The Unusual Suspects: New Names Investing in Fashion

There are some new faces at the designer dance. While investing in runway-ready names used to be an insider’s game — with the same top-shelf financiers getting first crack at promising brands — changes at the nexus of retail, fashion and money have opened up opportunities for outsiders. And they’re starting to jump in. Billy Reid recently sold a minority stake to Memphis-based Kemmons Wilson Cos., which is run by descendants of the Holiday Inn founder. And Proenza Schouler last year brought on distressed-investment specialist Mudrick Capital Management as a backer. Those are the kinds of deals that not that many years ago would have gone to a handful of investors who are largely on the fashion cocktail party circuit and over the years have cultivated relationships with designers and other players throughout the fashion system. But there’s something of a once-bitten, twice shy feeling among the establishment fashion investors, who have been burned by past purchases and are not eager to place new bets while the apparel market is still be disrupted the web, Instagram and everything else. That’s left brands looking for money — and it seems that nearly every independent designer is looking for at least a little funding — to venture further

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