People's Liberation Inks Deal With J. Lindeberg
J. Lindeberg—the high-end Swedish men’s casual apparel and golfwear line sold in better department stores, specialty boutiques and country clubs around the country—is coming to Los Angeles.
The company is joining forces with People’s Liberation, the Los Angeles denim and casualwear line whose other brands include William Rast, started three years ago with entertainer Justin Timberlake and his childhood friend Trace Ayala.
People’s Liberation and J. Lindeberg announced on Aug. 11 that they have formed a partnership called J. Lindeberg USA LLC to market and operate the J. Lindeberg brand in the United States. The new partnership, half-owned by People’s Liberation and half-owned by J. Lindeberg, will acquire J. Lindeberg’s New York retail store and its accounts receivables, inventory and personnel in the United States. The partnership gives People’s Liberation a valuable retail foothold in New York City. J. Lindeberg also has a flagship store in the Beverly Center in Los Angeles that is owned by a franchisee.
“The plan is to get the brand more exposure,” said Colin Dyne, who has been People Liberation’s chief executive since May 2007. “The brand has a lot of recognition in the golf world, and we’ll try to bring it to the mainstream department stores and specialty store channels.” Dyne is one of the original financial backers of People’s Liberation and owns about20 percent of the company’s stock. He succeeded Danny Guez, who left People’s Liberation last year as chief executive and creative director. Since Dyne took over, he has been trying to aggressively grow the business.
The new venture could add a bright spot to People’s Liberation’s annual revenues, which last year totaled $20.3 million. The company had a net loss of $768,497 last year, a net loss of $570,000 in 2006 and a net loss of $865,000 in 2005. Dyne estimates the joint venture could add $10 million to $15 million a year to the revenues of People’s Liberation.
“People’s Liberation will bring both additional resources and complementary expertise to our existing U.S. operation and will allow for more focus and faster growth of the J. Lindeberg brand,” said J. Lindeberg Chief Executive Stefan Engstrouml;m in a statement.
Dyne said the company is in the process of refurbishing the New York store in SoHo to freshen it up. The size of the Beverly Center store will increase at the beginning of next year to expand its offerings.
Also, an activewear line will be added to sell to department stores.
J. Lindeberg was founded in 1996 by creative director Johan Lindeberg. Headquartered in Stockholm, the apparel company offers cool contemporary menswear and golf attire that have a certain following among the fashion cognoscenti. The company’s most recent annual revenues were $55 million. The line is sold in more than 25 countries around the world.
This is not the first partnership between People’s Liberation and the Lindeberg name. Johan Lindeberg and his wife, Marcella, have been designing the new William Rast Collection since last November under the auspices of their New York design consulting company, Paris68. Their three-year contract with William Rast pays them a minimum of $2 million a year. Marcella is designing the women’s collection, and Johan is designing the men’s line in an attempt to expand the contemporary denim line into a full contemporary fashion line. The William Rast Collection debuted in February and is being delivered to stores for Fall. Lindeberg still oversees creative direction of his namesake label. —Deborah Belgum
