After launching a fragrance in the fall of 2012, Isaac Mizrahi is gearing up to complete the beauty trifecta with a color and skin-care line called True Isaac Mizrahi.
The 144-stockkeeping-unit collection will officially launch Feb. 9 on the designer’s twice-weekly show on QVC — he appears on Mondays from 10 to 11 p.m. EST and Fridays from 1 to 2 p.m. EST each week — along with simultaneous launches on Mizrahi’s isaacmizrahi.com and indie retailer Beauty Brands. At full rollout, it will be in about 150 doors.
Mizrahi calls the line, which contains an extensive array of lip, eye and face products, as well as tools and skin-care items, “a color accessory.”
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“My color sense has always been my calling card,” Mizrahi told WWD, who decided to make a big splash with the collection. “We’re not dipping a toe in the water, we’re jumping in the lake. And one of my goals as a designer has always been to get my customer to look in the mirror the right way. I don’t want her to buy this because it’s a big fantasy, but because she will look in the mirror and think she looks good.” The skin-care products, which are infused with a proprietary blend of CoQ10, green and white teas, Vitamins A and E and marine algae, are intended to prep the perfect canvas for the makeup, he noted.
There’s a reason many designers don’t head into color cosmetics — it tends to be unprofitable, given the necessity to have a wide range of sku’s. Of course, Mizrahi’s never been afraid to challenge the status quo. After shuttering his high-end apparel business in 1997, he teamed with Target in 2002 to create a women’s apparel line, becoming one of the first designers to do so. The successful line — said to have done $300 million at retail over its six-year tenure — was produced until 2008. Mizrahi teamed up with QVC in 2010 to launch “Isaac Mizrahi Live!,” an on-air show creating and promoting a number of products. In 2011, Mizrahi sold his business for $31.5 million to Xcel Brands, which continued the partnerships with QVC, launched an e-commerce site and several licensed businesses, including the designer’s first scent, in 2012. Mizrahi remains as creative director for Xcel Brands. Xcel gave existing beauty company True Cosmetics the license to develop, manufacture and distribute skin care and cosmetics under the True Isaac Mizrahi label. The reason? “Their beauty product knowledge combined with our marketing reach,” said Robert W. D’Loren, Xcel’s chairman and chief executive officer.
Mizrahi is anxious to take the line live on QVC, adding that the “immediacy” of QVC holds great appeal. “There’s no hiding at QVC,” he said. “You get immediate feedback. I also feel like the entertainment factor of shopping works so well on QVC.”
Mizrahi’s favorites are the lipsticks and nail polishes. “Lipstick is everything to me,” he said. As he was one of the godfathers of the high/low shopping gambit, Mizrahi insisted upon “accessible” prices, and sku’s range between $10 and $68. “I think it’s beautiful to offer something [my consumer] can actually afford,” he said.
While all involved declined to comment on projected sales, industry sources estimated that the True Isaac Mizrahi lineup could do $3 million to $5 million at retail in its first year on counter.
In fact, Mizrahi’s got grand plans for the line. “The hardest part about putting this line together was editing it down,” he said. “We had about 150 things we had to cut in the line. I’d love to see the line tripled in both size and reach at this time next year.”