Fashion licensing has many singular qualities compared to sports, character, corporate trademark, art, and other segments of the business. One of the most unusual is the propensity for designers to maintain and license under their own names while simultaneously overseeing fashion labels tied to other designers. While the relationships tend to come and go, some […]
Archive | Fashion
Building a Bridge
The fashion sector within the licensing business has traditionally been somewhat set apart from the character, sports, art, and corporate arenas. To many fashion executives, licensing is viewed as a core tool for brand extension, fully integrated into other operations, rather than an “industry” on its own. Many do not see themselves as part of […]
Stop and Smell the Clothes
More licensed products made of fabric are incorporating scent as a differentiator. In some cases, the pairing is purely for novelty appeal. The limited-edition, eight-piece Wildfox Resort 14 Barbie Dreamhouse capsule collection of apparel and accessories, debuting last November, included some items with a sunscreen or cotton candy scent that lasted through 10 to 12 […]
Style Above All
Celebrities from Sarah Jessica Parker to David Beckham to Taylor Swift are often referred to as style icons, especially in connection with their expansion, through licensing or collaborations, into apparel and accessories. Some celebrities have become so defined by their style that their identification as style icons often transcends any mention of the career that […]
West Meets East
U.S.-based licensors of classic characters are making inroads into the Chinese market by forging deals with fashion-forward retail operators. Three examples announced in the last month illustrate the trend: Twentieth Century Fox paired with Her-Chain Clothing, a multibrand retailer, and HongFang Group to open Simpsons flagship apparel stores across the country. King Features and its […]
The Rise of the Athleisure Class
The emergence and growth of the “athleisure” category within the women’s fashion industry—consisting of clothing that is appropriate for everything from working out to running errands to casual social outings—has been a well-documented trend over the past couple of years. And licensing has had a role in several of the highest-profile launches, especially within the […]
Sporting a New Look
The four major professional sports leagues already count more than 30 apparel companies on their respective licensee lists, most of them well entrenched. And that takes into account the trend over the past several years in which the leagues (and colleges and universities to a degree) have cut the number of licensees in the category, […]
Corporate Design Collaborations Still In Fashion
The involvement of corporate brands in fashion collaborations continues, with some of the most active participants over the last six months or so being beverage and automotive brands. One recent example is Pepsi’s Project Cobalt, which introduced its first collection last week. Project Cobalt, a partnership between Pepsi and a consultancy called All Beuys Club, […]
Performance With Character
Apparel and accessories integrating performance and technical characteristics—such as moisture-wicking, extra comfort, easy care, support, light weight, or a range of other traits—have represented one of the fastest-growing sectors in the textile industry over the last four to five years. So it follows that performance wear also has been an active area within licensing. This […]
From Embellishments to Essentials
The typical path of licensing in the fashion industry is for apparel designers to broaden their scope into accessories. But accessories designers are going in the other direction, extending their names into adjacent categories—including, in some cases, apparel—at an accelerated pace. These companies follow in the footsteps of brands such as Kate Spade, Fossil, and […]