Playboy Next Generation
A new partnership between Playboy magazine and Los Angeles–based licensing and graphics company Giant Merchandising Inc. recently bowed at select retailers with the goal of conveying the cachet of the magazine’s 50-year-old history in an apparel line aimed at modern men.
Playboy City Nights is geared toward young men between the ages of 18 and 30, and it aspires to put Playboy icons in a new light.
In the past year, the company placed the line at specialty stores such as Metropark and department stores such as select Bloomingdale’s.
On Oct. 17, it participated in the Bloomingdale’s “Guys’ Night Out” menswear promotion at the Bloomingdale’s in Century City, Calif.; the Beverly Center in Los Angeles; and in San Francisco.
Giant used Playboy graphics such as the iconic rabbit-head logo, the skyline of Manhattan and even a graphic of a 1971 Playboy model for the City Nights line. An emphasis was put on giving the rabbit-head icon new, stylish looks.
The line will be composed of polo shirts with the rabbit-head icon, track jackets, hooded sweaters and slim-fit T-shirts. Retail price points will range from $28 to $60. Giant spokesperson Trish Tostado said that her company hopes to appeal to a wide audience by distancing the iconography from the libertine magazine. “You can see the rabbit’s head, but you don’t always have to associate it with nudity and sex,” Tostado said.—Andrew Asch
