Tarrant Apparel Loses Licenses With Entertainers
Tarrant Apparel Group has ended its licensing agreement with entertainer Beyonce Knowles to produce her House of Dereon line, and is having trouble with its licensing agreement with singer Jessica Simpson.
The Los Angeles–based private-label blue jeans maker recently branched out into developing its own brands. Recently, the company announced it had reached an agreement with the master license holder of the House of Dereon to terminate its license, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Also, the master license holder for Simpson’s brand told Tarrant recently that the company no longer had further rights to either the JS by Jessica Simpson label or the Princy label—a decision that comes after retail chain Charming Shoppes dropped the JS by Jessica Simpson brand late last year after carrying the line for about five months.
Gerard Guez, Tarrant’s founder and chairman, painted the Knowles split as amicable.
“We are parting ways nicely with House of Dereon,” he said. He noted that Tarrant will lose the $1.2 million royalty fee it paid for the name.
Guez held out hope, however, that Tarrant and the Jessica Simpson people would come to terms and start up their business relationship again. He characterized the situation as “a disagreement.”
“We are still going forward with it,” he said. “We hope to resolve [the matter] without going to court.”
In an unrelated development, the company’s president and chief executive officer, Barry Aved, is stepping down to concentrate on Tarrant’s private brand—American Rag Cie, which is sold exclusively at Macy’s stores around the country. Aved will move to New York and Guez will step in as interim chief executive.
The flurry of news from the blue jeans designer and manufacturer came at the same time the company announced March 30 that in 2005 it had a net income of $1 million on annual sales of $214.6 million.
—Deborah Belgum and Erin Barajas
