Multiplying 7 Several Times for Profit
Southern California’s 7 for All Mankind is adding up to more choices.
The denim company known for its high-end blue jeans sold all over the world is teaming up with high-end retailer Ron Herman to launch More 7, a women’s line of T-shirts, skirts, pants and dresses that will retail from $48 to $150, Herman said.
The Spring/Summer ’06 line will debut at Fashion Coterie in New York Sept. 20–22.
The line will start primarily with cotton Tshirts in all sorts of silhouettes and 30 different colors. They will be designed and manufactured in Los Angeles and retail from $50 to $70.
Herman said it is only natural that comfortable luxury jeans should have comfortable luxury tops to go with them. “It’s that California style of life,” said Herman, who has been in the retail business for 35 years. He now has five Ron Herman stores, in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Costa Mesa and Brentwood. “A great-fitting jean should have a great-fitting T-shirt with fabric, fit, texture, treatment and color wash.”
Herman—who started in the retail business under the watchful eye of his uncle, Fred Segal, another well-known Southern California retailer who caters to fashionistas—said he has been working on this project for the last year. He has a separate design studio with one designer, Maria Dodos, a patternmaker and sample sewers. The line will start with Tshirts and then branch out to other items.
The idea for the line started more than a year ago when Rick Crane, executive vice president of sales and merchandising for 7 for All Mankind, saw some of the T-shirts Herman was producing and mentioned it to Peter Koral, president of the Vernon, Calif.–based blue-jean company. “Peter came by the Melrose Avenue store, said he liked what we were doing and maybe we could do something together,” Herman said.
After the jeans company received an infusion of cash from Bear Stearns Merchant Banking, which acquired 50 percent of the company in March 2004, the principals decided to start working on the More 7 label. At the same time, Andreas Kurz, who had been division president of international licensing for Polo Ralph Lauren Corp., joined 7 for All Mankind as its new chief executive.
Herman took a trip to New York to meet with the Bear Stearns investors about the new label, which they obviously liked.
The Coterie presentation will be mostly Tshirts, said Kurz, who will be in New York to help debut the label, which will have its own logo.
This is the third partnership 7 for All Mankind has launched recently. Earlier this year, the blue-jean company joined forces with Italian designer Alfredo Settimio, owner and founder of the underground line Great China Wall, to do a limited edition of 30,000 pairs of embellished jeans in different styles selling for $300 to $1,000. They are for sale at stores such as Kitson, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. The deal was facilitated by Crane, who was a financial backer of Great China Wall when it launched in 1999.
Also this year, the blue-jean company partnered with New York designer Zac Posen to create three different jeans styles that will be on sale for two weeks in October at Neiman Marcus. They debut at the store’s HIP Event Oct. 7–8 and will retail for $500 to $1,000.
Kurz said more deals between 7 for All Mankind and designers are in the works as the company continues to capitalize on its name. “Part of our strategy,” he noted, “is to team up with great talent in the industry.” —Deborah Belgum
