Dive Brief:
-
Target and Clique Media Group have announced a partnership that, unlike Target’s many limited-edition designer lines, will be ongoing, with four seasonal collections a year. The line will be launched under one of Clique's best known blogs, Who What Wear.
-
Clique, a media company that also includes Byrdie.com and MyDomaine.com, is developing merchandise for the first time, although it has long had an interest in and a track record in converting sales for retailers.
-
Clique recently garnered $8 million in a Series B funding round, including investment from Amazon.
Dive Insight:
Target is returning to its innovative roots with this move. The mass-market retailer was one of the first to partner with high-fashion designers, a practice that has become standard for many apparel and fast-fashion retailers. After faltering and losing customers, this partnership with Clique media brings back that fashion innovation, this time with a company comfortable with the blurred lines of content and commerce.
It’s also an opportunity for the retailer to offer a consistent line of fashion-forward merchandise, rather than the here-today-gone-tomorrow effect of its designer lines. The retailer will have to keep a close eye on the kind of reselling that has many people flocking to stores and emptying racks in order to sell items through eBay and other marketplaces.
“We’re operating at the intersection of fashion, media and e-commerce,” Katherine Power, co-founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based Clique Media Group, told Business of Fashion. “We’ve wanted to do a line at Target probably since we started the company in 2006.”
The collections will include more than 20 categories, including denim, party dresses, and accessories; plus-sizes will be sold only online.
