LUXE AND LA-BASED
Thomas Wylde: L.A. Collection Looks to Build the Brand and the Business
For 10 years, Thomas Wylde built a reputation as a high-end collection that balanced its luxe pieces—and equally high price points—with a rock ’n’ roll edge. Known for its skull-print motifs and second-skin leathers, the collection flew so far under the radar that some retailers didn’t realize it was a Los Angeles company, assuming that the brand was British, like its founder, model and stylist, Paula Thomas.
Today the company is undergoing a transformation as the executive team takes the label to a broader audience while carefully maintaining the collection’s core aesthetic.
On a recent afternoon in the company’s Culver City, Calif., headquarters, Jene Park, Thomas Wylde’s creative director, prepared for the collection’s New York Fashion Week runway show while a photographer shot the label’s Autumn/Winter collection, called 90292, in homage to the glitz-meets-grit mix of California’s Venice neighborhood.
“Thomas Wylde’s style embraces rock ’n’ roll culture while emphasizing nuanced design,” Park said. “It’s uptown glamour meets downtown edge, rebellious without being trashy, sexy but not vulgar. I only use the most luxurious fabrics, quality construction and impeccable detailing, signature prints, bold imagery and symbolic embellishments that are the staples of my work. Thomas Wylde encapsulates modern luxury. The style brings out the inner rebel in women but with a feminine touch.”
Park has been with Thomas Wylde since the beginning, most recently as chief operating officer. She was named creative director last year when founder Thomas left the company.
A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, Park’s resume includes a stint at BCBGMAXAZRIA before founding Jen E. Jen, a design and product-development consultancy that worked with brands such as Vera Wang, St. John, 7 For All Mankind and Vince.
“A decade ago, the brand was born with a less-than-30-piece capsule collection. Today we are offering more than 200 to 300 pieces at over 200 [points of sale] in 30 different countries,” Park said, adding that new categories such as eyewear and denim are in the works.
“The company’s vision is to be an American lifestyle brand producing a full luxury product line,” she said. “My focus was on keeping the brand DNA while at the same time reinventing the brand.”
Within Thomas Wylde’s loft-like offices in the Blackwelder creative workspace development, the scene was one of chaotic glamour as Park swooped in to adjust the fox collar on the model’s red gown. The space feels more like a luxurious living room than a workspace. Low, modern couches are arranged around a room lit by skylights. A wall of windows leads to a garden decorated with giant skull sculptures. There are nearly 20 employees who work in the Culver City headquarters, and another 12 are employed around the world, said John Hanna, Thomas Wylde’s chief executive officer.
“The brand has been around for 10 years, but the sales are skewed globally,” Hanna said.
The company has agents and distributors across the globe, including in Japan, South Korea, France, Germany, Portugal and the Middle East. Hanna recently struck a deal with a Korean company to launch the Wylde by Thomas Wylde collection in Korea and open retail stores starting in November. He’s currently negotiating another deal to open standalone stores in the Middle East.
In the United States, the line is carried by retailers such as Gregory’s, Laura Gambucci, Betty Lin and Stanley Korshak. Kin and Ron Robinson, both based in Southern California, recently picked up the line.
Many people were surprised to learn that the company is based in Los Angeles, said designer Galina Sobolev, a longtime fan of the brand who is consulting with the company. Sobolev has been collecting Thomas Wylde pieces since the brand’s early days. “[People] told me, ‘We thought it was from London,’” she said.
In recent years, Los Angeles has become a fashion destination and a source of inspiration for many top design houses, Park said. “Back when we first established our house in LA, there were almost no luxury lifestyle brands here. That made us unique and different. We were sitting here in LA, not getting influenced by any other houses, and developing our own identity in our own way, which really made us stand out in the industry.”
