NEW YORK — For Isaac Mizrahi, there’s high fashion, low fashion and now a middle ground, too.
The designer has unveiled a collection of handbags under his Isaac Isaac Mizrahi bridge label, and he said more categories soon could follow.
“It’s always hard to talk specifically about the goals of my company, but we’re building something here,” he said, sitting among the handbags in a sun-filled conference room within his studio in Chelsea here, just a day before presenting what he calls his couture and semicouture apparel collection. “It’s starting to be the world of Isaac.”
The collection of about 25 handbag silhouettes joins a footwear line that has been in existence since 1996. The Fashion House Inc. took over that license for the footwear from GFW Group in March. The shoes retail from $200 to $300 through department and specialty stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman, as well as at Zappos.com.
The handbags, which are being created under a license with the Accessory Network Group, will target similar department and specialty store distribution. Prices will range from $395 to $895. While Mizrahi declined to name what other categories could arise in the same price point, company president and chief executive officer Marisa Gardini said growing the department and specialty store business is central to the firm’s focus.
“When I was in business before, I tried to go into accessories, but we were doing it all in-house and it was such a huge job,” said Mizrahi, who shuttered his designer women’s ready-to-wear label in 1998 and has been carefully orchestrating his return step by step after first launching a women’s sportswear collection for mass retailer Target in 2003, and then the custom line that sells in Bergdorf Goodman in 2004.
“I’m always designing shoes and bags, but they take on lives based on opportunities. That’s really why there’s an opportunity now with this license. It’s been this long, slow process of finding the right partners.”
ANG signed the license to work on Isaac Isaac Mizrahi bags in May. ANG chairman and ceo Abe Chehebar said at that time he projected the line to do $1 million to $2 million in sales in its first year. While Chehebar wouldn’t provide an updated figure, the firm admitted the business is an integral part of its goals to grow ANG’s prestige division of brands, which includes the wholly owned label Ghurka as well as the license to produce accessories for Calvin Klein.
Related Articles
You May Also Like
“It is the goal of Accessory Network Group to focus on and develop its prestige brands division, and clearly Isaac Mizrahi is an ideal partner for us,” said Michele Ateyeh, who was named president of ANG’s prestige brands division this month. “First and foremost, he has a definitive point of view that he brings to the marketplace. That, coupled with his talent in delivering a real personality to each design, is a winning combination.”
The bags, which will hit stores in March for the spring selling season, focus on what Mizrahi said is missing in the marketplace right now: a combination of tailoring and soft construction.
“While we have one or two pieces that are tailored, most of the looks are amorphous with a little structure to them,” he explained. “It’s ladylike, which is the edgiest thing in the world right now.”
Bags are designed mostly from supple matte leathers or combinations of patent leathers with canvas or suedes with canvas. Silhouettes include totes, duffels, oversized satchels, purses and clutches, while colors range from neutrals such as black, chocolate brown, camel and cream to more signature hues such as fuchsia, pink and red.
Ateyeh said elevating the detailing was crucial to the designs. Upscale touches such as leather bows and flower-shaped feet are iconic to Mizrahi, while other accents, including painted edges and custom toggles, are added to distinguish the looks.
“The marketplace was considered when we developed
this line,” said Mizrahi. “But you won’t find trendy materials and designs here. I’m a classicist and I want to design
classic things.”
Mizrahi said he considers accessories to be the motor driving fashion right now and it has even changed his approach to designing clothing.
“In order to make yourself fashionable right now, the first things you think about are your bag, your shoes, your hairstyle,” said Mizrahi. “Then everything else looks contemporary if you have that right. And what I’m finding is that clothes are more and more like accessories every day. No longer do you do groups of meaningless clothes that work together. Each piece has to feel like it can stand on its own before you can even consider how it works within a wardrobe.”