Comments on: Escada | In private equity’s crosshairs?

By: Caricouture

Caricouture — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:46:21 +0000

I think Escada can be turned around without too much ado: the brand has strong name recognition, an identifiable style and is known for its suits and its quality. They just need to stick to what they do best – dressing their core demographic of conservative working women over 40, much like St. John does. Many fashion brands neglect this high spending segment and Escada also seems to have abandoned it in the process of trying to reinvent itself as a more fashion forward label.

By: The Business of Fashion

The Business of Fashion — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:31:30 +0000

@Dahlia: They are counting on the fact that a magical brand with history can play a part in creating an image that is aspirational. For new brands, it can take a long time to achieve this, but paired with the right designer, brands like this can achieve the same more quickly. But, using the examples you have cited, we can also see that this can fail too – maybe even more often than it succeeds. That said, while Escada may be a dying brand, it is more like Ungaro than Vionnet or Halston, which were completely dormant prior to the attempts to resuscitate them. But I agree, the Escada brands seems to have gone way below the radar – much moreso than you’d expect for a company of its size and reach.

By: Dahlia

Dahlia — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 05:47:54 +0000

I was questioning about Escada the other day, I’ve hardly seen it make a dent in advertising and was only recently reminded of its existence in a recent newspaper article. I don’t even think I’ve seen any mentions in fashion magazines either except for rare editorial spread. It looks like there’s a trend in breathing life in a lot of dying brands lately: Ungaro, Vionnet and Halston. I wonder what’s so particular about these dying brands that investors feel they can revive them? Why not invest into a promising new talent instead?