Rihanna and LVMH suspend fashion house Fenty – WWD

Rihanna’s brief foray into luxury fashion with LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton has been cut short, WWD has learned.

The music star and the French luxury giant have agreed to suspend the Fenty house, less than two years after the launch.

The brand stopped posting on its Instagram on January 1, and the last collection drop on Fenty.com was in November 2020: studded shoes in collaboration with one of Rihanna’s favorite shoe designers, Amina Muaddi. . It is understood that the ecommerce site – the primary distribution channel for Fenty modes – will go dark in the coming weeks.

LVMH confirmed the development exclusively to WWD via a brief statement saying: “Rihanna and LVMH have jointly made the decision to suspend the RTW business, based in Europe, pending better terms.

According to sources, a skeleton staff remain at the Paris headquarters of Fenty Fashions to shut down the remaining operations.

Meanwhile, testifying to its strong belief in Rihanna and its growing Fenty product universe, LVMH now plans to focus on Fenty Beauty and Fenty Skin – and get involved in its successful lingerie business.

WWD has also learned that private equity giant L Catterton, in which LVMH has a stake, has led a $ 115 million Series B fundraiser to support the upcoming retail expansion of Savage x Fenty. , Rihanna’s best-selling lingerie collection that was launched in 2018 with the California-based TechStyle Fashion Group.

The fundraising also attracted significant participation from existing investors such as Marcy Venture Partners and Avenir, as well as a number of new investors including Sunley House Capital, Advent International’s cross-fund.

“Following a fundraising in which L Catterton took a stake in Savage X Fenty, LVMH and Rihanna reaffirm their ambition to focus on the growth and long-term development of the Fenty-focused ecosystem. on cosmetics, skin care and lingerie, ”LVMH and Rihanna added in a statement to WWD.

Late last year, Rihanna was looking for investors to develop Savage X Fenty in sportswear, leading a selective process with Goldman Sachs.

Rihanna is said to be “sad” about having to put her Fenty fashion house on ice.

The fashion start-up grappled with the coronavirus crisis, which kept the megastar on the ground in Los Angeles, allowing it to work with Fenty Beauty and the launch last July of Fenty Skin, both based in California , but far from design and development teams in Paris and production sites in Italy. Of the practical kind, Rihanna was known to jump on a plane to visit major fabric suppliers and learn about clothing production.

It is understood that Rihanna and LVMH have finally decided to “prioritize” and focus on the high-flying US ecosystem of Fenty, sources describe the launch of Fenty Skin as a “home run.” It is also said that they have other projects in the works.

Market sources estimate that Fenty Skin made $ 30 million in revenue in less than four months from its online store. The brand made its debut in Sephora stores this month and is also available at Harvey Nichols and Boots in the UK.

Fashion house Fenty is said to have enjoyed encouraging sales of eyewear, shoes and denim, and found first traction in department stores. But the challenges of creating eight ready-to-wear collections a year and running a start-up remotely have proven to be too onerous.

Fenty fashion’s Instagram account had 1 million followers compared to 3.9 million for Savage x Fenty by Rihanna and 10.5 million for Fenty Beauty by Rihanna. Fenty Skin’s Instagram platform has 800,000 followers in the north.

WWD announced in January 2019 that Rihanna, already a color cosmetics prodigy in partnership with LVMH, would enter the fashion arena with her own brand after a stint as artistic director of Puma.

Officially announced in May of that year, LVMH said that the Fenty house would be “Rihanna-centric, developed by her, and taking shape with her vision in terms of rtw, footwear and accessories, including marketing and brand communication.

It was the first time that LVMH – whose focus is on modernizing legacy brands such as Dior, Louis Vuitton, Givenchy and Bulgari – had launched a fashion brand from scratch since setting up a fashion house for Christian Lacroix in 1987.

The project was also unusually low-key for a group known for their lavish fashion shows and flashy advertising campaigns. While there were pop-up events at big name stores such as Bergdorf Goodman and Galeries Lafayette Champs-Élysées, product launches were low-key deals advertised on Fenty fashion’s website and on social media.

Last fall, LVMH brought in a new chief executive who seemed ready to change the positioning of Rihanna’s luxury house. Bastien Renard, who worked for 19 years at Nike in Europe and in the United States, took over from Véronique Gebel, longtime Louis Vuitton executive in its ready-to-wear department mobilized for the launch. It is understood that Renard is managing the liquidation and will take on a new assignment within LVMH.

LVMH had hinted that things were less than rosy at Fenty when publishing the third quarter last October.

“On Fenty Fashion we are obviously still in a launch phase and we need to determine exactly what the right offer is. It is not an easy thing. We were starting entirely from zero, ”said CFO Jean-Jacques Guiony at the time. “Obviously we’ve got Rihanna’s big help on this, but I’d say it’s still a work in progress when it comes to really defining what the offering will be. We have successes, we have things that have not worked as well, so we have to sort between the two and really decide what should be the main supply forces in the years to come.

Rihanna Robyn Fenty holds the titles of Founder, CEO and Artistic Director of Fenty. Jean Baptiste Voisin, chief strategy officer at LVMH, oversaw the launch of the luxury fashion house, whose current offering includes $ 300 to $ 900 hoodies of gladiator sandals.

Most of Rihanna’s fashions, sold primarily online on Fenty.com via See Now Drops, have tended more towards the dressy, creative end of the spectrum.

It is understood that LVMH and Rihanna have not ruled out embarking on a second run at a luxury house in the future, encouraged by the fact that it has been able to attract loyal customers, mainly professional and wealthy women who buy other luxury goods. brands.

Rihanna has shown serious fashion interest and influence – along with formidable design chops and keen instincts – with her three-year stint as Creative Director of Puma, energizing the German sportswear brand with her project. Fenty by Puma, and following with successful forays into beauty and lingerie – the first with LVMH controlled Kendo.

Kendo, which functions as an incubator making products that end up being retailed by LVMH’s Sephora perfume chain and other outposts, signed with Rihanna in 2016. Its Fenty Beauty products have recorded sales north of $ 100 million in a matter of weeks, and have been hailed as a transformative brand.

Rihanna’s closeness to LVMH dates back to at least 2015. After attending catwalks for Christian Dior, one of Arnault’s most prized fashion properties, she appeared in “Secret Garden IV”, a campaign and short footage shot by Steven Klein in Versailles. She wore Dior sunglasses, carrying the brand’s bags and wearing looks from the Esprit Dior collection.

A year later, she created a range of futuristic sunglasses in collaboration with Dior as part of its brand embassy.

Rihanna’s talent and beauty have made her the favorite of fashion designers around the world. The Barbados native has previously modeled for Gucci, Emporio Armani and Balmain.

She made her design debut in 2013 with British label River Island, creating a collection of clothing and accessories.

See also:

Fenty recruits new CEO

Rihanna talks about Savage x Fenty Fall 2020 collection

How Rihanna built her fashion and beauty empire

WATCH: Inside Rihanna’s fashion career