LOS ANGELES — Mischa Barton is to be announced today as the new face of sexy contemporary brand Bebe, rounding out company founder Manny Mashouf’s dream team assembled to boost the label’s profile on the red carpet and the runway.
Steven Klein has signed to photograph the yearlong campaign featuring the 19-year-old star of the Fox Television hit “The O.C.” Barton and Klein arrive as Mashouf has enlisted designers David Cardona and Arianne Phillips to create a capsule collection more directional than the publicly traded brand’s current offerings, which are expected to bring in close to $600 million for fiscal year 2006.
Barton is “smart, she has a lot of class and she’s very much in charge of her life,” Mashouf said on Tuesday. “She’s beautiful, too. She personifies the Bebe woman.”
In addition to print and billboard ads, the one-year contract provides for a TV commercial slated for fall and for Barton to appear at three red-carpet events wearing Bebe. Terms of the Barton deal were not disclosed.
Cardona is the Richard Tyler-trained designer who had stints at Cerruti and Development, along with his own signature collection. Phillips was nominated last week for an Academy Award in costume design for “Walk the Line” and is known for her editorial work and as the longtime stylist for Madonna.
Mashouf’s mandate to them: No limits, no need to consider the average consumer, he said, adding: “It’s not based on retailability.
“This has been a dream of mine for many, many years,” Mashouf said of his wish for the company he founded in San Francisco in 1976. “I’ve wanted to do a collection that wasn’t influenced by the runways or the design gods. Its purpose is to show the world that Bebe is a brand that can match its talent and creativity along the same level as the big designers.”
Bebe will drop the curtain on its new line March 22 at a location near Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Los Angeles at Smashbox Studios. In addition to her collaborative part with Cardona, Phillips is styling the presentation of about 40 to 45 looks.
“It’s a very unique situation,” Phillips said. “We are creating something that will inspire and elevate the brand. We only have to make one of everything. We don’t have to worry about production. That’s amazing. It’s an adjustment for David. But for me, it’s like working on a movie.”
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The pace is even faster. Since arriving at Bebe’s 50,000-square-foot design studios in Century City, Calif., on Jan. 3, Cardona and Phillips have been secretly at work coming up with red-carpet-worthy gowns and looks befitting a runway’s excitement, along with handbags, the widest of belts and the highest of heels.
For direction, they tapped the sophisticated sexiness defined by Thierry Mugler, Azzedine Alaïa and YSL Rive Gauche. A few preliminary samples, fabric swatches and Cardona-penciled sketches reveal a pumped-up rendition of the chic, hot Bebe girl in regal purples, oxblood red and silver grays.
They also show Cardona’s signature hand: oversized fur collars on waist-length jackets; multiple panels and seams on sexy, tailored separates, and restraining strap details.
“Manny told us not to be overly concerned with whether it is commercial. Like the tulip skirt,” Cardona said, pointing to a sketch. “It doesn’t work on all bodies. But on a supergiant [model] or starlet, it will.”
That said, Mashouf revealed some of the more directional looks might pop up in a handful of Bebe’s 228 doors, including the Rodeo Drive flagship, which opened last November. There, celebrities can be fitted in a gown or other look from the special collection.
As the new Bebe face, Barton will appear in ads featuring both the main line and the new collection.
Klein joins a prestigious line of photographers who have shot Bebe’s campaigns, including Matthew Rolston and Ellen von Unwerth.
Phillips, who has collaborated with Klein, said the lensman “was the first person I thought of because both personality- and sensibility-wise, Steven and Manny could be great together. Manny’s not afraid. He has this wonderful mix of practicality because he understands his customers. But also he has this visionary bravery to take his customer somewhere.”
Bebe is no stranger to Hollywood. Its micromini suits defined Heather Locklear’s character on “Melrose Place” and Calista Flockhart’s on “Ally McBeal.” Most recently, Eva Longoria has appeared in Bebe’s saucy separates on “Desperate Housewives.”
And then-models Charlize Theron and Jamie King posed in campaigns before their acting careers took off, while Rose McGowan appeared in ads in the late Nineties.
The announcements come as Bebe Stores Inc. reported earnings of $25 million for the three months ending Dec. 31, up from $24.3 million in the year-ago period. Bebe Stores Inc. splits its 303 corporate employees between here and its original headquarters in Brisbane, outside of San Francisco. More than 90 percent of Bebe merchandise is designed in-house. The company plans to open 35 stores in fiscal 2006.