It has been a long time coming, but we are all one step closer to seeing Vera Wang’s new collection in Kohl’s stores. A preview night was held last week, were the press and the public got to see the first glimpses of the collection, known as Simply Vera. WWD released some preview photos of the collection:
This style is much more fashion forward than anything else Kohl’s is currently offering. But I’m excited to see what the individual pieces look like when the line rolls out in September.
I first talked about this collection last August (here and here) and personally, I think this is a huge move for Kohl’s. When it was announced, it may not have seemed like a perfect fit between the designer and the retailer. Why Kohl’s? But as Kohl’s has unveiled other brand launches and grown their contemporary fashion offerings over the past few seasons, it now seems like all the wheels are in motion for a very huge launch.
After announcing a very positive Q1 results on today’s conference call, the retailer outlined some of their future merchandising plans:
The launch of the Simply Vera collection and the new housewares line by Food Network will be supported by new fixturing. This is on top of new fixturing that most stores already received this year for the expansion of Chaps into the Home and Plus Size areas.
Intimates will see much growth in the so-called contemporary and updated areas with the launch of Simply Vera, the expansion of the Daisy Fuentes line into more doors, and the launch of a new private label Intimates brand called Moments. The new line will launch in 200 doors in June with further growth in the Fall and will be available in all stores by Q1 2008.
Also on the growth front, they say that the launch of the new Elle line in Misses is going so well that they are ramping up the rollout with an additional 250 stores receiving the product in September and all stores carrying the line by Q1 2008.
Like I said before, it may have seemed that the match between designer and retailer may not have seemed to mesh with the core Kohl’s shopper. But as I look across the ‘blogosphere’, I’m seeing a lot of early positive reaction to these preview photos. Judging by the comments, Kohl’s is attracting attention from people who previously hadn’t shopped at the retailer.
Just a few of the blogs that I’m seeing activity on: Miss Lovely, The Budget Fashionista, Catwalk Queen, nitro:licious, MTV Style Blog, and FabSugar.