Industry News

Rowley designs 40-piece surf-inspired collection

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 20 November, 2009 : - - In October, Roxy announced a three-year partnership with New York–based fashion designer (and avid surfer) Cynthia Rowley. Rowley, whose high-end designs sell in upscale retailers and her own stores, designed a 40-piece surf-inspired collection for the Huntington Beach, Calif.–based girls’ line—and in doing so helped open the door for Roxy’s next level of reinvention.

Randy Hild, Roxy’s executive vice president of marketing, said the collaboration with Rowley marks Roxy’s first foray into an upscale distribution channel and is indicative of the brand’s future direction, certainly in styling if not in price point. “Roxy is becoming a little more fashion-forward. Having our product in Barneys helps us introduce a new customer to the Roxy brand,” he said.

Roxy, which was launched by the surf giant Quiksilver in 1990, is a $400 million lifestyle brand that until recently had focused on beach-loving girls ages 7 to 19.

Now, in addition to the Rowley collaboration, Roxy is making a subtle but important shift in its image going forward thanks to a new head designer. Summer Rapp, the designer responsible for the Quiksilver Women’s line, which has earned kudos amongst contemporary retailers and fashion press alike, has taken over the design for Roxy as well. Rapp, a former assistant at Roxy years ago, has a great understanding of the Roxy customer, Hild said. “So we put her in charge of both brands.”

With Rapp onboard, Roxy retailers can expect more fashion-forward pieces with contemporary styling as early as the Summer 2010 season. The impetus for the move is spurred by the Roxy customer herself, Hild said.

“Our audience is still that 17- to 19-year-old girl, but that girl’s awareness of fashion has changed in the last five years,” he said, thanks to a fast and furious flow of information courtesy of blogs and online tastemakers. In earlier years, girls relied on more-static sources for fashion information, such as teen magazines and television.

Speaking at a recent event, Iris Yen, Roxy’s director of communications and public relations, said a key directive of the brand in 2010 will be focusing on reaching out to the fashion industry’s latest tastemakers—bloggers. Roxy’s fashion, in turn, will reflect some of the fashion trends blazing through cyberspace. “We want to be more fashion relevant. It’s definitely a conscious effort,” Hild said.

Read the full article at Apparel News.net

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Source: Apparel News

Industry - Surfersvillage