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Photo Gallery
Thomas Wylde: Autumn/Winter 2016 Runway
Looks from Thomas Wylde’s Autumn/Winter 2016 runway show at New York Fashion Week
Thomas Wylde: Autumn/Winter 2016
The Thomas Wylde Autumn/Winter 2016 collection, which bowed on Feb. 15 at New York’s Moynihan Station during New York Fashion Week, features a wide range of looks from gowns and dresses covered in yards of hand-pleated silk chiffon to coats and dresses trimmed in fox fur. There are lamb-leather jackets and skirts as well as shearling and cashmere pieces. A mini dress features 10 layers of chiffon hand-embellished with paillettes, sequins and chiffon twists.
The luxe details carry through to the ruffles along the placket of snap-button trousers. Pieces are covered with diamond-cut studs and Swarovski crystals. The collection includes edgy styles, silhouettes and details such as biker and bomber jackets as well as menswear-inspired styles made soft and feminine with luxe fabrications and sharp fits.
The line follows a neutral palette of tar (black), cement (light gray), bone (off white) and cocaine (bright white) punctuated with a rich red shade the company calls blood. There is a custom signature print called “Wyldeflower,” which features California wildflowers scattered against a leopard-print ground.
The runway show also featured Thomas Wylde handbags and the newly launched footwear, both made in lambskin and suede. The ruffle detail returns on the shoes, as does the Thomas Wylde signature skull motif.
Growth plan
Hanna joined Thomas Wylde after serving as chief executive officer of the House of Lloyd Klein and The Fashion House, a company that designed and produced footwear and accessories for brands such as Richard Tyler, Oscar de la Renta, Isaac Mizrahi, Bill Blass and Nicole Miller.
At Thomas Wylde, Hanna has a plan to grow the company into a premier U.S. lifestyle brand.
“I think we have the assets and platform for that,” he said.
Expanding the U.S. business and adding new categories is part of the strategy.
“As a lifestyle brand I feel it’s important to present the entire collection to the customer,” he said.
A new Thomas Wylde shoe collection recently bowed at the FFANY show in New York, and the company will soon introduce two new licensed lines for sunglasses with SAMA Eyewear and women’s denim.
All of this growth comes on the heels of an expansion of the company’s price points.
“We created an additional 30 percent of the brand at contemporary price points,” Hanna said. The collection is priced from $300 to $7,000 for silk dresses, cashmere sweaters, leather jackets and fur-trimmed coats. Handbags are retail priced between $700 and $3,000.
Although Thomas Wylde is firmly established as a luxury brand, Hanna wants to make the collection more accessible to more customers. A customer who might not be able to afford a $2,400 item from the core collection might be able to purchase something at $500.
“We feel if we have entry-level price points it would be ideal to stretch the DNA of the brand,” he said.
Still, even with the new product and price points, Thomas Wylde distribution will be extremely focused. The line will be sold in specialty boutiques, luxury department stores and on “very select websites,” Hanna said. “I want to be in the right places.”
Eventually, the plan is to open retail stores in New York and Los Angeles—but Hanna said the challenge is to find the perfect locations.
“It’s important to have retail stores, but real estate at a reasonable price point is limited,” he said.
The collection is mainly produced in South Korea, with entry-level pieces produced in China. The new denim line will be produced in Los Angeles.
Hanna jokes that all this expansion and brand building means he’s working 36 hours a day but adds that he’s enjoying the process of expanding the collection.
“I am very much a product person,” Hanna said. “I cannot allow anything less than excellent quality.”
From the beginning, Park said, she envisioned growing Thomas Wylde into a luxury lifestyle brand “encompassing everything from accessories to furniture to menswear.”
“I want to offer products that last 20 or 30 years,” she said. “That means the brand must focus on its product. All the materials I use are from the world’s top weavers and makers of leather, fur, exotic skins, cashmere, delicate silks, super soft knits, hand embroideries and hand-beading couture fabrics and details. I want to create timeless investment pieces made by professional artisans. I think about the fabric, always use the most luxurious lining, the hardware, the details, the fit, everything. So when you wear Thomas Wylde clothes, it feels luxurious and comfortable.”
