Mary-Kate’s contribution to the enterprise is a collector’s knowledge. She has been buying vintage Lanvin and Givenchy, among other classic labels of the mid-20th century, for a number of years... Ashley is the more entrepreneurial, the one who will tell you how much she admires Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.Nice. I love them now. Here's their website. And here's their new book, "Influence," which has them talking not about themselves, but interviewing artists and designers they like.
“I’m focused on building a true American brand,” she said, explaining why it was important to her that the line be manufactured in New York. “For me it was the control. I needed to make sure I could see the product being made. Things like this are successful when you really care, when you are paying attention to every single detail.”
The Olsens are known for keeping a tight grip on their image, but their general reluctance to talk to the press has left them ceding ground to tabloids eager to construct the narrative.... The magazines... became fixated on how the twins dressed, running picture after picture of the two in big, round glasses and loose, layered knits, implying something deranged and effortful in a look that suggested Janis Joplin.
“I was from L.A., and layering made sense to me,” Mary-Kate explained. “I was cold. I put on whatever was on the floor when I woke up.” The look seemed constructed to make her disappear, but it rendered an entirely different effect....
The Olsens seem to regard themselves above all as artist-moguls, and the challenges they describe are the challenges of businesspeople. They have to figure out how to deal with expanding the Row while still letting it feel like a quiet discovery for whoever is buying it. As Ashley sees it, her career is brand building, in fashion and beyond. “It is what I love. There are so many voids in the market, and I want to find those opportunities and make the most of them.”
October 26, 2008
Entrepreneurship is really cute.
Ginia Bellfante writes about the Olsen twins, who may seem like tiny, empty celebrities who don't work, but actually have an impressive fashion business and sound pretty smart (especially Ashley):
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11 comments:
I have no idea, after reading that, what they do. Some girly thing, probably.
I am glad they are successful. Now I want some of their wealth spread around to me. I want their money and I want it now.
Unless I missed something in the article, the name Diane Reichenberger is missing from the story.
She's the apparel-industry veteran who actually runs the L.A.-based company for the twins who live in NY City. USA Today article here.
What exactly do the twins do?
Their "run" a $1B+ revenue business that targets the $335B 'tween girl market between ages 8-12.
The twins "track business in weekly telephone conference calls, examining product designs shipped via e-mail, and in less-frequent face-to-face meetings with executives."
When asked about the twins' business acumen, the best Reichenberger can say is that they're "rational." And "articulate."
Translation: They are lucid enough to take a few phone calls and pick colors from swatches, scents from samples, and so forth. They have "less-frequent" business meetings. Their job is to provide glam illusion and keep their mouths shut while children's money rolls in. And if you think they "wrote" their book, your hope is audacious.
They look exactly like little Rachel Zoe's on the front page of that article - kind of scary considering she is in her 40s and they are very young 20s.
The midgets pick up whatever they're going to wear that day from the floor?
That's no stretch.
There was some savvy machinery behind the Olson twins, building this massive empire of videos and what-not, long after most child actors have vanished into oblivion.
Maybe that continues to this day, and/or maybe they've learned something about business.
They're the capital behind the investment. That, and the brand image. Young-ish celebs that are (supposedly) more than one dimensional.
My sense of things is that Ashley, at least, has become quite the businesswoman (entirely giving up, unlike her sister, a showbiz career). Just from the uniqueness, ultra high quality, very restrictive marketing, extreme high prices of "the Row" (tailored to the Olsens' particular sartorial taste-- very simple basics, like t-shirts & blazers, sitting alongside, like, Ann Demeulemeester & Prada at Barneys-- which is an almost impossible thing to justify, make happen, or render profitable, when you've got every celebrity on the fashion bandwagon, & fashion as cut-throat a business as any), this is very different from your usual celebrity-backed brand. As something of a fashion-phile, I can tell you, the Olsens' seriousness & control over their own brand(s) is a very real thing (qualitatively different from every other "celebrity" brand I can think of). And I'm actually quite prejudiced against them-- but have to give them their due. (And after all, encouraging entrepreneurship among the young-- especially when done this skillfully-- is an absolute good.)
Japanese banks with no sub prime exposure and lending policies that Scrooge would endorse have tanked deeper than Citi. And yet the net worth of the Olsen twins continues to grow. Nikkei meltdown, Olsen enrichment, Obama election--it is all part of the same phenomenon. It is necessary to tweak the formula in a few places, but there are rational and predictable principles behind all this. It is just necessary to concentrate harder and to sincerely believe that life make sense.
Just wanted to say that I thought this was interesting and followed the link, even if it didn't generate huge political arguments. :-)
I read a great article a few years ago in Adweek or Brandweek about their empire. Apparently, much of the credit is due to the fellow who is (or at the time was) running everything and had the foresight to leverage the crap out of the girls when they were still babies. Who is this guy, and how were they lucky enough to hook up with him? He was their family lawyer, believe it or not.
He's the one we should all admire. The vision thing.
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