Women's Wear Daily (April 10th 2006)

Act II: Schifter and Stefani, together again

Tim Schifter has a new business partner, and she's not your classic boardroom dweller.

Schifter's new accessories company, Schifter & Partners, launches today with the help of co-shareholder Gwen Stefani, the platinum blonde celebrity of fashion, music and film.

Schifter is building on his track record at New York's LeSportsac: He transformed the functional nylon bag company founded by his parents in 1974 into a youth-friendly fashion brand enhanced by collaborations with style mavens such as Stefani.

Beginning in 2003, LeSportsac issued three collections with Stefani's contemporary label, L.A.M.B., that generated about a third of LeSportsac's more than $100 million in annual wholesale sales. In November, LeSportsac was sold to New York's Accessory Network Group and Japan's Itochu Corp., reportedly for more than $100 million.

At his new venture, which will be based in Manhattan's Flatiron District, the 47-year-old Schifter is reuniting with Stefani, who will help design cosmetic cases, messenger bags, totes, wallets, iPod cases and other accessories for L.A.M.B. and Harajuku Lovers, her lower-priced label that is heavily influenced by Tokyo streetwear and by her music.

Schifter is taking the unusual step of giving Stefani equity in his company. Declining to disclose exactly how much Stefani owns, Schifter said she is "a significant minority partner"; he is the majority shareholder.

Another thing different about Schifter's new company is that rather than focusing on one brand and working on temporary collaborations with labels such as L.A.M.B., Schifter aims to cultivate multiple brands focusing on the contemporary market and youth customers. In addition to L.A.M.B. and Harajuku Lovers, Schifter's portfolio includes Jill Stuart, the 13-year-old contemporary brand designed by the New York designer of the same name.

Schifter & Partners will show some 20 styles from Harajuku Lovers this fall, and follow with about 24 styles from L.A.M.B. and an undetermined number of offerings from Jill Stuart next spring. Retail prices will run $20 to $100 for Harajuku Lovers, $50 to $750 for L.A.M.B. and $125 to $500 for Jill Stuart. A fourth brand - Schifter is considering several candidates - will launch in the fourth quarter of 2007.

"The idea is to transform the handbags and accessories departments of department stores and specialty stores from older and more mature brands into a new generation of brands that truly resonates with the new, young consumer," said Schifter, leaning forward in a wing chair in a Chateau Marmont hotel suite during a visit here last week to hold design meetings with the seven-month-pregnant Stefani. "We really want to think outside of the box with this business."

Schifter's move beyond the conventional parameters of the accessories industry underscores the powerful allure that celebrities have in fashion, how far companies will go to maintain exclusivity with hot brands and the tectonic shifts jolting the apparel and retail industries in a global market increasingly dominated by technology-savvy youths who insist on "fast fashion."

Stefani could have granted licenses to the highest bidder who wanted to manufacture accessories for L.A.M.B. and Harajuku Lovers. But having had a taste of creative and commercial success with LeSportsac, she wanted more.

"One season [at LeSportsac] had turned into three, and by the end, we were really starting to get somewhere creatively, but there was only so much you can do being branded with another brand," said Stefani, from the living room of her home in L.A.'s artsy Los Feliz neighborhood in late March.

"After you get the hang of it, you want to go outside the box, and when Tim came to me later and said he was planning to start a new thing, it just came together. It's interesting to be on both sides of the fence because I have yet to have that experience with any of my projects."

While Stefani said she won't be "super involved" on the business side because it's not her passion and she doesn't have the experience, she looks forward to seeing how it develops. "The more experience I get, maybe the more influence I will have," Stefanisaid.

Stuart, who doesn't own equity in Schifter's company but is assigning him the accessories license, said she and Schifter had flirted with the idea of working together on a multibrand accessories company for some time. On her own, Stuart scored hits with suede hobo bags, leather and silver chokers, and other items in her accessories line. "However, until now, it was orphan to the demands of the numerous [ready-to-wear] lines, kids, footwear, cosmetics and fragrance, and the opening of Jill Stuart [boutiques] in Asia, the Middle East, Spain, Russia, Korea and the U.S.," Stuart wrote in an e-mail sent from Tokyo, where she was on a business trip. "Now, with Tim and our mutual passion, we intend to take the category to a new level."

In addition to targeting department stores and boutiques where L.A.M.B.'s and the other brands' apparel already is sold, Schifter plans to expand retail distribution to duty-free shops on international travel routes, shops in Japan and Hong Kong, and the Internet.

Bolstering Schifter & Partners' ambitious plans is a third - and silent - partner: a large Asian fashion group that has extensive sourcing and distribution capabilities that would make Schifter's company a semivertical operation and facilitate global retail expansion in the second half of 2007, according to industry sources. Schifter declined to comment on the third partner or disclose financial projections for his privately held company.

