US. The Estée Lauder Companies has signed an exclusive, multi-year worldwide licensing agreement with Sean John, the maker of contemporary clothing founded by Sean “P Diddy” Combs. Consequently, the Estée Lauder Companies will create and market a new line of fragrances under the Sean John name, the first of which will be launched in the second half of 2005.
The agreement comes just four months after fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger, also a licensee of The Estée Lauder Cos, joined forces with pop diva Beyoncé Knowles (The Moodie Report.com, 27 January). Knowles’s first assignment will be to market a new women’s fragrance, True Star, which is set to launch this autumn.
The Estée Lauder Companies chief operating officer William Lauder (pictured above left with Combs) commented: “This is an extraordinary opportunity to partner with one of the fastest-growing and most dynamic young fashion brands in the market, as well as with a man who has built a phenomenal reputation as a tastemaker in music, in fashion and in business. We look forward to collaborating with him and the Sean John team as they apply their vision and creativity to fragrance.”
Combs added: “People express themselves in many ways – through their music, through the way they dress, and also through the fragrance they choose, so deciding to make a fragrance was very natural for me. Creating a Sean John scent for the New America has many parallels to the way we design clothing or record great music. We look forward to exploring the possibilities with The Estée Lauder Companies. It’s tremendously exciting to work with a group that is able to bring so much expertise, so much experience and so many resources to this project.”
The development of the new fragrance line will be overseen by John Demsey, president of MAC, who will focus on developing Sean John while retaining his current duties. “Sean Combs is the Great Gatsby of our time,” said Demsey. “I look forward to spearheading this project and to working with Sean, a visionary whose extraordinary intuition makes people want to see, wear and listen to all that he creates.”
Executive vice president of Sean John Jeffrey Tweedy added: “When Sean Combs and I started the company, our long term vision was to establish a lifestyle brand. Partnering with Estée Lauder is the next logical step in the development of a global lifestyle brand.”
Note: Sean “P Diddy” Combs is a successful record producer, recording artist and actor, as well as the CEO and founder of Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment Group. He has shaped the careers of many popular hip-hop and rap artists while releasing four of his own albums, including the Grammy-Award winning “No Way Out”. He has also appeared in the films “Made” and “Monster’s Ball” and is currently starring on Broadway as Walter Lee Younger in the revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s play “Raisin in the Sun”.
Sean John, a privately held company, made its fashion debut with a men’s sportswear collection for the Spring 1999 season. With annual retail sales of over US$350 million in the US, the contemporary line of men’s sportswear is sold in department and specialty stores (for example Federated and May Company retail stores, Carson-Pirie-Scott, Burdines and Belks) across the country as well as select retailers around the world. The line has been nominated for the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s Menswear Award three times, most recently in 2004, and its Perry Ellis Menswear Award twice.
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