“Awaiting better conditions” the French luxury giant, LVMH, announce they are to suspend all ready-to-wear activity of the Fenty brand launched with singer, Rihanna.
Its launch in May 2019 caused a sensation being the first fashion brand to be created within the global fashion group since Christian Lacroix in 1987. Eighteen months later LVMH and Rihanna have announced they would be “suspending” the label adding the fate of other lines, including Fenty beauty and lingerie were not in question. The luxury giant and world-famous singer confirmed they would “reaffirm their partnership and focus on the long-term growth and development of the Fenty ecosystem, including beauty, care and lingerie.”
Since her rise to fame and fortune in the 2000s, the American super star has only ever known bigger global successes one after the other. The launch of “Fenty Beauty” was valued at several million euros in just a few weeks. Meanwhile the three sibling brands created by the star – Fenty Beauty then Fenty Skin launched in September 2020, and Savage X Fenty – remain “very strong”, says a LVMH spokesperson.
Why is it that only the ready-to-wear part (clothing, glasses and shoes) never really took off?
Sold exclusively online and made in Italy with frequent updates to collections, every two or three months, according to LVMH, “some worked very well, especially glasses, limited edition shoes co-signed with Amina Muaddi and items in Jean’s.”
The spokesperson states, “ready-to-wear activity has suffered as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic…the collections did not communicate sufficiently with the general public.”
Who apart from Rihanna wore the clothes? Not many people. The Fenty brand also did not have a ‘hero’ product which is a ‘must-have’ or call to purchase for this kind of fashion line. With regard to price, the brand had a rather strange positioning strategy with prices being between 100 and 1000 euros. This positioning was clearly devised to be an intermediary to other big names of the LVHM stable. After being launched in pop-up stores (pop-up stores) in the New York luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman, and in Paris Galeries Lafayette on the Champs-Elysées and Selfridges in London, the brand has seen its exposure reduced by the closure of department stores where promotional events were planned.
As we wait for improved conditions, we are putting this operation on hold without stopping plans for the future, said the spokesperson, adding that LVMH is in talks with twenty staff employed at Fenty’s Paris headquarters “to study all possibilities of internal or external redeployment.”
Perhaps the shutdown shows us that being a star is not enough. To be a fashion success means having and surrounding yourself with the right talents at the right time.