Guess Jeans, the new brand headed up by Nicolai Marciano, made a buzzy debut to press and buyers in Milan and Florence.
Its consumer launch aims for as big of a splash with the brand rolling into stores next month, in addition to Guess Jeans-branded doors. The latter includes a door bowing on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood on a corner Guess Inc. CEO Carlos Alberini said gets big vehicle and foot traffic.
“Nicolai’s working very hard on the whole marketing campaign and how we think about presenting the brand. And, he’s working on collaborations and so forth,” Alberini said of Marciano, who serves as Guess chief new business development officer.
Marciano is the son of Guess co-founder Paul Marciano and has been forging a path of his own within the Los Angeles denim company, with an eye for collaborations, imagery and product that speak to brand newcomers.
That’s included Guess’ involvement in past years at ComplexCon, work with Round Two founder Sean Wotherspoon on a Farmers Market pop-up concept and Guess Originals’ collaboration with A$AP Rocky.
First Steps
Retail buyers appear to have liked what they saw at showrooms.
“The first sales campaign for Guess Jeans has been completed and the results were ahead of our initial expectation,” Alberini said during a conference call Wednesday of buyer orders. “As part of the brand launch, we have already secured a few locations to open new Guess Jeans stores in the U.S. and several key cities in European markets.”
That said, the brand will initially develop through the wholesale channel, according to Alberini.
The stores, Alberini said, “…. will represent what this whole lifestyle is for the brand to attract that younger consumer. But, also, we don’t see it as an exclusive young consumer type of product. We think everybody will find what they’re looking for in that store.”
The CEO went on to make clear the company is not planning “a major expansion of stores” for Guess Jeans.
Guess Inc. played up its new brand, which seeks to blend the denim house’s West Coast roots with new sustainable production methods, at an exhibition during Pitti Uomo in January.
While Guess is known for its stonewashing technique when the label rose to fame in the ’80s, the new Guess Airwash process aims to cut water consumption and use of pumice stones by using air. The trademarked technology was developed for Guess by sustainable textile firm Jeanologia.
To read about Guess Inc.’s financial results for its fiscal fourth quarter and full year, click here.
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