Roxy Follows New Swell

In October, Roxy announced a three-year partnership with New York–based fashion designer (and avid surfer) Cynthia Rowley. Rowley, whose high-end designs sell in upscale retailers and her own stores, designed a 40-piece surf-inspired collection for the Huntington Beach, Calif.–based girls’ line—and in doing so helped open the door for Roxy’s next level of reinvention.

Randy Hild, Roxy’s executive vice president of marketing, said the collaboration with Rowley marks Roxy’s first foray into an upscale distribution channel and is indicative of the brand’s future direction, certainly in styling if not in price point. “Roxy is becoming a little more fashion-forward. Having our product in Barneys helps us introduce a new customer to the Roxy brand,” he said.

Roxy, which was launched by the surf giant Quiksilver in 1990, is a $400 million lifestyle brand that until recently had focused on beach-loving girls ages 7 to 19.

Now, in addition to the Rowley collaboration, Roxy is making a subtle but important shift in its image going forward thanks to a new head designer. Summer Rapp, the designer responsible for the Quiksilver Women’s line, which has earned kudos amongst contemporary retailers and fashion press alike, has taken over the design for Roxy as well. Rapp, a former assistant at Roxy years ago, has a great understanding of the Roxy customer, Hild said. “So we put her in charge of both brands.” With Rapp onboard, Roxy retailers can expect more fashion-forward pieces with contemporary styling as early as the Summer 2010 season.

The impetus for the move is spurred by the Roxy customer herself, Hild said.

“Our audience is still that 17- to 19-year-old girl, but that girl’s awareness of fashion has changed in the last five years,” he said, thanks to a fast and furious flow of information courtesy of blogs and online tastemakers. In earlier years, girls relied on more-static sources for fashion information, such as teen magazines and television. Speaking at a recent event, Iris Yen, Roxy’s director of communications and public relations, said a key directive of the brand in 2010 will be focusing on reaching out to the fashion industry’s latest tastemakers—bloggers. Roxy’s fashion, in turn, will reflect some of the fashion trends blazing through cyberspace. “We want to be more fashion relevant. It’s definitely a conscious effort,” Hild said.

Yen, who said she and her colleagues spend hours tracking fashion’s young darlings online, admitted that bloggers, though they provide fertile opportunities for a brand such as Roxy, pose unique challenges for brands looking to align themselves with them. “Who is hot one week isn’t hot the next,” she said. And, she said, bloggers are often far-flung, work solo and can disappear overnight—making it difficult to maintain long-term relationships with them. Still, some brands have found success tapping bloggers as brand ambassadors of sorts. Costa Mesa, Calif.–based surf/skate brand RVCA, for example, has given select bloggers the opportunity to design capsule collections. Urban Outfitters produced a line of shoes designed by a 17-year-old blogger from Texas.

The Rowley collaboration—which is set to bow in select Barneys New York stores, five of Rowley’s own stores, and 10 Roxy and Quiksilver stores, as well as Paris’ upscale Colette boutique in March 2010—is the perfect way to reintroduce Roxy as a brand for fashion plates and surfer girls. Packed with both technical gear, including a long-sleeved spring suit, and daring pieces, such as a Neoprene pencil skirt, the collection will feature a cut that falls between Roxy’s traditional juniors sizing and Rowley’s designer sizing. Retail price points for the line will range from $13 to $180.

The Rowley/Roxy project is Roxy’s first foray into designer collaborations. Hild says there are no plans for any other high-end designer collaborations.—Erin Barajas