Walmart has hired Brandon Maxwell as creative director of its lofty fashion brands.
Walmart
Walmart wants to make a name for itself in fashion. It tapped Brandon Maxwell, a designer who attracts celebrities from Lady Gaga to Michelle Obama, to boost his reputation.
As creative director, Maxwell will oversee the increased brands of Discount, Scoop and Free Assembly. The 36-year-old designer lives in New York City. He was a judge on Bravo’s “Project Runway” and designed a luxury label sold by retailers such as Neiman Marcus with items costing hundreds or thousands of dollars each.
However, by partnering with Walmart, Maxwell said he could fit more budgets and more shopping – including friends and family in his hometown of Longview, Texas. His first complete collection is available in the spring of 2022.
“I’m not a person who believes that fashion is just something on the surface. I believe it’s a way of telling the world ‘This is who I am’ and it has the power to do that,” he said. CNBC said. “Being able to bring it to so many different people, and communities like me, in which I grew up, has always felt like the goal.”
Over the past few years, Walmart has expanded beyond basic clothing. The retailer acquired established clothing brands, such as menswear retailer Bonobos, and started its own brand. It has added nearly 1,000 national names to its website, including Champion, Levi Strauss and Free People. And it has entered into an agreement with ThredUp, a seller of second-hand clothes, shoes and accessories higher-end brands on a budget.
The retailer has introduced four exclusive, high-end brands: Sofía Jeans, developed with actress Sofia Vergara; Eloquii Elements, a plus-size women’s line inspired by the acquired brand Eloquii; Free Assembly, a private label for men and women for everyday fashion; and Scoop, a trend-setting brand that revived Walmart.
Yet the world’s largest retailer by revenue is better known for low prices than high fashion. Its national footprint of more than 4,700 stores is largely concentrated in suburban areas and small towns, rather than fashion hubs like New York City and Los Angeles. Many of the fashionable fashion clothes can only be found online.
Denise Incandela, executive vice president of clothing and private labels for Walmart, said that is changing. After testing and selling private labels online, she said buyers will see them at more brick-and-mortar locations. This spring, Sofia Jeans will be in 1,000 stores. Free meeting will be in 500 stores, Scoop will be in 250 stores and Elloquii Elements will be 100 stores.
She said the retailer plans to sell more national brands in stores and make clothing exhibitions more attractive to mannequins and creative images. It will also add a child line to Free Assembly and Scoop.
Walmart has 13 general merchandise for merchandise that generated $ 1 billion or more in annual sales. Three of its private clothing lines are $ 2 billion brands. The company did not want to name the brands.
Stacey Widlitz, a retail consultant and founder of SW Retail Advisors, said Walmart needs to prove to younger, style-conscious buyers that its stores and websites are a place to store the closet, not just the fridge.
“The challenge for them is to really be able to shape in the mind of the consumer that they are becoming a fashion destination,” she said. ‘It’s not a solution at night [Walmart] is food. These are different basic principles. Walmart is not synonymous with fashion at this point. ‘
She said it runs behind Target, its smaller, larger boxing rival, which has established itself as a cheap chic retailer with sleek, refurbished stores and popular private labels.
Free meeting men lifestyle
Source: Walmart
But she pointed to Walmart’s Free Assembly line, which was launched last fall, as a sign of progress. She said Walmart should complement the pass with private labels.
Walmart’s e-commerce sales in the US grew by 79% in the past financial year as more buyers sent purchases to their homes or picked up online orders in the parking lot during the pandemic. Sales in the same store grew by 8.6% compared to the previous financial year. The company has not determined how much of the sales growth comes from general merchandise such as clothing.
As staples like Macy’s and JC Penney have lost their footing, Walmart and other stores outside the mall have the opportunity to gain credibility and market share in general merchandise categories such as beauty and clothing.
Incandela said Walmart wants to be a convenient place for consumers to find a wider variety for their wardrobe, from T-shirts to eye-catching outfits. She said the retailer will continue to experiment with ways to impress, from clothing displayed differently on its website to in front of customers on TikTok.
“We’re at the beginning of the journey,” she said. “We have a lot of work to do.”
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of Bravo and CNBC.