Reese Witherspoon’s Draper James Names New CEO, Maps Out Growth Plans Beneath Consortium

The time period “life-style model” has turn out to be one of the overused within the vogue enterprise. However with regards to Draper James, the outline is correct.

Since its launch in 2015 as a Southern-influenced girls’s attire model based by Reese Witherspoon, the corporate has expanded into pet merchandise, out of doors furnishings, crafts, bedding and presents.

Now Draper James has introduced an trade veteran on board to speed up its progress. Jeannie Yoo, who has 15 years of expertise at Coach, Michael Kors and, most lately, Adam Lippes, joined Oct. 15 as chief govt officer. She is going to take the reins from Erin Moennich, who will exit the model on the finish of the month.

Along with Yoo, the Draper James group added Lauren Frohlinger, vice chairman of merchandising, and Piper Parsley, vice chairman of brand name advertising and marketing and e-commerce. Kathryn Sukey continues as head of design and Witherspoon, who nonetheless owns a minority stake, is on the board of administrators and stays energetic within the model.

These modifications come simply over a yr after the corporate was bought by Consortium Model Companions, a fund supervisor and model builder based by three former Marquee Manufacturers executives — Cory Baker, Michael DeVirgilio and Jonathan Greller. Draper James was the primary acquisition for Consortium, which was created in 2022. Since then it has additionally bought Outside Voices.

With each of those manufacturers, Consortium has mapped out a related recreation plan: add classes, open shops and discover worldwide distribution. As a result of it has managed Draper James for an extended time frame — Outside Voices was bought in June of this yr and Draper James in August 2023 — the technique for Draper James is additional alongside.

“We’re fairly energetic in our M&A,” mentioned DeVirgilio. “So we meet very proficient, skilled folks as a part of our community. When the chance got here and this job opened up, we knew Jeannie was the appropriate particular person for the job.”

Dialed Into Digital

Yoo has a various background that appealed to the Consortium group. Her expertise runs the gamut from product growth and retail to digital.

“Digital and direct-to-consumer is my wheelhouse,” Yoo mentioned in an interview on the Draper James workplaces in New York. She began at Adam Lippes on the DTC aspect — rising it to half of the enterprise in her six-year tenure — and opened the corporate’s first flagship. At Coach, the place she spent practically 5 years, she oversaw the digital enterprise for each the retailers and the full-price enterprise.

“What excites me about Draper James is our potential to develop and scale internationally,” she mentioned. “And right here in North America, we’ve super unlocks as effectively with retail and e-commerce. There’s a lot ardour for this model that it feels palpable whether or not you’re within the shops or the workplace.”

Yoo mentioned that what helped seal the deal for her is that Draper James was based by Witherspoon. “I believe the storytelling is so genuine, and the group that Reese and the group have constructed is simply unbelievable,” she mentioned. “I knew in my subsequent chapter that I wished to work for a model that was woman-founded. Nevertheless it’s not simply that. Reese needs to create a legacy model that honors her grandparents.”

Draper James is called for Witherspoon’s grandparents and targets “girls who wished garments and equipment that have been particular however not treasured, straightforward to place collectively and all the time polished,” because the New Orleans-born actress describes it within the foreword of the corporate’s new vacation catalog. “A traditional American type, steeped in Southern attraction, female and fairly.”

No shock then that the model is strongest within the South, the place it operates three shops: two in Nashville and one in Lexington, Ky.

DeVirgilio mentioned the Nashville flagship within the 12 South neighborhood has skilled sturdy gross sales of late.

“We have been trailblazers,” mentioned Parsley. “The neighborhood wasn’t half as sizzling once we first acquired there, however it’s actually picked up.” She mentioned the shop’s cabana striped wall, a signature of Draper James, has emerged as a well-liked Instagram picture spot and the design and decor of the shop actually immerses guests within the Draper James aesthetic.

Rolling Out Retail

The sturdy efficiency of that retailer offers Consortium the arrogance to open extra shops. Subsequent up is Charleston, S.C., the place it hopes to open a retailer by the spring or summer time of subsequent yr. The model lately put in a pop-up there, inside Stitching Down South, a retailer co-owned by Craig Conover, one of many hosts of Bravo’s “Southern Attraction” present. “It was extraordinarily profitable,” Paisley mentioned. “We’re actually excited to have the ability to ultimately name Charleston residence. However that’s only the start.”