Familiar faces from LeSportsac have joined Schifter's new company, where he is chairman and chief executive officer.

Michael Shapiro, LeSportsac's former chief financial officer, is operations chief; Steven Kane, who was LeSportsac's national sales manager before working at Roots Canada Ltd. and Levi Strauss & Co., is vice president of sales, and Elle Kilpatrick retains the title she had at LeSportsac, vice president of design and product development.

Schifter's wife, Helen, who is a former fashion editor and a frequenter of runway shows, will consult on the development of brands, particularly in the designer arena, for belts, hosiery, jewelry and other categories. Schifter said in the first year, his company will employ 15 full-time people, three of whom will work with Kilpatrick on design.

Schifter has no plans to open freestanding stores. He will update and expand Harajuku Lovers' Web site and initiate an online marketing campaign. "The [Harajuku Lovers] consumer is glued to the Web, providing us with great opportunities to build brand awareness," he said, adding that a L.A.M.B. Web site will launch later this year. Schifter said in the second year, he will launch advertising campaigns for L.A.M.B., Harajuku Lovers and Jill Stuart in fashion magazines targeted at each accessories brand's consumers.

Schifter also is searching for brands that appeal to young consumers and have the cachet to succeed in overseas markets. Additional labels might be obtained through licenses, produced as ventures with other companies or acquired if they are "small accessories companies that Gwen and I think have the DNA for growth," Schifter said, noting that Stefani is the perfect partner for cool-hunting: "She has great personal style and an intuitive sense of what's next."

Stefani is modest, crediting Schifter with all the fashion know-how. "Ideas just come," Stefani said. "Designing for me is the easy, fun, passionate part, whereas music is the really hard part. But one really inspires the other."

The inaugural collection of Harajuku Lovers is made entirely of prewashed canvas to suit the budgets and practical needs of Stefani's core fan base, ranging from tweens to twentysomethings. The first collection, inspired by Stefani's songs, includes the themes "Bubble Pop Electric" and "Love Camo." One rectangular shoulder tote from the group, named "Super Frank Rainbow" and featuring every color from a bag of Jolly Rancher candies, uses jacquard-print seat belt webbing for straps. The nylon lining of a messenger bag is printed in a black-and-white pattern imitating ermine, a nod to Stefani's fondness for Hollywood's fur-swathed glamour queens. To meet shoppers' demand for fast fashion, new prints will be delivered every eight weeks.

"The idea is a complete wardrobe of all aspects of Gwen's life and a woman's life," Schifter said.

Don't count on seeing diaper bags and other accoutrements to accommodate Stefani's impending motherhood. Schifter said Stefanihas already chosen the roomy camouflage-print messenger bag from the Harajuku Lovers line as her baby bag.

Stefani describes the L.A.M.B. bags as primarily leather, with some printed fabric pieces with leather trim. "What we're working on now is creating a signature, something that will roll over every season. The hardest thing is deciding on a logo or zipper pull. It's those simplest things that will be there forever," Stefani said.

Gwen on Gwen

She's the consummate multitasker: Grammy-winning front woman of No Doubt, multiplatinum solo artist, designer of two clothing and accessories lines, wife of rocker Gavin Rossdale and, in less than two months, mother of their first child. Last week, at home in her 1923 Spanish-style home in Los Feliz, Calif., Gwen Stefani still looked the part, wearing maternity jeans, a vintage sweater dress belted above her bump and Rasta-hued Christian Louboutin espadrilles. In her first sit-down interview since announcing her pregnancy, Stefani opened up about her music, her fashion career, her body and her great expectations.

WWD: You seem happy to be hanging out at home.

Gwen Stefani: I love this place so much. I've been here since about 1998, right after the "Tragic Kingdom" album. I moved out of my parents' house into this, and I finally got my studio done. But obviously, we're probably going to have to move once I have the baby. My husband wants to write songs, and there's no more room. He can't have a studio next to the baby's room. This house is really great for singing in if you're the only person in it.

WWD: How are you feeling today?

G.S.: Right now I'm sort of in lazy mode. I'm obsessed with watching TV and eating [laughs]. But seriously, this is great. It's the first time I've had to just focus on designing since I've kind of put the music on hold, and it's been really fun. Everyone comes to the house and we sit here in the living room and have cookies and design. It feels good to not be double dipping the whole time, because when you are performing, touring and doing appearances, it's hard to balance both. It takes a lot of energy. The week before, I worked on L.A.M.B. spring 2007 three full days straight and we rolled into Harajuku Lovers that Thursday. After a certain point, it gets hard to see straight.

WWD: Compare Harajuku Lovers and L.A.M.B.

