A Trademark Deal for Kent & Curwen, Plus Bespoke Burberry Trench Coats Come to NYC
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Trademark Deal: Guangzhou-based fashion company Biem.L.Fdlkk Garment has purchased the global trademark rights of Cerruti 1881 and Kent & Curwen, two brands whose owners have included Trinity Ltd. and Shandong Ruyi.
The Chinese firm said it paid the equivalent of nearly $62.2 million for the global trademark rights of Cerruti 1881, and nearly $41.5 million for the global trademark of Kent & Curwen.
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The two brands were once owned by Trinity Ltd., as was Gieves & Hawkes, which was sold to Frasers Group last November.
Trinity Ltd. was sold in 2017 by its owner, the Hong Kong-based sourcing giant Fung Group, to the now debt-laden Chinese fashion manufacturing giant Shandong Ruyi Technology Group.
As reported, Cerruti 1881 fell victim to cuts as the Chinese owners struggled to fund its European brands. Cerruti 1881 has stopped showing on the runway and has been operating without a creative director since it parted ways with chief creative officer Jason Basmajian in July 2019.
From 2015 to 2019, Kent & Curwen partnered with David Beckham in a bid to reach a younger crowd, and put the focus on sporty separates rather than tailoring. Beckham eventually exited the partnership in 2020 after it reported losses of 18 million pounds under Shandong Ruyi management.
Kent & Curwen ceased trading the following year after its London head office shut and retail teams were let go.
Since the end of 2021, and with its debt in the billions, Ruyi has been looking to offload some of its prized assets.
Founded in 2003, Biem.L.Fdlkk is a publicly traded golf clothing retailer in China. It became known globally for being the garment supplier for the Chinese national golf team during the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics.
The company logged 573 million renminbi, or $83.3 million, in net profit in the first three quarters of 2022, up by 25 percent year over year. Its revenue in the period increased by 13 percent to 2.2 billion renminbi, or $319.7 million.
According to the brand’s website, the company has a strong distribution channel across shopping malls and airports within China. — TIANWEI ZHANG
DREAM-WEAVER: The mythical Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc will be home to a new Dior spa, which is due to open its doors on April 14.
Eden-Roc, in Antibes, France, has long been part of Dior’s lore: The house shot several campaigns there and dubbed a perfume Eden-Roc as part of its La Collection Privée Christian Dior range.
The new spa’s decor riffs on nature and the dazzling light on the Côte d’Azur. Eden-Roc, known for its elegant luxury, has a cliffside swimming pool, white-rock promontory and nine-hectare park full of umbrella pines, lavender, roses and jasmine.
The spa’s lounge is awash in sandy colors, nodding to the surrounding rocks.
Four treatment rooms are located in a garden. A double is nestled in a former gazebo and features Dior’s signature Toile de Jouy. That print serves as a leitmotiv in other rooms, such as one nearby, in sage green and white accents, punctuated with bayadère stripes.
An onyx affusion room hosts hydrotherapy treatments, and it is possible dip into an ice fountain following a sauna or hamam session to boost circulation.
Another treatment room features an Iyashi dome, offering infratherapy treatments for slimming and detoxing.
Dior created four new customizable signature treatments for this spa, which are inspired by the rock, sea, garden and sun.
These include the two-hour Rituel Escale à Eden-Roc, billed to rebalance and harmonize energies during a massage using semiprecious stones selected according to a person’s needs.
The hour-and-a-half Rituel Roc Affusion uses a made-to-measure dance of water jets for draining and muscular benefits.
Dior partnered with Hydrafacial for a facial protocol lasting 90 minutes, including a deep cleanse and exfoliation, followed by a tailor-made treatment.
For the first time and exclusively for Eden-Roc, Dior has conceived six well-being cures, dubbed Bouquets, which are carried out over several days. They combine manual and high-tech treatments, a sports session and consultations with well-being and nutrition experts.
Eden-Roc is known as a stomping ground of many celebrities — past and present — including Audrey Hepburn, Romy Schneider, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, Sharon Stone, Clint Eastwood and Elizabeth Taylor.
It stands close to the late Christian Dior’s home, the Château de La Colle-Noire. — JENNIFER WEIL
Bespoke Burberry: Burberry has unveiled a dedicated pop-up at 693 Fifth Avenue in New York City, spotlighting the brand’s signature check pattern, and offering trenchcoat bespoke personalization service.
The location for the pop-up space will become the brand’s new Fifth Avenue store in June, while its 57th Street flagship will undergo renovations beginning the same month.
Running until May 2, the pop-up features a giant overhanging tent in charcoal check, which was inspired by Daniel Lee’s debut show for the brand at Kennington Park, South London. It opened last Sunday.
The tent also serves as an ode to the Burberry tents from the late 19th and early 20th century and the brand’s connection to the outdoors. The windows in front of the tent feature the brand’s new archive-inspired logo, along with the reimagined Equestrian Knight Design.
Sitting between Blancpain and Canada Goose, the pop-up space is equipped with artisans from Burberry’s Castleford manufacturing site and New York City-based tailors to help visitors customize their trenchcoats with a selection of buttons, embroidery and patches.
The space used to be the Valentino flagship until December 2020. The brand had a rent dispute with the building’s landlord, Financière Marc de Lacharrière, during the pandemic. The two later reached a settlement after Valentino sued in June 2020 looking to terminate its 15-year lease. Valentino started its lease at the location in 2013. — T.Z.
IRL Pilates: The Pilates Class will unveil its first physical space when it opens to the public on April 17.
Launched during the pandemic, founders Natasha Oakley and Jacqui Kingswell have been offering online Pilates classes since 2020. The duo has chosen Los Angeles, one of their largest markets, to test out the in-person experience. A yearlong pop-up, the 1,240-square-foot space is located at 608 Westmount Drive in West Hollywood.
“We realized there was a need for quality at-home Pilates that still felt like a private training session,” Kingswell said in a statement to WWD. “We wanted to offer members a wide variety of classes that taught the foundational techniques of Pilates whilst guiding members through every movement, so it really felt like a Pilates studio in your own home….More recently, we recognized that although some people prefer the convenience of working out at home, others like to have the option for an in-person class, so we now offer both. Now that the world has reopened, it just feels like the right time and the next progression for the company.”
The Pilates Class has garnered 60,000 subscriptions in 118 countries, attracting more than 252,000 Instagram followers. Self-funded, the founders have expanded the business to include fitness equipment, apparel, recipe books, nutrition guides and special programs. Last year, they grew 22 percent, according to Oakley.
“Our multimillion-dollar revenue is attributed to our exponential growth year-on-year within these areas of the business,” she added. “We are so excited to have Los Angeles be our very first location and plan to replicate the experience in additional markets across the globe. We want our members to feel like they have as many options and as much flexibility as possible and are very excited to see them training at other locations as they pop-up.”
In L.A., the studio’s mat classes will hold up to 17 clients. There is also a reformer room, with two tower reformers for private or semiprivate classes. — RYMA CHIKHOUNE
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