NEW YORK — Following in a distinguished — or, at the very least, sexy — tradition of celebrity spokesmodels, multiplatinum R&B group Destiny’s Child has signed an exclusive one-year agreement with Candie’s Inc.
The trio will bring their special kind of flava to a promotional print and multimedia ad campaign for Candie’s Vintage, a retro collection of Eighties-inspired slides. Candie’s decision to align with Destiny’s Child follows the highly publicized, and controversial, fall and holiday 2000 TV commercial with “Sugar Ray” front man Mark McGrath and Jodi Lyn O’Keefe of CBS’s “Nash Bridges” showering together, which was banned from MTV because of its raunchy content.
At a news conference held Tuesday at the Candie’s showroom, Candie’s chief executive officer Neil Cole introduced the trio and the Vintage concept.
“We’re reintroducing the original Candie’s slide from 1978, which sold 14 million units in its first couple of years, because that look is coming back — especially with designer jeans,” Cole said, and then introduced Destiny’s Child, who sported the slides and black T-shirts. As it turns out, the trio are big fans of the Eighties revival.
“We were born in the Eighties, and now everything that we found in our parents’ closets is back — like Candie’s baby dolls, which are so comfortable,” lead singer Beyonce Knowles told WWD, to which a perplexed Cole remarked, “Candie’s have never been called comfortable.”
Knowles added that Destiny Child’s other plans for 2001 included “working out and taking care of ourselves as females.” The Destiny’s Child-Candie’s photo shoot is scheduled for today, with placement in entertainment and fashion magazines scheduled for April.