THE EDIT. Click to hide summary.
- Guess Jeans x Verdy Partnership: Guess Jeans has partnered with Japanese streetwear artist Verdy to strengthen its global brand and expand into Japan.
- Guess’ Strategic Shift & Expansion: Guess Jeans has expanded in Amsterdam, Berlin and India since its 2024 launch, with Nicolai Marciano leading those efforts.
- WHP Global Offer: Guess Inc. this month received a $13 per share buyout offer from WHP Global, which previously partnered with Guess to acquire Rag & Bone.
Guess Jeans has enlisted Girls Don’t Cry creator Verdy to bolster its global brand and, more specifically, its expansion into Japan.
It’s the latest collaboration for the Japanese streetwear artist, who is also behind the Wasted Youth label. His resume includes work with brands such as Nike, Human Made, Kenzo, Dover Street Market and several other brands.
Guess characterized Verdy’s appointment as a “creative partnership” with the artist.
“Pursuing a major shift in our strategy in Japan, which is now focused through a Guess Jeans lens, I felt strongly about bringing Verdy in for this exciting new chapter,” Chief New Business Development Officer Nicolai Marciano said in a statement.
Nicolai is the son of Paul Marciano, who co-founded the Los Angeles-based denim company in 1981 with his brothers Georges Marciano, Maurice Marciano and Armand Marciano.
Guess Jean is the company’s newest label developed in-house and launched last year in a bid to focus on sustainability and a younger consumer.
Since its launch, the brand has opened stores in Amsterdam and Berlin, expanded through a licensing deal with Tata Unistore in India and now clearly has interest in planting a flag in Japan.
“I’m happy to announce my new partnership with Guess Jeans,” Verdy said on Instagram.
Zooming Out
The partnership with Verdy comes after Guess Inc. received an acquisition offer this month from New York brand management firm WHP Global. The offer pencils out to $13 per share.
The two companies were already linked last year when Guess made its first-ever acquisition move in the purchase of Rag & Bone. While Guess owns the contemporary brand’s operations, a joint venture between the company and WHP owns Rag & Bone’s intellectual property.
A deal would bring an end to the founding Marciano family’s control of the denim company. It would also seem to run up against talk last year of Guess plans to build a fashion powerhouse of brands using its operational expertise built up from years running the denim company.
In some ways, that’s what WHP Global already is, with a stable of fashion brands it either licenses or outright owns through acquisitions.
That the Marcianos and Guess launched Guess Jeans last year would seem to indicate a desire to continue steering the ship and carrying out its execution of the fashion platform concept.
More details could come as early this week when Guess Inc. is expected to report its results for its fiscal fourth quarter on Thursday.
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