She mentioned the corporate has opened a collection of pop-ups across the U.S. to gauge curiosity from prospects in several cities. “We partnered with Hilton’s Graduate Inns this yr for 4 mini pop-ups throughout large SEC soccer weekends,” Paisley mentioned. “The primary one was Ole Miss in Oxford, then we did Columbia, and Fayetteville in Arkansas final week. Auburn, Ala., is subsequent month. It’s a pleasant method to gauge curiosity and see who the shopper is, and what they reply to. That’s been a method of ours.”

However Draper James’s attain extends past the South, they mentioned. New England can be a powerful marketplace for the model. “That buyer actually loves a superb monogram second,” Paisley mentioned.

Greller added: “If you have a look at our e-commerce enterprise, it follows a U form, so from Northern California by means of Texas, Florida and even into Connecticut. There’s a capability to go the place the alternatives are and Jeannie and her group will have a look at that for certain.”

Wholesale additionally performs a job in Draper James. The model has a powerful enterprise with Kohl’s, which has carried the the more-affordably priced Draper James at Kohl’s attire assortment since 2022.

Earlier than the top of 2024, the corporate’s new pet assortment, which debuted earlier this yr, might be supplied at Petco. And subsequent March the materials, crafts and out of doors collections might be supplied at Joann Shops.

Yoo mentioned that as Draper James expands past attire, the message must be constant and keep “true to the model’s DNA, which is hospitality, Southern attraction and graciousness.”

That message additionally resonates outdoors the U.S., they mentioned. Mexico, Australia and the European Union are among the many markets the corporate has recognized as its first targets.

“We have now plenty of curiosity from companions which can be outdoors america,” mentioned Greller. “I can’t present the identify but, however we might be signing a license for a vacation of ’25 launch within the U.Okay.”

Connecting With Shoppers

Proper now, the model’s hottest class is clothes, however different non-apparel merchandise have additionally discovered followers, Paisley mentioned. “Our buyer index is excessive in decor — she loves to embellish for the vacations. She actually does love to buy the complete life-style. We noticed that originally with the house and the bedding launch when she was tremendous excited to decorate her home in Draper.”

Greller mentioned that when Consortium acquired the model, 98 p.c of the gross sales have been in attire. However whereas gross sales inside clothes are nonetheless projected to develop, their total proportion will shrink as childrenswear, cloth, out of doors furnishings and different product classes decide up steam.

Lots of these classes are included within the firm’s first catalog that was mailed out final week. It includes a foreword from Witherspoon, her mom’s biscuit recipe and a newly launched cashmere sweater program — V-necks are $178 and crewnecks are $168 — that’s anticipated to turn out to be a key reward for vacation.

The chief group declined to supply a quantity determine for Draper James however mentioned they’ve excessive hopes to additional broaden the corporate. “We’re model accelerators,” Greller mentioned. And which means signing licenses when it is smart, resembling with sleepwear, in addition to working shops and working e-commerce companies. “We’re not only a licensing portfolio firm.”

Baker added: “This model started with Reese’s imaginative and prescient and Reese’s cash. She wasn’t gifted fairness like plenty of celebrities. That is one thing intrinsically significant for her, when it comes to its accessibility to girls, the sweetness, the class, the way in which of making stunning grace, impressed by Southern hospitality, with out being overly sexualized. These have been issues that have been actually necessary, that she noticed as a white house available in the market. And so once we speak about class extensions, it doesn’t actually matter if it’s licensing or whether or not we do it ourselves. The purpose that we’re targeted on is guaranteeing that Draper James is reaching prospects the place they wish to be.”

And that doesn’t contain “label slapping” the identify on any and all merchandise to make a buck. “We’re attempting to be good stewards of the model,” DeVirgilio mentioned.

Shopping for and Constructing

Consortium is without doubt one of the newer gamers within the model administration enterprise, becoming a member of Genuine Manufacturers Group, WHP World, Bluestar and the founders’ former firm, Marquee.

