License Magazine - August 2007 - (Page 48) outlook’08 CELEBRITY BRANDING Big Names, Big Business Celebrity partnerships are not a uniquely American phenomenon, as evidenced by the European fashion market. By Josephine Collins Celebrity high street fashion hit the UK and Europe years after the United States found the tie-ins a great marketing and sales tool. Now mass-market retailers across Europe are involved in the deals—whether as one-off, singleseason highlights, or long-term partnerships. If celebrity high street fashion licenses work when a retailer’s values match the ethics of a celebrity, then the latest, and perhaps greatest, celebrity coup in Europe is the model Kate Moss’s collection for Topshop—proof that the alignment of two iconic fashion names can work. The deal, brokered by billionaire Arcadia boss Sir Philip Green and Kate Moss herself, is rumored to be worth more than £3 million to Moss for a three-year deal (although officially the length of the deal is yet to be confirmed). While the Kate Moss collection was ridiculed by design professionals for being based on items from her own wardrobe, the queues that straddled London’s Topshop Oxford Street April launch were testament to the appetite that consumers had for the line. Topshop’s existing tie-ins have focused on quirky established fashion designers—Celia Birtwell launched in April 2006 and is ongoing, Zandra Rhodes launched in 2003 and is ongoing, while Sophia Kokosolaki launched in 2003, and is now in its final season. While more designer partnerships are to be launched this autumn, no more celebrity deals have been announced. While Kate Moss has international status, the designers Topshop has chosen are very much UK oriented, and it seems that, unless you are H&M and are able to take a truly global view on celebrity fashion with Madonna and Kylie Minogue, most of the existing deals are national. The Topshop designer collections are only available outside the UK in its flagship franchise mega stores including Singapore, The French fashion chain Gemo launched the marykateandashley brand in fashion, footwear, and accessories for 12- to 18-yearolds in March. Russia, and Kuwait. The Kate Moss range is only available outside the UK in Barneys, New York. Even H&M has had its problems with its catwalk designer deals—trade gossip says that stock of the Stella McCartney collection was shipped out of southern European stores where it was languishing on the rails and moved to northern European cities where the subtle McCartney look found more favor. Steven Gould, joint managing director at 4Kidz, was involved in setting up the Kelly Brook swimwear collection for 500-plus branch New Look, which launched in April 2006. It was one of the first celebrity high street fashion license deals in the mass market in the UK. Brook, a well-known UK actress, model, and television presenter, sent out all the right messages for New Look with a girl-next-door appeal. Although she has gone on with a direct-to-retail deal on lingerie with New Look, 4Kidz is still involved in the swimwear deal. While the future of the Kelly Brook collections is at this stage unconfirmed, Gould is adamant that celebrity fashion still has a place in the mass market. “When celebrity fashion first hit the high street, it was cutting edge and brought a uniqueness to the stores,” he says. “That has now been diluted as more retailers have become involved, but while the British public remains obsessed with celebrity it will continue.” 48 www.licensemag.com August 2007 http://www.licensemag.com
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