Ritchie Corp. is growing its Lynn Ritchie line with dresses and cotton pieces as part of a continued effort to gain more floor space and enhance brand presence.
Known for its silk novelty tops, the New York firm added dresses for summer 2006 and is launching a collection of 100 percent cotton pieces for spring 2007. This follows last year’s addition of a sportswear collection, including printed skirts, pants and jackets.
The dresses — 20 per collection — wholesale for $65 to $89.
“The concept is a sportswear-like dress with the ease of a T-shirt, in contrast with people who make dresses exclusively and have so much construction,” said Liz Weinmann, vice president of design. “Ours have no zippers or hooks. They have the philosophy of a T-shirt.”
If the dress cycle continues through next fall, dresses would warrant a division that might be a $2 million revenue stream, the firm said. This fall, dresses brought in about $1 million in wholesale.
“Dresses are new for our lady,” Weinmann said. “The last time around she wore dresses, she wore them with 4-inch heels. But she doesn’t have any in her closet anymore, so she is buying them like crazy.”
The company’s 100 percent cotton business, debuting in spring 2007, may also become a division with similar sales, she added. The printed novelty tops wholesale at $24, compared with traditional Lynn Ritchie silk pieces that start at $34. They look like contemporary pieces but with a modern fit and softer details. Instead of the skulls popular on contemporary lines, the Lynn Ritchie versions feature fleur-de-lis.
“We found that a lot of our business was going over to crossover specialty stores, where a mother and daughter shopped together,” Weinmann said. “So we call this our ‘Banger Sisters’ division. The mother would love the attitude of the tattoo placements on the contemporary pieces, but the specs and fit were totally wrong. Our shirts give that same rock ‘n’ roll vibe but are not over the edge — they are on the edge.”
The 16-year-old company, which does almost $10 million wholesale, is pushing to sell in the brick-and-mortar shops of the companies that carry the line in their catalogues, such as Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale’s. Most of the business is done through catalogue and specialty-store sales.
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“It’s really important to us that our modern woman has a place to buy our clothing,” said president and chief executive officer Lynn Ritchie. “Currently, we are limited to specialty stores and catalogues. But we should be in Bloomingdale’s and Saks and Neiman Marcus — we are in their catalogues — but they’ve restructured their departments and geared them toward contemporary, and there’s no place for our clothes anymore. For me, it’s very frustrating, and we are working really hard to get in.”