Fans of the Canadian Brunette the Label clothing label marked their calendars when the Vancouver Fashion Week 2019 show announced a new limited-edition line. Branching out from their typical release schedule, Brunette is partnering with Juicy Couture for the first time to create an exclusive and limited-edition collection.
Brunette is a beloved Canadian clothing label that promotes positivity among women through its signature sweatshirts, t-shirts, and accessories. Since 2014, the company has focused on reclaiming the term “babe” to include all women. Their goal is to create an inspiring and safe community within the fashion world.
Founder, Miriam Alden, entered the fashion industry with interest in sales and marketing. As the years passed, she became engrossed in starting her own showroom. In 2009, the Brunette Showroom was born. After spending years at trunk and pop-up shops, Gwyneth Paltrow’s ‘goop’ lifestyle brand featured Brunette in 2014, and the label took off. Now, Alden runs the company as CEO and Creative Director. She believes that the clothing produced by the label reclaims the term “babe” as an inclusive term that strengthens women as a non-physical descriptor. It’s resulted in the Brunette and Babe crewneck sweatshirts that fans around the world long to buy.
The collaboration, though recently announced, has been in the works since February of 2018. A senior associate with the parent company of Juicy Couture first saw Alden’s Brunette line at a show in Vegas. After viewing the neon pink “Babes Supporting Babes” sign, the collaboration began to take shape. What began as a Canadian collaboration expanded into the United States.
The 10-piece collection features all of Brunette’s popular styles with Juicy’s gothic font. In addition to the Brunette pieces, there will also be zip-up, pink velour tracksuits available for purchase. Every piece in the collection is versatile so that women can wear them for comfort and style. Everything will be available on November 4th at 100 brick-and-mortar Canadian retailers and the Juicy New York City location. For those who can’t make it in person, the collaboration will also be available on BrunetteTheLable.com and JuicyCouture.com for $88-$129 in US and Canadian currencies.
Brunette the Label has experienced massive expansions in the past five years, but collaboration with Juicy Couture will speed that growth even more. Partnering with a major brand expands your reach and mines an established customer base. The NFL conducted a similar partnership to evaluate the potential retail success of selling men’s apparel all year round. After quantitative and qualitative research, the strategy was proven to be a future success, which led to more sales.
More prominent brands benefit from partnering with smaller brands because they gain access to a potential niche audience they may not have been able to reach before. Ultimately, Brunette and Juicy Couture’s business models align perfectly, so the match is nearly a guaranteed success.
Fans of both Brunette and Juicy Couture can check out the sale on November 4th. However, there will be more to come in the future. Juicy has confirmed that after the limited-edition collection ends, the partners will expand the fashion line in the spring of 2020.
For now, the future of Brunette looks brighter every day. Miriam Alden claims that, with two female-founded companies, she’s excited to collaborate on the upcoming collection. Both brands share similar visions and values, allowing the process to flow naturally. According to Alden — who says she’s been a fan of Juicy for years — this opportunity has been a dream come true. “I couldn’t feel more proud to be a Canadian designer collaborating with such an iconic brand as Juicy Couture,” Alden said in a statement to Fashion. “Especially one that is such a leader in a similar fashion space to Brunette the Label.”
“Juicy Couture was a big part of my love for fashion as a young woman,” she said, “and as a female founded start-up brand it really gave me confidence to follow my dreams when I was first deciding to get into the fashion industry. My pink velour Juicy tracksuit was the first big purchase I made, and I always felt so confident wearing it. Now, years later one of my biggest goals as a creative director is to create a community with my brand that creates those same feelings I had back then. And that is of course why we had to include a pink velour tracksuit as a part of the Brunette x Juicy Collaboration.”
