Innovo Launching New Denim Line
Just weeks after losing hip-hop star Eve and her urban line, Fetish by Eve, Innovo Group Inc. is launching a mid-tier womenswear denim line called Indie.
The Los Angeles–based apparel, accessories and merchandising company has no stores lined up but expects initial orders of the line to appear in stores for the Fall/Holiday 2004 season, said Jay Furrow, the company’s chief executive officer.
“We haven’t solidified any deals yet. We’re still in the marketing phase,” Furrow said. “It is our intent to have it in better department stores like Federated Department Stores.”
Joe Dahan, who has been designing Innovo’s Joe’s Jeans label since it was created in February 2001, is designing the new label. Joe’s Jeans is a high-end men’s and women’s denim line that retails from $120 to $140 in stores including Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s and Neiman Marcus.
Indie will retail from $78 to $88. The line, which Innovo will fully launch in Spring 2005, will center around five-pocket denim jeans and include jackets, skirts and tops. No revenue predictions have been made for the line.
“Joe and his team have been working on this for about six months,” Furrow said. “We believe there is a void in this marketplace at those price points.”
The upcoming season will be produced in Los Angeles. Future orders are slated to be made in Asia and Mexico.
Innovo has been tweaking its apparel lineup to become profitable.
“They are moving out of high-fashion urban apparel, where they were trying to compete by getting licenses and paying royalties. They found that is an expensive way to do business—and risky,” said J.P. Mark, an analyst with Farmhouse Equity Research in Portsmouth, R.I. “This new endeavor is a fairly inexpensive launch for them. I think the upside is good and makes sense for them.”
Last year was a hit-and-miss season for the company’s urbanwear collection, backed by two hip-hop entertainers. Shago by Bow Wow, a boyswear line linked to teen singer Bow Wow, and Fetish by Eve, a line produced after a deal with singer and television actress Eve, have cost the company millions of dollars.
The Bow Wow line did not sell well and has been shelved. Recently, Eve announced she was taking her brand elsewhere, partnering with Marc Ecko Enterprises, an urban-lifestyle fashion company that plans to debut the label in 2005.
Innovo had an $8.3 million net loss on $83.1 million in revenues in 2003. The company does not expect a profit until the third quarter of this year.
Brothers Paul and Hubert Guez, longtime apparel producers and owners of Azteca Production International in Los Angeles, are major Innovo shareholders. —Deborah Belgum
