Jennifer Lopez is pulling out
of the clothing business in the U.S. She is shuttering her fashion line Sweetface, which sells contemporary sportswear. The brand was sold in the U.S. for six years and the last collection was for Spring, 2009.
"In light of some new company strategies, we have decided to put the Sweetface line on hiatus while we prepare to reintroduce the brand in the near future with new messaging points and an entirely new fashion point of view," the company said Tuesday.
How and when that relaunch will take place was not revealed. With the shuttering of Sweetface, the only apparel-related businesses remaining in the U.S. for Lopez are her JLO by Jennifer Lopez branded costume jewelry, which Macy's continues to carry, and the Victoria's Secret catalogue carries the brand's shoe collection. Each of those are produced under licensing agreements. The company also continues to do well with fragrances; there have been six scents launched with Coty Inc. to date, and a seventh is due to be introduced later this year.
The shuttering of Sweetface follows several years of struggle for all of Lopez's apparel labels — and is in sharp contrast to the hype generated by her launch of the JLO brand in 2001 as one of the first celebrity fashion lines. Lopez heavily promoted the collection and even held fashion shows during New York Fashion Week in a bid to establish herself as a serious designer.
But while the collections sold well initially, they ran out of steam and have been rejiggered repeatedly over the last several years. In 2007, the company closed its JLO by Jennifer Lopez junior business in the U.S. and decided to only distribute the collection outside America. That business was replaced by a new line for the U.S. called justsweet, which closed in September after only a few seasons at retail. Company executives had planned to relaunch the JLO brand in the U.S. exclusively on ShopJLO.com in March, but that has yet to transpire.
Sweetface brought in $200 million in retail sales in 2006, but sales have declined steadily since then in the U.S. Overseas, the brand is still doing well, however. JLO by Jennifer Lopez is still sold in 40 countries and there are 38 freestanding stores selling the line. It sounds like Jennifer got too busy with other projects and was unable to devote the attention needed for the line to prosper.
