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Face To Face Inset: Skinnydip’s co-founders (left to right) Lewis Blitz, Richard Gold and James Gold. Below: The Simpsons Undressed collection focuses on characters including Patty, Selma and Mr Burns.
Gold rush It’s only been established for just over five years, but fashion accessories specialist Skinnydip has certainly made an impact in the licensing space. LSB catches up with co-founder James Gold to find out more about the Licensing Award-winning company.
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e all know that being a bit different, a little bit quirky and a change from the norm gets you noticed at retail – and this is certainly true for London-based fashion accessories brand, Skinnydip. It launched in 2011, but the company – which describes the lines it creates as ‘fun and fearless statement products’ influenced by fashion, social media and current trends – has quickly notched up a number of milestones. It runs over 200 concessions in retailers such as Topshop, Selfridges and Harrods, while it also works with ASOS, Urban Outfitters, Nordstrom and Bloomingdales, plus has six of its own stores and a dedicated website. It has produced successful licensed collaborations with Fox Consumer Products and The Simpsons and Coca-Cola – the former winning it the Best Licensed Giftware Range trophy at the Licensing Awards 2016 for its Krusty the Clown line. “Skinnydip is a fun brand and we loved the idea of partnering with iconic global brands to create a really unique licensed range,” explains co-founder
James Gold. “For us, going down the conventional route isn’t very Skinnydip and we’ve been fortunate in having great partners in 20th Century Fox and Coca-Cola, who’ve allowed us to be creative and design what we feel are very distinctive ranges.” That ‘distinctive’ element translated into Skinnydip taking inspiration from Krusty the Clown’s various business ventures for its first The Simpsons collection, even turning its Carnaby Street store into a ‘Krusty Burger’. It then turned to characters such as Mr Burns, Moe, Patty and Selma for The Simpsons Undressed, which saw them portrayed in a rather risqué way. “I don’t think anyone has ever done that before,” laughs James. For Coca-Cola, James says that Skinnydip managed to produce a collection which stayed true to the brand’s identity, but also added its own playfulness to it. While James won’t be drawn on any potential new collaborations in the pipeline for 2017, he did say that Skinnydip is always on the lookout for new opportunities where it can partner with a brand to create something totally different. “Collectively our brand mentality has always been to do things differently,” he adds. “We look at a licence and think to ourselves what can we do that nobody else has thought about doing before. “We would like to continue to bring products onto the market that customers pick up and makes them smile. If we’re doing that, we’re happy.” LICENSING SOURCE BOOK EUROPE 2017
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