Fashion by Smashbox
After two years in development, Smashbox clothing has finally arrived.
Smashbox Studios, owned by brothers Dean and Davis Factor, has been in the public eye of late as home to Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios in Culver City, Calif. Smashbox started as a photo studio in 1992 and has since added a cosmetics label and co-ownership in the Photogenics agency, which represents models, hair and makeup artists, wardrobe stylists, and art directors, among others. Smashbox jeans and tees were added to the family in a soft launch for Fall 2005.
The designer of Smashbox jeans, David Park, met the Factor brothers in 2003 when Park’s collection, David Park, showed at the first Smashbox Fashion Week, before Smashbox partnered with Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. (Park has since folded former lines the David Park collection and the young contemporary line Sky David Park. The designer now has a new bottoms-driven line, Park.)
According to Dean Factor, Smashbox was not originally looking to launch a clothing line. But Park suggested the brothers license the Smashbox name for clothing. The L.A. uniform of jeans and T-shirts seemed appropriate to reflect the insider studio lifestyle, and Smashbox jeans were born. “That’s what the market is buying right now. That’s what people are into. That is what we’re seeing here in the studio,” said Dean Factor, who added that jeans are the daily uniform of models, makeup artists and photographers at the studio.
One reason for the prolonged development of the Smashbox denim line is that Park was working on other freelance design projects.
The designer, who is collection-based, hadn’t worked with denim before the Smashbox jeans line, so he had to learn the special methods of working with denim, including washes, production specifications and taking shrinkage into account.
The end result is a capsule collection of slim-fitting dark jeans and a fitted blazer that reflect Smashbox’s modern and sleek photo-studio look. “No. 1, it’s sexy; No. 2, it’s very clean; and No. 3, it’s creative,” Park said of the Smashbox image. “I took those three things as inspiration.”
“Our whole approach is to be glamorous, not rip-and-tear,” he said. “I didn’t want to over-engineer the denim. A lot of the denim out there, it’s either too much embellishment or it’s over-engineered—too much detailing, too much pocketing, stitching all over. I think it takes away from the woman that’s wearing it.”
Randy Brewer, the general manager of Villains Vault in San Francisco, said that once he heard Smashbox was planning to launch a denim line, he sought it out.
Brewer carried Smashbox through the Holiday season. He said customers recognize the Smashbox name from the cosmetics but what sells the jeans is the fit. “They have great dark denim. The really skinny cigarette silhouettes, the gauchos and the trousers are all silhouettes that are doing great for us,” said Brewer, adding that 40 percent of the store is composed of premium denim.
The collection also includes Supima cotton-rayon-blend knit tees with special details such as Lurex thread and silk shoulder taping. Wholesale price points are, generally, $85–$105 for jeans.
Dean Factor and Park both acknowledge that the denim market is saturated but stand by their denim’s quality, its competitive price point and the allure of the Smashbox name.
The denim market is “very competitive—it’s not going to be easy,” Dean Factor said. “There are a lot of these companies that come out and shoot up $40 million in sales the first few years, and then they’re gone. We’re just not looking to do that. I think, with time, it will gain traction and get a nice loyal following because it is such high quality. We just started doing national advertising for Smashbox cosmetics so the brand itself is gaining a lot of visibility.”
For more information, contact the Proper Fools Showroom in the Cooper Design Space, Suite 320, at (213) 689-7730.
—Rhea Cortado