The three males left Marquee in 2021 and instantly began brainstorming concerning the evolution of the model administration enterprise mannequin, which they discovered limiting. “There’s typically a scarcity of alignment between the retailers, manufacturers, licensees, producers and worldwide platform companions,” Baker mentioned. “The economics will not be all the time aligned and licensees typically really feel like they’re renting manufacturers and getting crushed up over assured minimal royalties.”

So that they got down to create a distinct construction the place traders have been each each strategic and institutional. Historically, institutional traders resembling Ares, Leonard Inexperienced and even their outdated companions at Marquee, Neuberger Berman, “are nice for dry powder and for capital to do offers, however they will’t really provide help to develop your manufacturers,” Baker defined. “So we wished to create a chance and a platform the place we may combine institutional traders with strategic traders to essentially assist develop issues collectively.

“We love the model administration mannequin — it’s asset mild and the monetary and institutional traders appear to essentially like this mannequin. So that they’ll be extra capital coming in. We prefer it too. Nevertheless it will also be very slim within the sense that among the teams which can be on the market will solely do issues which can be one hundred pc royalty income. There’s an allergic response to one thing that has a vertical operations part to it. Which means you’re leaving plenty of nice manufacturers on the market and not using a higher residence.”

Baker mentioned Consortium employs a group of operators and retailers and has the talents to construct manufacturers by utilizing “sensible operations and efficiencies. However that doesn’t imply one hundred pc conversion to royalty income. In case you’re so wedded to that mannequin, you’re leaving cash on the desk.

“We’re not reinventing the wheel. It’s fascinated about methods we are able to do it with a broader aperture, and a extra strategic actual story.”

DeVirgilio mentioned that different corporations are inclined to gravitate towards distressed manufacturers whereas Consortium concentrates extra on what it views as companies with progress alternatives or people who “want that further jet gas.”

Investing to Develop

They used Outside Voices for instance. Though the enterprise confronted quite a few monetary challenges, inside administration rifts, extra stock in off-price channels, money move points, a revolving door of executives and retailer closures, “the patron doesn’t see it as depressed,” DeVirgilio mentioned. “Beneath a standard model administration construction, this could not be a candidate.” However Consortium is ready to put money into Outside Voices to carry it again to its glory days.

“It’s about shopping for corporations with a powerful model voice as a result of what we do is construct manufacturers,” Greller mentioned.

Baker added: “We have now to place in money and time into this model, and we are going to. Our job is to re-engage [the consumer] with good product in genuine means.”

Outside Voices nonetheless operates an e-commerce web site and the group in place now could be designing contemporary product for spring ’25, Greller mentioned. “Outside Voices had an incredible group and all these group occasions” that originated from its shops, Greller defined. So getting again into bodily retail is unquestionably within the plans. “We’re hoping to open not less than one retailer by vacation or in spring ’25,” Greller mentioned. “We expect brick-and-mortar may be very a lot a part of our future.” Wholesale can be an possibility down the road.

What’s subsequent for Consortium?

“There are model administration corporations on the market that purchase useless manufacturers, and that’s not a nasty technique,” Baker mentioned. “It’s simply not one we wish to do.”

As a substitute, Consortium will scour the marketplace for acquisitions with progress potential, however not simply in attire or footwear.

“We’re class agnostic,” mentioned DeVirgilio, including that Consortium appears at corporations in quite a lot of industries together with meals and beverage “so long as it’s a consumer-facing product.” Baker interjected: “We will get equally enthusiastic about kitchen electrics as couture vogue.”

Baker summed up Consortium’s technique this manner: “We serve on the pleasure of our traders and our objective is twofold: to ship worth for traders and depart manufacturers higher and stronger than how we discovered them. That will sound cliche, however it’s so simple as that.”

Finally, they visualize Consortium as a enterprise with round 10 manufacturers underneath its current funds construction. Baker mentioned: “You probably have a portfolio of too many manufacturers, it begins to be just like the outdated woman with 30 cats — she loves all of them however solely 5 get fed every week.”