By Mark Seavy 

Luxury holding companies are sharpening their focus on core brands to provide a new opening for licensing. 

Fashion houses ranging from Kering to LVMH are employing this strategy, as underscored by G-III Apparel and WHP Global recently striking an agreement to acquire the Marc Jacobs brand from LVMH. That agreement is the latest example of luxury conglomerates adjusting their stables and spotlighting licensing as the luxury goods market struggles with tighter consumer spending. 

Under the Marc Jacobs deal, WHP (which also owns Vera Wang) will serve as the licensing agent for the brand while G-III Apparel is the operating company. In both WHP acquisitions—Vera Wang and Marc Jacobs—the designers remain with the new parent company as it seeks to widen distribution for the labels without losing their prestige.  

G-III, which will share in royalties from the Marc Jacobs brand as part of the joint venture with WHP, plans to extend the label well beyond its home in leather goods and accessories and into apparel and other categories, said CEO Morris Goldfarb. G-III is forecasting Marc Jacobs sales to hit $1 billion in the “long term,” according to Goldfarb. The deal also came as G-III moves to pivot after the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger licenses for women’s apparel (jeans, dresses, performance wear, luggage) were taken back by IP owner PVH Corp. The loss of the two licenses is forecast to cost G-III about $470 million in sales in the fiscal year ending January 31, 2027, CFO Neal Nackman said. 

“G-III has a long history of identifying iconic brands with large runways for growth, acquiring, and successfully scaling them,” said Goldfarb, whose company also owns the Donna Karan, DKNY, and Karl Lagerfeld labels. “We will protect and grow the brand’s desirability through a disciplined approach in category expansion, sourcing, scale, and global distribution.” 

The Marc Jacobs sale follows designers Stella McCartney and Giambattista Valli acquiring their brands back from LVMH and the Pinault family investment arm Artemis, respectively.  And Artemis sold its 29% stake in Puma to Chinese sportwear company Anta Sports in January. 

In addition to the shuffling of brand ownership and the growing spotlight on licensing, many luxury houses are also launching new strategies as they seek to right struggling businesses.  

For example, the John Galliano label, which LVMH bought in 1996, recently struck a deal with Zara to work on garments from the retailer’s past seasons and reconfigure them into new collections that will be released seasonally.  

“As consumer brands, many of these labels have a ton of consumer recognition, which when we look to buy a brand that is what we look for because if you have a fan base that you can expand upon, that makes restarting it easier,” said Carolyn D’Angelo, Senior Managing Director at Gordon Brothers, which owns the Nicole Miller brand and previously controlled the Laura Ashley label, which it sold to Marquee Brands last year. 

And, in fact, the purchase of a brand has parallels with re-acquiring a license. For example, PVH has shipped a new women’s Tommy Hilfiger collection through 200 Macy’s stores and it is refurbishing a percentage of its Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein’s stores, PVH CEO Stefan Larsson said. There are about 2,000 Tommy Hilfiger stores and 800 Calvin Klein locations. 

“A key of building on the brand momentum behind Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger is the sharpened focus we have on our consumer power segments, the status shopper for Calvin and the style enthusiasts for Tommy,” Larsson said. “These consumers shop more often, have higher order values, and are more loyal. Step by step, we are bringing this strategic consumer lens and discipline to every aspect of our commercial plans. We are increasingly targeting these power segments and are focused on the hero categories where we have the right to play and win. These include underwear, denim, outerwear, and knits for Calvin and sweaters, outerwear, shirts, and knits for Tommy.”