Weekend Briefing: Does Authentic Brands Group have the juice to compete in luxury?

The Forever 21 x Barneys collaboration is real. Released on Thursday, the collaboration is a joint effort between the fast fashion company and the former department store, which are both under the Authentic Brands Group umbrella.

Authentic, as we’ve covered extensively on Glossy, made a habit of scooping up every struggling retail brand that filed for bankruptcy or came close to it during the pandemic. Since early 2020, it’s added a dozen new brands, including Brooks Brothers, Reebok and Aeropostale to its portfolio. Now, the company is capitalizing on this diverse array of brands by pairing them up for intra-corporate collaborations.

In addition to Barneys, Forever 21 has collaborated with other Authentic brands like Reebok and Juicy Couture.

The attempt to revitalize the Barneys name, three years after it went bankrupt, also comes at a time when Authentic is trying to step further into the luxury space. In April, when it announced a licensing deal with Vince, Authentic CEO Jamie Salter said, “The addition of Vince strategically expands Authentic’s portfolio of globally renowned luxe brands. We see significant opportunities to expand Vince’s offerings to meet the growing demand for premium and luxury goods around the world.”

Whether a high-low collaboration like this one will help push Authentic into the luxury space remains to be seen. Most of its brands are firmly in the low- to mid-price categories, with only a few brands like Brooks Brothers and Vince having a status anywhere close to luxury.

Luxury is also a notoriously competitive industry filled with old stalwarts and giant European conglomerate brands. A company like Authentic, built off of revivifying retail brands that have fallen on hard times, may struggle to polish its portfolio with the sheen that the luxury industry requires.

NYFW kicked off with a focus on sustainability and regulation

New York Fashion Week is officially in full swing as of Friday, and there have already been a number of shows and presentations around the city. Several of the early NYFW events have focused on the ways the fashion industry can better the world and its workers.

On Thursday, the Copenhagen International Fashion Fair and the CFDA teamed up for a showcase of both American and Danish designers, all of whom focus on sustainability. That included brands like Isnurh, which has the backing of Kering, as well as Melissa Joy Manning.

Elsewhere on Thursday, Mara Hoffman hosted an event in NYC’s SoHo that was less about clothes and more about the people who make them. At the event, Hoffman introduced a new version of the FABRIC Act. First introduced last year by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the act seeks to improve the treatment of the garment workers who make the fashion industry run. More events to garner support for the act throughout the industry are planned for this month, including a September 13 reception at the New York Edition Hotel hosted by The Act on Fashion Coalition.

John Varvatos joined Under Armour

In executive news, Under Armour made a somewhat surprising choice for its new chief design officer position last week.

Starting September 11, designer John Varvatos of his eponymous brand will be in charge of all design decisions at Under Armour, replacing former chief design officer Kasey Jarvis. Varvatos is an inspired choice for the role. While much of his design career has been in designer fashion, including a stint at Ralph Lauren as head of menswear design and a period where he invented the product we now know as boxer briefs, Varvatos’s new role will see him tackling activewear.

The activewear market is incredibly competitive. But Under Armour clearly sees a valuable asset in Varvatos who can bring some much-needed high fashion credibility to a brand more known for its practical gear. In many ways, the decision resembles Teddy Santos’s appointment at New Balance, which proved to elevate a brand known for workmanlike athletic gear into a high-fashion powerhouse.