The Nine Lives of Proenza Schouler

Odds of success are stacked toward brands with hybrid business models. These hybrid models mix luxury strategy (investing in desirability, scarcity, status-signaling) and fast retail (trend, availability, price) in a way that capitalizes on the strengths of both.

To save these brands is to break them up and turn them into portfolios of smaller and independent sub-brands. In this scenario, a mass fashion brand can become a house of brands, a brand family, or an endorsing brand. E.g. instead of J.Crew, there is the House of J.Crew. Its portfolio is a selection of a number of smaller, independent sub-brands. T... See more