Bethenny Frankel Talks Bras and the Future of Skinnygirl Jeans
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NEW YORK — Skinnygirl Jeans are getting bigger. But Bethenny Frankel said that’s not a bad thing.
The entrepreneur and former reality television star’s line Skinnygirl Jeans — which also includes women’s apparel pieces such as jeans, denim jackets, T-shirts and hoodies — is expanding into loungewear.
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“It’s sort of sleep-loungewear,” Frankel told WWD. “My whole thing is that I want to move toward the space, the way that I live, which is I wake up, I go to drop off, coffee, pick up, maybe grab a bite. You could go to sleep and wake up and wear the same outfit, literally. I think we’re missing that.”
Frankel was at Bloomingdale’s in Manhattan Tuesday night at an event sponsored by lingerie brand Le Mystère, where she spoke about the importance of finding the right fit, Skinnygirl, her life right now and what’s next, among other things.
“Please don’t leave with my bra size,” she said. (Although she did admit to donning a Le Mystère bra that night.)
While Skinnygirl Jeans isn’t “in the traditional lingerie space yet,” Jessica Pfister, vice president of Le Mystère, which is owned by Komar Intimates, said Le Mystère is open to future collaboration with the celebrity. Frankel said she definitely has plans to move into ath-leisure.
“I do one thing at a time,” she explained. “I do one thing and if it works, then add something. So the denim has worked, so now we’re adding lounge and sleepwear. I just don’t rush and grab everything. Because you can’t be good at everything at the same time.”
That includes her Skinnygirl Cocktail company, which she sold to Fortune Brands’ Beam Global for $100 million in 2011; several books; her own TV production company, and philanthropic work.
Meanwhile, Skinnygirl Jeans, which debuted in fall 2018, sold out immediately, Frankel said. Since then the brand, which is available on the Home Shopping Network, Amazon and shopskinnygirl.com, has continued to be profitable.
“It’s got a steady pace of people who are coming back and buying more,” Frankel explained. “They get one pair. Then they’re buying two pairs. Then people are going through, getting rid of all of their jeans, and they’re all about the Skinnygirl Jeans.”
The brand’s shapewear collection has also been a hit. Sales in Skinnygirl shapewear were up more than 200 percent in the last year alone.
The sleep-loungewear collection will begin to roll out in January. And now might be the right time.
“Sleepwear is kind of having a moment,” said David Komar, chief marketing officer of Komar Intimates. He’s talking about the current innerwear as outerwear trend, a style Frankel said she’s “fully into.”
“It’s all-purpose clothing,” Frankel said. “One-hundred percent.”
She added that the end game is to continue to find practical solutions for women, whether that be in further product expansion, more wholesale partners or even Skinnygirl retail shops.
“I don’t consider myself a fashion person,” Frankel said. “I consider myself a woman who really thinks about women’s needs. I think about their needs as a mother, as a friend, just as a person who wants to feel comfortable. I’m a businesswoman who ultimately doesn’t want to feel trapped in the clothes all day.”
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