Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Revival or Slumber: The Sleeping beauty Brands

Arnaud de Lummen has the successful business of reviving dormant fashion brands and selling them to investors. The Sleeping Beauty brands include Schiaparelli, Vionnet, Moynat and, now, Paul Poiret. The concept behind this is that these fashion brands still retain brand equity which can be used to offer a new product. The investors who are interested in such brands are creative and willing to take risks.

De Lummen confesses that they need to get a bit aggressive while acquiring rights over dormant brands. To relaunch a brand, Intellectual Property portfolio must be clean so that there is no ambiguity. He acknowledges that there is a bit of fashion fatigue or comparison to such brands which had failed earlier.

Such brands much be bought by the very top investors. Unlike Halston, one needs to be patient in earning revenues and increasing sales volume.
Financial backing is also important. Like Bernard Arnault who had acquired rights over Moynat, investors must be far sighted.

If the major luxury conglomerates currently lack the requisites for taking on more such projects, perhaps the era of big brand revivals is over?

-Shambhavi Mishra