Band of Outsiders aims for spring 2017 relaunch -- without founder Scott Sternberg
Band of Outsiders founder and creative director Scott Sternberg waves to the audience at a September 2012 runway show in New York City. The company that now owns the label’s intellectual property has announced plans to relaunch the brand for spring 2017.
The Band of Outsiders label, which shuttered unexpectedly earlier this year, is reportedly being revived.
Antony Verbaeys, managing director of Luxembourg-based fashion investment company CLCC SA, which owns Band’s intellectual property, confirmed reports that efforts to relaunch the label were underway, with a spring/summer 2017 relaunch that will include men’s and women’s apparel and some accessories.
Verbaeys said the line will be positioned in the same high-end contemporary segment as the previous incarnation, which sold in high-end department stores such as Barneys New York and independent boutiques such as Opening Ceremony and Ron Herman. Beyond that, he declined to offer more specifics -- except to confirm reports that founder Scott Sternberg, once the heart and soul of the brand, would not be involved with the effort.
“The only thing I can share is that we have an agreement with a design collective that is currently shuttling between L.A. and Europe,” Verbaeys said. “The most important thing for us is that we want to anchor the brand in L.A. ... We feel the DNA of the brand was, and should remain, a Southern California/Los Angeles DNA.”
The long-term plan, Verbaeys said, includes an eventual physical retail presence in SoCal. “We are exploring opportunities for a store in L.A., he said. “Absolutely. ... There will be more news.”
The preppy-with-a-twist Band of Outsiders label was launched by Sternberg in L.A. in 2004 with two items: slim-fitting men’s shirts and super-skinny neckties. Those would expand over the course of a decade to include full men’s and women’s apparel and accessories collections as well as offices on both coasts and two standalone stores -- the first in Tokyo in 2013 and a second in New York City in September 2014.
The brand and its founder/creative director were much-loved by fashion-industry insiders. Sternberg was among the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalists in 2007. In 2008, he took home the CFDA’s emerging menswear designer of the year award. And in 2009, he earned the group’s menswear designer of the year award, accolades that made initial reports of the label’s demise a bit of a surprise.
News broke in late May that Band of Outsiders was canceling Fall wholesale orders and shedding staff. In June, Sternberg posted a farewell to fans and supporters to the Band of Outsiders’ Instagram account. In July, the company’s intellectual property and inventory, collateral on a $2-million loan extended by CLCC, was put up for public auction, though the fashion investment firm ultimately declined to accept any of the resulting bids.
Given how closely Sternberg’s personality was associated, part and parcel, with the much-beloved label, it will be interesting -- to see what a Band of Outsiders with Sternberg on the outside will look like.
That question is likely to be answered by next September, when Verbaeys says he plans to present the collection to the media and buyers.
Sternberg, who lives in Los Angeles, declined to comment on the news.
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