Stéphane Kélian is back in the limelight

By

Lucile Deprez

Published
Nov 30, 2015

The refreshed team working on giving a new lease of life to the Stéphane Kélian brand remains faithful to the features which made the brand's reputation when it debuted in the 1980s and 90s: woven materials, a feminine/masculine look, graphic codes and a good fit. The team wishes to rebuild the brand's former reputation while at the same time adapting it to contemporary demand.

Olivia Cognet, a freelance designer who made a name for herself at Carven, Lanvin and Mugler, has explained: "we're revamping the Kélian of the 1980s," while preserving the brand's design codes and signature details.

To do so, when she joined in 2014, the new Creative Director was given access to the Stéphane Kélian archives, to draw inspiration from them and breathe new life into the brand.

To once again attract its consumer target, identified by the new team as consisting of contemporary, urban and connected women, a new corporate identity has also been developed, to modernise the brand and its entire universe.

Nowadays the collection's core revolves around a €300 retail price, as opposed to €450 in the past. Jean-Michel Vergain, the Royer group's Marketing and Communications Director for the junior, fashion and retail divisions, explained how he wants to reposition the brand in the 'accessible luxury' segment and is confident that "significant investment will be made by Jacques Royer to relaunch this brand."

In distribution terms, the strategy is currently focusing on the wholesale channel, with the intention of adding department and well-established multi-brand stores, both in France and internationally. The new Stéphane Kélian models are available in France, at Aoshida in Paris and Maria Luiza in La Rochelle, at Ka Pok in Hong Kong, at Beijing's Galeries Lafayette department store and at Hunting & Collecting in Brussels.

A multi-channel strategy was chosen, since the items are also available on websites such as L'Exception (lexception.com), while the brand's own e-store is planned for early 2016.

The strategy is selective and is designed to increase the brand's appeal, perhaps with a view to the future opening of a directly-owned store which, according to Jean-Michel Vergain, "is consistent with the aim of establishing the brand in the long term."

The collections are manufactured in Portugal and Italy and currently consist of some thirty models each season, including sneakers, mules, boots etc.