California Apparel News

Since its inception in 2004, Los Angeles apparel company Ed Hardy has been on a meteoric rise.

It now has 98 licenses with various entities to make everything from fragrances, bottled water and vodka to bathing suits, skateboards and air fresheners.

At the same time, it manages 10 brands of its own and is slowly rolling out retail stores across the country.

With so much going on, the company’s founder and artistic designer, Christian Audigier, is handing over the title of chief executive officer to Hubert Guez, a veteran Los Angeles blue-jeans manufacturer who recently closed down his Mexican factory. For years, Guez’s Los Angeles company, under the name Azteca Production International Inc., made goods for companies such as American Eagle Outfitters, Target and Kmart. This is the first time that Guez has been an employee. In the past, he has either owned or managed his own businesses in the apparel industry. His brother, Paul Guez, founded the blue-jeans line Sasson, which was very popular in the 1970s. Hubert Guez is also a major shareholder in Cygne Designs Inc., a publicly traded company in New York that makes privatelabel blue jeans.

Hubert Guez’s new move seemed a natural one. Audigier and Guez have known each other for years, since Audigier designed blue jeans for American Eagle Outfitters.

“I was always an admirer of his talent,” said Audigier, who will remain Ed Hardy’s chairman of the board and artistic director after relinquishing the chief executive officer title.

“We go back a long time,” Guez said.

With a new chief executive, the company plans to go to the next level by stepping up sales, adding 12 retail stores next year to the current 18-store lineup in the United States, and doing more licensing. “What we are going to do is maximize all segments of the business,” Guez said.

Last year, Ed Hardy’s revenues totaled $114 million. This year, they are projected to be $300 million, Audigier said. Guez said that in three years, their goal is to push through the $1 billion sales mark.

“The collection is going to be better and better,” said Audigier, who will split his time between the company’s 20,500-square-foot headquarters in Culver City, Calif., and Guez’s office at 121 S. Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills. That office will become the corporate headquarters for Ed Hardy’s brands, which include SMET (the real last name of French rock icon Johnny Hallyday, a friend of Audigier’s), Crystal Rock, Savoir Faire, EvelKnievel and Paco Chicano.

Audigier is also working on expanding his new trade show, When I Move You Move. It launched in August at Caesars Palace during the MAGIC Marketplace with a little more than 40 booths spread out over 35,000 square feet. Musicians such as Snoop Dogg, Macy Gray and Dave Stewart, who recently launched fashion lines with Audigier, performed there.

Audigier said 50 companies have signed up already, and he is hoping that next February’s show will house 100 booths. His goal is to surpass the huge Project Global Trade Show in Las Vegas, from which he parted ways last year after Audigier’s booths violated the show’s noise ordinances.

With a financial expert such as Guez on board, Audigier, a native of Avignon, France, said he is hoping to build up the company to either take it public or find a strategic investor.

Audigier has reportedly been meeting with private-equity investors. Sources said his target price is $750 million.

The Ed Hardy label is a line of tattooinspired streetwear known for its colorful accents and glitzy embellishments. Tattoo artist Don Ed Hardy lives in San Francisco, where a team of artists carries out his work at his studio, Tattoo City.

In 2004, Audigier acquired the exclusive rights to Hardy’s tattoo art and set out to make the name known to consumers worldwide. Before starting Ed Hardy, Audigier worked with Los Angeles–based Von Dutch and Bisou Bisou, as well as Italian brands Diesel and Fiorucci. —Deborah Belgum