Boateng, Branding & Videotape
If the glare of the television camera is unnerving, British designer Ozwald Boateng hardly lets it faze him. “It is scary,” conceded the Givenchy menswear creative director. But he’s hoping the unrelenting gaze of the camera will pave the way for a branding and retail bonanza in America.
Boateng let the cameras follow him in Los Angeles, London and Milwaukee for the documentary “House of Boateng,” which debuts June 22 on the Sundance Channel. The Los Angeles segments featured him shopping for Melrose Avenue commercial space with real estate executive Chuck Dembo.
On June 13, dressed in one of his suits with a red-and-black multiple-check pattern, Boateng dropped by the Museum of Television & Radio in Beverly Hills, Calif., for a debut party. Just as colorful were the images of his branding partners that flashed on the documentary shown on the museum’s TV screens, including Miller Genuine Draft, Virgin Airways and U.K.-based Coutt’s Bank.
The 39-year-old Boateng designed a credit card for Coutt’s and travelers’ kits for firstclass passengers on Virgin, and he is in negotiations to redesign bottles for Milwaukeebased Miller.
Miller brand manager Terry Haley said he hoped its association with the high-fashion designer would put a Target-like cachet on his company’s suds.
“Ozwald isn’t like the stereotype of a celebrity,” Haley said. “He’s obscenely accessible.
He says that sophistication isn’t put up by a price tag. Sophistication is what you know.”
Boateng said he fully intends to build several Ozwald Boateng stores in the United States, possibly in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York, Miami and Chicago. He said he is looking for partners in the venture. However, Boateng’s recent Melrose jaunt might have been for show, Dembo said. “It was a bit of a fishing expedition,” the real estate exec said good-naturedly.
—Andrew Asch
