Wildfox Couture
| Private | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry | Retail, apparel, e-commerce |
| Founded 📆 | 2008 |
| Founder 👔 | Jimmy Sommers |
| Headquarters 🏙️ | Los Angeles, California, United States |
Area served 🗺️ | Worldwide |
Key people | Jimmy Sommers, CEO |
| Products 📟 | Clothing, accessories |
| Services | Online retail, In-store retail |
| Members | |
Number of employees | |
| 🌐 Website | https://www.wildfox.com/ |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
Wildfox Couture, stylized as WILDFOX, is an American fashion retailer in Los Angeles, California that makes vintage-inspired women’s apparel. It was launched by Jimmy Sommers (CEO, entrepreneur) and two graphic artist best-friends: Kimberley Gordon and Emily Faulstich. Wildfox is known for their signature dreamlike quality, cheeky graphics and incredibly soft washes. It’s the ultimate line for those that love blending comfort effortlessly with style.
History[edit]
2007-2009: Founding and Launch[edit]
2007: Jimmy Sommers saw the potential of creating retro inspired t-shirts and went into collaboration with Kimberley Gordon and Emily Faulstich to refine their original designs. After that, the brand Wildfox Couture was launched and established in Los Angeles, CA.
2008: Wildfox gained attention from consumers with their vintage-looking graphic t-shirts. Initial struggles with entering significant trade shows in the area created limitations on the brands expansion; however, the team gained access to an indie-trade-show in Los Angeles called United. Here, Kitson gained interest and later started stocking Wildfox in their stores. This advancement for the brand and marketing resulted in a larger outreach, attracting the attention of celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Alessandra Ambrosio and Beyonce. In addition, distribution to domestic specialty and department stores began as well as the expansion into Europe and Asia.
2009: Wildfox launched it’s web presence with an E-commerce store and expanded the line to include Wildfox Kids, the “little sister” adaptation of the brand.
2010-2015: Development[edit]
2010: White label is created, the more elevated version of the main line.
2011: Wildfox intimates is created & distribution to Balkan Region begins
2012: Wildfox expands its offerings to include: Wildfox Sun, Wildfox Swim, and Wildfox Jewelry. Wildfox even collaborates with brand Jeffrey Campbell on a collection of footwear: Wildfox x Jeffrey Campbell. The collection included pale pink, ballerina shoe inspired platforms, high top, black lace-up platform boots, and two pairs of platform, open toe heels in colors white and blue. The collection used Jeffrey Campbell’s signature high platform heel design throughout the collaboration.
2013: Wildfox Jeans, Wildfox Essentials, and beach bags are launched. Emily Faulstich leaves to pursue other interests.
2014: Two flagship stores open in Los Angeles: one on the Sunset Strip & the other at the Malibu Country Mart. Wildfox also goes into 15 Shop-In shops, Bloomingdales, and launches handbags and Kids denim.
2015-Present: Brand Expansion[edit]
2015: Wildfox expanded into the perfume sector with a collaboration with Elizabeth Arden. The brand launched the perfume called ‘Wildfox’ with an exclusive few months in the department store Bloomingdale’s before being available worldwide for Christmas 2015. The fragrance was described to have top notes of absinth, incense and apricot, middle notes of camellia, honeysuckle and jasmine and a base of ambrox, musk and honey. Wildfox also opened 8 stores in the U.S. and 12 international stores throughout Japan, the UK, Germany & Dubai.
2016: Kimberley Gordon leaves to pursue other interests.
2017: Wildfox opened a store in Austin, Texas and redesigned their ecommerce website.
Current Operations[edit]
Wildfox Couture current is run by CEO Jimmy Sommers and co-founder and creative director Emily Faulstich. The company has an estimated 191 employees throughout its Los Angeles and Malibu business endeavours with an estimated $60 million in annual revenue.[1] Besides the brand’s own stores in West Hollywood and Malibu[2], Wildfox Couture is stocked in online and in-store by multiple retailers including Ron Herman, Planet Blue, Akira, and Shopbop. Wildfox Couture is distributed internationally in over 30 countries including the Taiwan, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Russia, Germany, France, Spain and England through their own website operations and external retailers. All products are currently produced and shipped from the United States.[3]
Advertising[edit]
Photoshoots and Look-books[edit]
Wildfox initially started growing a customer base through seasonal lookbooks shot in compliance to a theme. The brand has continued to do their seasonal shoots for each season since its launch.Most notably, the 2013 Spring collection, “We’re the Kids of America” sparked much interest and controversy because of it being heavily inspired by the 1995 film ‘Clueless.’ Shot in the same house as the film by Mark Hunter and featuring styling and casting based off the film with models Olivia Greenfield, Fatima Siad and Tanya Katysheva, the shoot drew similarities between the two.
