Defiance USA Counts on Music Licenses to Sell Clothes
For generations of rock fans, the name Fender symbolized one of the best-made guitars in the world. For Los Angeles–based rock aficionado and clothes manufacturer Christopher Wicks, this pop-culture touchstone isn’t enough. He hopes people think of jeans when the word Fender is mentioned.
Wicks’ company, Defiance USA Ltd.—which has a license to produce Fender T-shirts, watches, footwear, headwear and other categories—is introducing The Fender Denim Collection by Serfontaine at the MAGIC International show in Las Vegas. He forecasted sales will reach $5 million the first year. Retail price points will be $90 to $150.
The collection will bear the familiar hallmarks of other premium jeans labels, including deconstructed and embellished looks. But one unique rock ’n’ roll quality will be the outlined shape of a guitar pick worn on the pant pockets.
This collaboration with denim designer Mik Serfontaine is just another step in Wicks’ plan to make his company an outfitter for rockers.
At MAGIC, Wicks, who is Defiance’s president and chief executive, also will show the latest designs for his music-inspired brands Jimi Hendrix The Experience, A Clothing Company, Broken Records, English Laundry and the 1950s-era sportswear label DaVinci of California. Wicks is developing these lines just when music culture is becoming a key tool to selling clothes.
T-shirts bearing band logos have long been an apparel staple. In the past few years, manufacturers have licensed the names of legendary nightclubs such as CBGB in New York and of musicians such as Bob Marley for anything from blue jeans to woven shirts.
While T-shirts are the mainstay of the rock fan’s uniform, Wicks wanted to go beyond them. Trained as a men’s shirt designer in his native England more than 30 years ago, he wanted to design contemporary clothes with a rock inspiration. But it took a while to realize his dream. He immigrated to the United States in 1984, and he manufactured private-label clothes from 1989 to 2002. In 2002, he signed a licensing agreement with Fender Musical Instruments Corp., based in Scottsdale, Ariz., to make music-related apparel.
“The power of the Fender brand gave us credibility,” said Wicks from his south Los Angeles office, which could double as a showroom for the company’s guitars.
Wicks estimated that he owns 100 guitars. He cannot play any of them, but that does not get in the way of his love for rock music and culture. His cell phone chime is the Rolling Stones ballad “Beast of Burden.” Sex Pistols guitarist and fellow Briton Steve Jones text messages him. Coffee-table books on The Beatles fill up his bookcase.
After gaining the Fender license, Wicks said he hoped to expand his company by pursuing other licenses. His intuition naturally took him toward rock music. Earlier this year, he met Jimi Hendrix’s sister, Janie, at the NAMM Show, a music convention in Anaheim, Calif. He negotiated with her for a license to make clothes just like the ones her brother wore during the late 1960s.
For his Broken Records label, Wicks silk-screens images of old jazz and R&B singles onto T-shirts. For his English Laundry label, he reproduces swatches of fabric manufactured in 1960sand 1970s-era England, the glory years of British rock, to make colorful tops with the silhouettes of a proper gentleman’s shirt.
Music has helped Wicks’ company grow. He will not release sales volume figures, but he said his staff has grown from five to 60 employees in the last three years.
Wicks, who has three warehouses, announced his company is opening a 3,500-square-foot showroom at the California Market Center in August. He said the new showroom will help him meet his goal of selling the Serfontaine collection to better department stores and specialty stores that have a wide variety of customers.
The great thing about Fender, Wicks noted, is that it appeals to everyone. “It’s [for] everybody who wanted to play guitar or be fashion-driven,” he said. —Andrew Asch