G.S.: There's nothing to be compared about the two, but at the same time, it's a challenge for them not to copy each other, because they're both me. L.A.M.B.'s my serious art project and my passion, and Harajuku Lovers is part of a bigger picture. With music, you do the actual songs, the videos, the artwork, the Web site and now you can do clothes to go with it. So that's all one big creative pile.

WWD: Describe the creative process behind L.A.M.B.

G.S.: I used to get really bummed about having to drop something, or if things didn't work out. Now I just realize it's going to come, and if I don't get to it in one collection, I can do it in the next. It's not as hard as music because the ideas just seem to come. With [fall 2006], for instance, a girlfriend of mine wore this dress when we were in Lake Como doing the video for "Cool" and it became one of the inspirations, a total 1950s, Marilyn Monroe-on-the-beach thing. It was very specific, whereas [spring 2007] is a little broader, but it definitely has a theme. I don't want to give it away, but we just did the sketches and it's going really well.

WWD: What do you love most about designing?

G.S.: It's not the outcome or the product. At the end of the day, it's the actual process that I enjoy and it's also the potential with everything. It's the same with songwriting. I never listen to the record, but I listen to the demos an embarrassing amount of times because it's the potential of what the song could be or what a bag could be.

WWD: What do bags mean to you?

G.S.: I never carried a bag until I did the LeSportsac line. I just always felt like it was too much of a fiddly, girly thing. I've been in a band for 20 years with all guys. I had a backpack, you know? Now I feel like I never will have enough bags because when I leave the house, [paparazzi] always take pictures, and if I wear a bag like two or three times, they are like, 'Whoa, she's wearing the same bag!' But so does everyone else.

WWD: What is it like to see girls and women wearing your products?

G.S.: At first I was really uncomfortable putting it out there, but the reaction was so warm. It's not quite as emotional [as music], but when you find something that's your thing I've seen people own those bags like they made them, walking across the street like it defines who they are. And that's where it started.

WWD: Even after seven L.A.M.B. collections, do you ever feel like a fashion novice?

G.S.: I didn't go to school for this, but making clothes is something I've done my whole life, so it's not new to me - but at this level, of course, it's brand new. I don't know anything, but I enjoy that and the whole vibe of the fashion world, even though I don't know the rules. I'm just making my thing and hope that people enjoy it and appreciate the stage I'm at. You can't expect it to be anything more than it is.

WWD: What's next, design-wise?

G.S.: With L.A.M.B., I definitely want to focus on the bags, but I'm still doing the tennis shoes. I also convinced the tennis shoe guys to make boots, and now we are doing stilettos. I'm also doing watches. You can imagine the amount of artwork and e-mails that I have to approve, so I don't really want to take on too much. But I want to do lingerie and makeup at some point. I want to do everything, eventually.

WWD: What about baby clothes?

G.S.: It's easy to downsize for kids and babies in Harajuku Lovers, but apart from that, I'm not going there. But we are doing some L.A.M.B. baby tennis shoes, little gold ones. You wouldn't believe it. They are so cute. They are ridiculous.

WWD: How are you dealing with your ever-changing shape?

G.S.: I'm sick of maternity clothes, but people are really sweet. No matter how big I feel, they say, 'Well, you look cute.' My body's changing every week. I've gained eight pounds in the last month alone, but it's all going to be worth it. And my husband has really made me some great meals and I've been eating whatever I want, trying to enjoy the moment. There's only one time it happens for the first time.

WWD: Is it hard for someone as active as you to see yourself gain weight and slow down when all you want to do is jump around?

G.S.: Well, I'm looking forward to my [post-pregnancy] diet. And then I'm going to train. But I have been working out. That's the one thing I've been strict about, three days a week with a trainer. You should have seen me try to work out this morning. Oh, my God, it's getting so hard. I do those stairs up there [pointing to the terraced steps behind her house].

WWD: What's next, music-wise?

G.S.: I have some songs that are left over from my last record, and I wrote four new songs as I was finishing it. One of them is called "Orange County Girl," which is one of my favorite songs ever. It's really close to being done, but as time goes by, I might have to write some new ones to freshen it up. I went in the studio and I've been trying to write, but it just hasn't come, so I've finally gotten to a place of guilt-free relaxation. I will try again, but now is obviously not the right time. But I want to put that record out. It would be a waste not to.

WWD: What about No Doubt?

G.S.: I'm going to go back in the studio with the band to try and see what we can do together, which is going to be a huge, weird reunion. We don't know if we go back what kind of music we'll write, if we can write. We just don't know. And then, being a mom I don't know what's that's going to be like.

WWD: It seems like a very transitional time for you.

G.S.: Yes, everything is new for me right now. It's a weird crossroads, the beginning of a lot, the closure of a lot. This is all about nesting and getting inspired. But [making a downward whooshing motion above her belly] I know one thing is coming out for sure!