Social Media[edit]
Since 2008, the use of social media has been prominent in Wildfox’s advertising. As the brand grew, celebrities started wearing the clothing more and more. Celebrities, models and actors that have been seen and photographed wearing the brand include: Beyonce, Alessandra Ambrosio, Ashley Tisdale, Chanel Iman, Delilah Belle, Gigi Hadid, Jamie Chung, Jessica Alba, Kaia Gerber, Kate Moss, Kourtney Kardashian, Margot Robbie, Mila Kunis, Miley Cyrus, Paris Hilton, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Shanina Shaik, Sofia Richie, Taylor Hill and Taylor Swift. Wildfox has a following of hundreds of thousands and millions across their different social media platforms. As of October 2018, the brand had 189,159 likes on their official Facebook page, 611,000 Twitter followers and 1.1 million Instagram followers. Their Instagram feed provides photos of the products worn on different celebrities and influencers as well as photos corresponding to the brand’s image.
Fashion Week:[edit]
New York Fashion Week:[edit]
Wildfox debuted its first collection at New York Fashion Week in September 2014. The Fall/Winter 2014-2015 collection was named “Sense & Eccentricity,” inspired by Jane Austen and her works. The line exemplified many floral prints and motifs such as union jacks inspired by the British countryside and country itself. The collection consisted of jackets, cardigans, t-shirts, jeans, pants, skirts, beanies and tank tops.
Mercedes-Benz Miami Swim Fashion Week[edit]
Wildfox debuted Wildfox Swim in 2011 at Miami Swim Fashion Week. The line of swimwear took predominate inspiration from the 1960’s era of swimwear and Hollywood starlets Marilyn Monroe and Raquel Welch. The collection consisted of an array of one-pieces and two-piece bikinis in high-waisted and hipster-styled bottoms. Florals and neutral colors alluded to the vintage 60’s feel of the collection as well as prints of horses and cats on the one-piece swimsuits.
The second swimwear collection by Wildfox Swim was shown again at Miami Swim Fashion Week held in Miami Beach, Florida. The collection consisted of geometric and floral printed patterns and swimwear with prints of USA and UK flags. The designs were matched on models wearing coloured wigs and and were prompted to walk in an enthusiastic manner. “The collection is inspired by the American Girl that loves to travel.” Gordon said.[4]
The brands 2016 Resort Collection at 2015 Miami Swim Fashion Week, held at the Delano Hotel in Miami, consisted of pink leopard print swimsuits, 80s inspired prints and a Wildfox and Barbiecollaboration including a pale pinks and blue colour scheme and the Barbie logo printed across some garments.[5] The fashion show ended with a pool party in the evening at the hotel.[6]
Controversy[edit]
Copyright Infringements[edit]
In October 2017, fashion retailer H&M filed a suit against Wildfox Couture after a cease and desist letter was sent against them for using the copyrighted phrase “Wildfox” on one of the their sweaters being sold for $19.99. The sweater being sold was a grey, long sleeved jumper with a fictitious basketball team the ‘Toronto Wildfox’. H&M responded to this claim by noting, in their defense, the word was being used in a “decorative” way and consumers would disassociate the trademarked slogan from Wildfox Couture. Both Wildfox Couture CEO Jimmy Sommer spoke out about this subject by saying, “this is a textbook example of a global retailer stomping on the trademark rights of a much smaller brand. H&M – which has a history of stealing other people’s creative works – is using an exact copy of the WILDFOX trademark, and is nonetheless, suing Wildfox in response to our request that they stop selling a counterfeit Wildfox product.” Sommers continued on to say, “If H&M had any sense of fairness or respect for other’s work, it would simply stop selling the sweatshirts, which make up a minuscule portion of its $21 billion in sales, instead, they are attempting to punish Wildfox for sticking up for itself."[7]
After H&M filed a complaint against Wildfox,LA based shopping brand Wildfox also sued H&M for Trademark Infringement. Wildfox asked the court to order H&M to destroy infringing products and promotional materials and to give all profits earned by those materials to Wildfox.
References[edit]
- ↑ "Wildfox Couture Competitors, Revenue and Employees - Owler Company Profile". Owler. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
- ↑ "Store Locator". Wildfox Couture. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
- ↑ "Bloomberg - Are you a robot?". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
- ↑ "Wildfox at Miami Swim 2013". Retrieved 2018-10-16.
- ↑ "FL: Wildfox Swim Cruise 2015 - Runway - Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim". mbfashionweek.com. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
- ↑ Martinez, Nicole (2015-07-10). "Miami Swim Week 2015: Six Can't-Miss Events". Miami New Times. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
- ↑ "H&M Files Suit Against Wildfox, Claiming that its Own "Wildfox" Sweatshirt Isn't Confusing". The Fashion Law. 18 October 2017. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
External Links[edit]
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