Juicy Couture to debut at NYFW; the early 2000s celebrity favorite is promising a resurgence

By

Arati Menon

Published
Jan 29, 2018

Juicy Couture, that celebrity uniform of the late 90s and early 2000s, has been promising a comeback tour. To underline that, in February it will show for the first time at New York Fashion Week (NYFW).

 
At the height of its popularity, the California brand was worn by the likes of Paris Hilton, Mariah Carey and Britney Spears. Its matching velour track pants and sweatshirts were its most ubiquitous designs, along with the crystal-embellished slogans that ran across its clothing.
 
In 2014, amid plummeting sales and soon after the brand’s assets were acquired by Authentic Brands Group, all its owned stores in the U.S. were shuttered. Many analysts believed that its extension into big-box discount retail killed the brand that was once considered to be premium.

Since then reinvention and repositioning has been in the works.
 
In the second half of last year the brand appointed Jamie Mizrahi, designer to movie stars, as its new Creative Director. "Brands pay designers and celebrities to collaborate with them, so why not go straight to the source?" Nick Woodhouse, President and Marketing Director of the Authentic Brands Group, had said at the time.
 
In September last year, the brand held a private presentation for the Spring 2018 collection under its new creative director.
 
“I am not trying to reinvent Juicy. What I’m doing is taking the history that is so special and continuing to make it feel fun and wearable by bringing back silhouettes and materials and making them work for the modern woman,” stated Mizrahi at the time.
 
The brand’s cachet also received a major boost with its collaboration with Vetements on its Spring 2017 men’s and women’s collections. Instead of recreating the brand’s famous terry tracksuits, Vetements lent it a modern update — albeit with Juicy written down arms and across rears.
 
A previous collaboration was in 2016 with model-turned-designer Behati Prinsloo, which focused on shirts and tees.
 
The brand’s leadership has often stated in the press that the “juicy lifestyle” has a clear fit with today’s social-influenced celebrity-driven consumer culture. They will also be attempting to capitalize on a reigning 90s nostalgia, with logos in particular returning mainstream style. Gap, for instance, has just launched Logo Remix, a limited-edition collection designed with logos from across five decades of the brand.
 
To compete with the likes of cult athleisure favorites like Lululemon, Juicy will not be able to rely on archives alone — or just the velour tracksuit formula.
 
At NYFW, the brand will show its Fall/Winter 2018 line across two collections — its main line updated and rebranded as Black Label alongside the more casual Juicy by Juicy Couture.