brand extensions
Posted by Sara Zucker on November 16, 2009 12:20 PM
If you've been walking around the stores lately, you'll notice a new addition: Christmas music. The holiday shopping season has arrived, and many companies are upping the ante to impress consumers. Restoration Hardware, for example, is expanding their brand to... scarves.
Yes, scarves.
Though fashion designers often dabble in home design (Armani, Vera Wang, Ralph Lauren, for instance), it is rare to find a furniture manufacturer delve into the fashion business. But two years after Restoration Hardware was sold to Catterton Partners for $267 million, the company continues to pursue its goal of appealing to a more feminine audience. This improbable brand extension reaches well beyond the brand’s typical offerings of dining room tables and door knockers.
The scarves are made of two-ply Mongolian cashmere, hand-woven in India in a 100-year-old family-owned factory that still uses antiquated looms. They are available in grey, oatmeal, garnet, chocolate, ivory, black or silver sage. According to the company's website, the six-foot-long scarves are already on sale for $78.40, which is fairly affordable for quality cashmere.
Restoration Hardware has even designed a line of robes ($239 and $249) and slippers ($59) in coordinating colors. The website notes, “Expert weavers carefully select and comb the finest strands of premium cashmere, then loom them into a whisper-light knit that is exceptionally soft and warm.” How could you pass that up?
Only time will tell whether this was a successful move into the world of fashion and the minds of women. But Restoration Hardware is hoping that ringing cash registers during the holiday season will be music to its ears.
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