You Have a Perfume to Thank for the Return of Rochas

fashionologie — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:10:08 PDT

>> It was a surprise when Rochas reopened ready-to-wear for Fall 2009, just two years after unceremoniously closing down its fashion brand, leaving only a line of fragrances. But it turns out those fragrances, moneymakers though they are, are part of the reason the clothes are back - without the fashion, a brand runs the risk of losing relevance. "Fragrances have only a certain shelf life," says Robert Burke, an investment consultant and former Bergdorf Goodman executive, told The Wall Street Journal. "Fragrances are generally successful when they're connected to a living person."

So far, Marco Zanini's revival of the label has been well-received - Style.com's Nicole Phelps called his first collection for Fall 2009 "a promising start," and WWD ruled, "So far, so good." But now is not the best time to restart a luxury brand - Christina Binkley of The Wall Street Journal noted that while she was in the Paris showroom for an hour during Fashion Week, she spotted only one buyer looking the collection over. Ken Downing, fashion director at Neiman Marcus, says he picked up the collection, meanwhile, and named it as one of his favorites from Paris Fashion Week, because it "had great late-day and dinner dressing."

So will it succeed? »

New Rochas Will Be Nothing Like Theyskens's Rochas

fashionologie — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:27:13 PST

>> Olivier Theyskens left a shuttered Rochas with a closet full of delicate gowns in 2006, but now that the house is being resurrected under newly-appointed creative director Marco Zanini, expect anything but more of those gowns.

According to Franco Pene, president of Gibo, the brand's new licensee, the brand will be much more straightforward than in the past: "We’re not looking to generate editorial hype, because we’re thinking of a sensibly priced luxury brand that caters to the everyday needs of women. In other words, real clothes that are useful and beautiful. Zanini understands that we don’t want to be a status brand."

Pene sees the brand's forte not being in expensive red-carpet gowns like those of Theyskens, but rather in the day-to-day; Zanini was chosen for "his penchant for daywear and the fact that he will be fully dedicated to the line without having to divide his energy with a namesake collection." Come March 2009, it will be interesting to see how Zanini turns over Rochas' new leaf.
*image: source