Big Designers Venture Into Teen Market
The bigger names in fashion aren’t about to let a huge group of people with a huge amount of disposable income skateboard away too quickly.
That’s why important players such as Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. and Tommy Hilfiger Corp. and Donna Karan are jumping into the juniors game, hoping to grab market share with their powerful brands and marketing ability.
The designer names “almost guarantee that it will be a smash hit in the beginning,” said Kurt Barnard, president of Barnard’s Retail Trend Report. “Whether it continues to be a smash hit remains to be seen.”
Whatever success they have probably will be enjoyed by more than just the designers and their licensees. Department stores, which have suffered at the hands of the specialty stores, are hungry to get their hands on the powerful teen dollars as well. If the big names are able to call out to those teens, the stores that carry the hot new lines will benefit along with their makers.
Ralph Lauren’s new young line, called Ralph, will be aimed at 16- to 24-year-olds when it debuts this fall, with the same classic look that has been successful in the company’s adult lines.
“We are eager to capture this market,” said a Ralph Lauren spokesperson. “It’s the fastest-growing segment of society, they’re more sophisticated than they’ve ever been, and it’s going to be one of the most prosperous generations as well.”
Tommy Hilfiger’s Tommy line, for young people 13 to 24, will arrive in stores in spring 2000, joining his already powerful lines for children and adults, which are routinely sported by hip-hop artists and other celebrities and often already copped by the younger set.
Donna Karan’s younger line, licensed by Liz Claiborne Inc., also is scheduled for next spring.
Although Liz Claiborne does not produce a juniors line under its own name, a license to produce the DKNY juniors line and the recent acquisition of Lucky Brand Dungarees Inc. and its juniors line Hot Pink gives the company a toehold in the younger market.
“It is a large and important segment of the market, and one in which we think we could make a significant impact,” said Liz Claiborne President Denise V. Seegal. “The DKNY approach to design and styling, which is consistent with the attitude of the junior consumer, coupled with its brand recognition and cachet, make it an appropriate fit.”
But time-tested designers who have toiled in juniors for years caution the top-drawer designers not to be overly optimistic.
Lauren and the like are accustomed to dictating fashion to adults who will listen to them and follow their lead, but teenagers don’t like to be told what to wear.
“Companies that do well in the juniors world adapt very quickly and have a really good pulse on the customer,” said Larry Hansel, founder and chief executive of Rampage Clothing Co., which has had its share of ups and downs and recently emerged from bankruptcy. “It doesn’t matter what the brand is if the product isn’t right. Those guys have their work cut out for them.”
Barnard and others suggest that both companies are well aware of the fickle nature of the young consumer.
And, adds Ralph Lauren, they are used to tough competition.
“Juniors isn’t any more volatile than the jeans market,” the spokesperson said. “We’ve had huge success with Polo jeans, and we only launched it two years ago.”
What’s more, each of the companies sells clothes with a classic look that has been successful for stores such as Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and Gap Inc.
“They are now beginning to look at this whole junior business as a new market and say, ‘Why should we let it go to the others?’ ” Barnard said. “It’s a smart move on the part of those companies; the probability is strong that they will be successful.”
