high-profile apparel and accessories labels have represented a trend in the licensing and fashion businesses for some time, and that continues, as recent deals attest: Keith Haring’s estate and its agent Artestar are collaborating with Coach on a spring/summer 2018 collection of handbags and wallets, representing the […]