On Thursday, January 7, Target announced the
company’s spring 2015 collaboration with Lilly Pulitzer. The 250 product line addresses
the categories of womenswear, girls, swim, beauty and home (wwd.com). The price
point ranges from $25 to $250, though 200 of the products are expected to
retail for roughly $30 (fashionista.com). 15 new, undeniably Lilly Pulitzer
prints were designed exclusively for this collaboration with Target
(forbes.com). Additionally, this is the first collaboration where Target is carrying
plus-size options in womenswear (peoplestylewatch.com). The collection will
launch in stores and online on April 19, just in time for spring
break. It sounds like this collection is prepared for great success, though
some are hesitant to get behind it.
Many avid
Lilly Pulitzer shoppers turned to Twitter as an outlet to express their
frustrations with the collection. Refinery 29 posted an article titled 39 Girls Who Are Mad As Hell About Lilly
Pulitzer For Target. In this article multiple tweets are referenced, one
being “if people say they got something from Lilly at Target…the name will lose
its prestige. The brand was kinda built on class” (refinery29.com). Overall, it seemed that the majority was most
concerned with this collaboration degrading the Lilly Pulitzer brand image.
Feeling curious, I started to research if there was a similarly
negative reaction to the Altuzarra for Target collection, which launched in
September 2014. Unable to find anything substantial, I asked myself what is it
specifically about Lilly Pulitzer for Target that some are finding
offensive. Past collaborations have been
wildly successful, particularly the partnership with Missoni which caused the Target
website to crash and stores sold out of product in a matter of days. Personally, I think the cause of these mixed
reactions is that Lilly Pulitzer isn’t exclusive enough.
A classic Lilly Pulitzer shift dress ranges in price from $168 to $288. According to missoni.com, that would buy you a winter knit hat on markdown, and a comparable dress in silhouette and fabrication is over $2,000 at full price. Therefore, middle to upper-middle class Americans can likely afford Lilly Pulitzer whereas a small percentage can afford Missoni. I think Missoni for Target felt like a dream come true while Lilly Pulitzer for Target might be like shopping the outlet store. Still, the preppy aesthetic is popular, plus-size is an important market, and the products appear well designed from the look book. For these reasons I predict that many Americans will still shop the collection. As for me, I’ll be on the sidelines waiting for reports on those April 19 sales figures to roll in.
A classic Lilly Pulitzer shift dress ranges in price from $168 to $288. According to missoni.com, that would buy you a winter knit hat on markdown, and a comparable dress in silhouette and fabrication is over $2,000 at full price. Therefore, middle to upper-middle class Americans can likely afford Lilly Pulitzer whereas a small percentage can afford Missoni. I think Missoni for Target felt like a dream come true while Lilly Pulitzer for Target might be like shopping the outlet store. Still, the preppy aesthetic is popular, plus-size is an important market, and the products appear well designed from the look book. For these reasons I predict that many Americans will still shop the collection. As for me, I’ll be on the sidelines waiting for reports on those April 19 sales figures to roll in.
Bibliography:
http://fashionista.com/2015/01/lilly-pulitzer-target-collaboration
http://fashionista.com/2015/01/lilly-pulitzer-target-collaboration
No comments:
Post a Comment