Hard Ball: Dusting Off Fashion's Old Bags

Perhaps the Bible is wrong, and you really can put new wine into old wineskins. It certainly seems to be the business model for lots of old, fusty fashion labels these days. The fashion industry has always had a voracious appetite for the new and the young--and has ultimately lost gobs of money pursuing them. But it has recently developed a taste for Lazarus labels, back from the dead and back in the black.

It seems inconceivable that there was a time when Prada and Gucci were considered dull, cheesy or both, but with some effort, it's possible to recall a world in which the distinctive tan-red-white-and-black plaid of Burberry was thought to be appropriate only for the lining of Granddad's raincoat. It was three years ago, to be precise--before Burberry underwent radical image surgery and made a plaid raid on everything from bikinis to bags to little doggy coats and on everyone from Kate Moss to the wife of the British Prime Minister. Now such sensible old-timers as Coach, Dunhill and even the venerable Swiss shoe company Bally are going through a similar process of fust removal, hoping to mimic the Burberry magic.

The idea seems so simple. Take a brand that has name recognition and an impressive archive but whose products are more likely to be seen on mall-walking matrons than on Madonna and inject the elixir of youth. That is, find an unsung young designer to create a new line of products, or conceive of a new store that will catch the eye of the fashion press and stylists. Encourage those stylists to nudge some free stuff toward a celebrity or two. Put some mad money into the hands of coltish ad folks, and create unfathomable but cool ad campaigns. Widen the product range--but gently, so as not to scare people. Get rid of all the dowdier stores and licensees. And presto! Your dog of a luxury label just became desirable to three times as many people without, if you've done it right, losing any of its snob appeal.

"Getting our bikini on Kate Moss cut the average age of our customers 30 years in one fell swoop," said Rose Marie Bravo, the voluble American who has steered the British Burberry brand for the past four years. Call it a billion-dollar bikini. Analysts valued Burberry at $280 million this time last year. Burberry's IPO, which is set to launch in mid-2002, anticipates a value of as much as $2.8 billion.

But is it really that easy? Burberry has had triple-digit growth since it started its makeover, but the creative director who was applying the hipness lift left last month by what the company described as "mutual agreement" and was replaced by a designer from Gucci. The signature plaid has been knocked off more often than a milk bottle at a carnival booth.