Style Expose Blog
Archives
| July 2010
| June 2010
| May 2010
| April 2010
| March 2010
| February 2010
| January 2010
| December 2009
| November 2009
| October 2009
| September 2009
| August 2009
| July 2009
| June 2009
| May 2009
| April 2009
| March 2009
| February 2009
| January 2009
| December 2008
| November 2008
| October 2008
| September 2008
7/8/2010
Fashionista talks about Emerging Designer Investment
Designers ask us weekly where they can find early stage investment, aside from their friends and family. Chicago is full of angel and venture capital but many investors are weary of investing in fashion brands because of the nature of trends- they don't last. Fashionista.com wrote about 10 investors today who have been known to invest in early stage fashion companies. Those investors and Fashionista's insights are written below:1. Andrew Rosen: The Theory founder and CEO is also an investor in Alice & Olivia, Rag & Bone, and Helmut Lang. He invests publicly and privately in brands.
2. Marvin Traub, Marvin Traub Associates
While Traub, best known for his years at Bloomingdale's, mostly consults for big companies, he is also a partial investor in brands like Rachel Roy and Matthew Williamson. (Sources say that at this moment, Traub is not looking to invest in more labels. But who knows what 2011 will bring.)
3. Sage LLC: This Los Angeles-based private equity firm invests in small to mid-market labels. (Since this is L.A., that means lots of denim.) These are the people you reach out to when you've built a successful business and want to take it a step further.
4. Caroline Brown and Chris Burch, J Christopher Capital: This private equity firm is currently invested in Tory Burch, as well as non-fashion brands like Jawbone.
5. Ramez Toubassy, Brand Sense Partners: This firm mostly does brand consulting for big corporations, but it recently invested in a few fashion and lifestyle companies, including label Canvas and Tribe.
6. Serge Azria: Azria backs trouser label Joie; more recently he has invested in the relaunched Equipment (shown on Carine, left), as well as Current Elliott.
7. Jeffrey Aronsson, Aronsson Group: In the past, former Donna Karan CEO Aronsson has invested in Ginny H.—Ginny Hilfiger's collection. (She's the sister of Tommy Hilfiger.) He also partnered with Traub to invest in Matthew Williamson and Rachel Roy.
8. Seventh Capital: This New York-based investment firm's main focus is small and mid-sized companies. The interest is in e-commerce, so if you're not a designer but have an idea for an online retailer, or if you sell your goods primarily on the web, it might be worth looking into.
9. Permira: This London-based private equity firm picked up the Valentino Fashion Group a few years ago, along with Proenza Schouler, but have had difficulty selling off both.
10. Bartel Family: This European family made its fortune off of a travel website, but now it's making loftier investments. First up? Lanvin and Devi Kroell. Who's next? Who knows….
So what do you say Chicago fashion designers, are you picking up the phone to call an investor?
