Gordon Brothers is building out its brand management division with Rachel Zoe, who’s back in the spotlight with a new role on Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”
The Boston-based asset expert bought a controlling stake of the stylist and TV personality’s brand. Zoe has retained an investment in the business and is staying on as chief creative officer and a director.
Zoe first emerged into fashion’s consciousness as a celebrity stylist championing the boho style and parlayed that into “The Rachel Zoe Project” reality TV show, two bestselling books and an online style site, The Zoe Report.
Along the way, Zoe also started selling some products, including a ready-to-wear collection in 2011, and then other apparel, home fragrance, eyewear and childrenswear, all under the Rachel Zoe Collection name.
“The brand is in certain categories now and we see a very big opportunity to expand into more fashion categories, more home categories,” said Carolyn D’Angelo, senior managing director, head of brand operations at Gordon Brothers, in an interview. “We’re going to build it out as a lifestyle brand, which she already started to do. And we will use our playbook, our asset-like licensing strategy that we have used for other brands such as a Nicole Miller and a Laura Ashley.”
Gordon Brothers — which has traditionally been known as a liquidator, but lately is refashioning itself as an asset expert and manager — bought Nicole Miller in 2022 and works closely with the designer still. The brand is now in 40 different lifestyle categories and in the process of expanding the business into Mexico.
While some of the big brand management players are building portfolios of brands, Gordon Brothers looks to grow brands through licensed partnerships and eventually find them new homes. Such was the case with Laura Ashley, which the company bought out of administration in 2020 and boosted it to $750 million in annual retail revenues before selling it to Marquee Brands a year ago.
Now, D’Angelo and her team are going to work their magic on Rachel Zoe.
“We’re looking forward to working with her and really expanding not only her product categories, but experiences as well as her distribution points,” D’Angelo said. “Her brand is really about accessibility. So we’re looking very closely at ‘Where does America shop?’ And we anticipate having our brand there.”
The brand could also make a return to the department store arena.
“She just launched some small home categories, but there are other categories that she’s not in in the fashion world,” D’Angelo said. “Things like footwear, things like accessories, things like an actual ongoing fashion line.
“We are strategic, we know how to grow a brand. She’s got a lot of other things on her plate as well, including her media aspirations and empire. So we’ll be her partner in growing the product side of her brand.”
Zoe said: “I have spent my career building my brand to where it is today, and I could not be more excited about partnering with Gordon Brothers. This new chapter allows me to focus on continuing to build my media platform while remaining chief creative officer as the Gordon Brothers team takes the Rachel Zoe brand to the next level. Ultimately, this supports my mission to inspire women to live a life of style and glamour by making fashion more relatable and accessible.”
