NEW YORK — Sean Combs’ highly anticipated women’s collection has finally arrived, with a name reflecting the more personal side of the designer: Sean by Sean Combs.
In an exclusive interview at his West Side apartment here, Combs presented the introductory Sean by Sean Combs holiday collection — affectionately coined “the appetizer” by the design team because it offers just a taste of what’s to come.
“I want to be known for a consistent collection every time I come out,” said Combs, seated on a cream suede couch in his living room overlooking Central Park. Most rooms — from the kitchen to the bedroom — boasted floor-to-ceiling windows, but Combs immediately declared the apartment “preconstruction.” To set the mood, Combs, dressed in Sean John jeans and a blazer, played music from Prince’s “Purple Rain.”
Combs said his intention was to offer a full collection to the consumer — one she could wear head-to-toe if she pleased.
“I want women to come into my world,” he said. “I want to show the diversity of this young, fun, sexy, sophisticated woman. This is the woman we aspire to have. This is the woman the Sean John man wants.”
Combs has proclaimed and then canceled his women’s line roughly three times even as his men’s wear line has continued to grow and he won the Menswear Designer of the Year award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2004. Meanwhile, several other women’s collections aimed at the “urban” customer have been launched, from Jennifer Lopez to Rachel Roy.
While Combs’ line contains some basics, every piece — from the low-cut cashmere hoodie to the cropped leather jacket — has a distinctly sexy flair. “Our foundation is sexy, but it’s not so sexy that you don’t feel comfortable wearing it,” Combs said. “We want to bring a bit of edge, but we’re not afraid to be sophisticated. Sean is for the girl who, when she leaves the house in the morning for work, may have a date after and the night might continue on so that she’s having drinks at a lounge. We have pieces that look beautiful in the morning, but as the sun goes down, the clothes start to get sexier.”
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Combs is remaining tight-lipped about upcoming advertising campaigns, but first on his agenda is introducing the collection’s name. “Only the people that are very close to me call me Sean,” he said. “Sean is different from Sean John, and men are very different from women. When I design for men, I design under the personality of Sean John. When I’m doing this line, it’s another part of my personality. It’s been very intimate and very romantic in a way because I just want to please women. The reason I kept canceling this [collection] was because I didn’t want to come out and let women down. I feel very proud about this line.”
The 150-piece holiday collection consists of three groups: Natural Born Killers, a sexy, stealthy group driven by colors such as black and cobalt; Caramel Kiss, a dreamy, flirty segment rich in cream, chocolate brown and camel shades, and Monaco, the resort collection taking its inspiration from the ocean and focusing on colors such as Mediterranean blue, tangerine, khaki and white.
The holiday line was primarily designed by Combs and Max Wilson, who resigned in April. He was succeeded by Jenny La Fata, former creative director at La Rok, who was named vice president of design for Sean John’s women’s apparel. La Fata had limited input with the holiday collection, but will design the spring line with Combs.
The collection extends from basic pieces, such as racer-back tanks and cotton blouses, to elegant outerwear pieces, including a cashmere coat with a coyote-fur collar and a reversible rabbit vest. Wholesale prices range from $62.50 to $99 for three styles of jeans (named Jezebel, Hustler and Tease); dresses that wholesale between $125 and $162.50; sweatsuits that range between $75 and $125, and outerwear that will wholesale from $97.50 for an embroidered jacket to $847.50 for a cashmere coat with coyote fur collar.
“There’s a lot of over-the-top outerwear pieces,” said Wendy Chivian, senior vice president of Sean John women’s apparel. Chivian said the collection will hang in large stores such as Bergdorf Goodman and Bloomingdale’s, as well as specialty boutiques such as Big Drop and Intermix. “We’ve been working on this for a long time,” she said. “We’ve edited it down to the true vision. We want to make sure the consumer can take any piece in any delivery and put it together.”
“Price-wise, we’re extremely competitive,” Combs said. “We’re sitting next to Diane von Furstenberg, Vince and Theory. To be honest, some of our prices are better than our counterparts. If anything, you can get a better bargain with our stuff.”
While the firm declined to give projections, the women’s line is expected to generate between $45 million and $60 million in wholesale volume in its first year.
Combs said he’ll begin a detailed and strategic marketing plan he calls “part two.” This segment will take three years and will include an ad campaign and “unique editorial stories,” he said. “When it’s launched, people will know about it, and it will have unprecedented support and will be done in a strategic, classy way.”
Licensing negotiations are under way to expand the collection to include shoes, handbags and eyewear, but Combs admitted he’s not in any rush. “I have a great reputation for taking my time and preserving my brand. I’m doing the licenses at the best time with the best licensees. We’re building this thing from the ground up,” he said.
Kal Ruttenstein, senior vice president of fashion direction at Bloomingdale’s, has previewed the collection and said he was “surprised and delighted” by the results.
“I thought it was a very strong collection,” Ruttenstein said. “I was extremely pleased with it. It’s not logo-heavy and it’s not celebrity-driven. It’s for girls who want to sparkle at night.”
The only pieces in the collection that flaunt verbiage are the “Daddy’s Rich” and “Daddy’s Girl” Ts. “The collection really doesn’t look like anything else out there,” Ruttenstein said.
Robert Burke, Bergdorf Goodman’s senior vice president of fashion office and public relations, also praised the collection. “I was happy to see that he [Combs] was focused on making it a contemporary line that was sophisticated, glamorous and sexy,” said Burke. “He certainly put a lot of thought in it and really focused on who his target customer was.”
Burke noted that Bergdorf Goodman will carry the line on its fifth floor with other contemporary brands. He was particularly fond of the jersey knit dresses and fur bomber jackets.
Sean by Sean Combs is launching as debate rages over the future growth of urban fashion in men’s wear and women’s wear. But for Combs, his new women’s line is simply another means of redefining the “urban” category.
“For people to put a designer or a person of color in a box and label him as an ‘urban designer’ is something I feel like we went through when we were doing Sean John. We turned it around and made it a positive: OK, you want to call us urban. We’ll show you what urban can do and we’ll outsell everybody and break records in all of the stores that all of the other brands are in. And we’ll do it in a short time. Period.
“I think that Sean is going to break down those barriers. I’m never going to run from who I am or what the color of my skin is, but I think when you have work that speaks for itself, it outshines the labels people try to put on you.”