Just some info on vintage labels...from KMart!

Link Many labels we find may be older, or could be older than we may think. I didn't realize some of these KMart labels are late 80s...therefore, vintage.... K mart hits high note with Blues - K mart's new private label women's apparel lines Beverly Hills Blues, Weathered Blues, and the Body Company Discount Store News , Nov 7, 1988 by Kenneth M. Chanko K mart Hits High Note with `Blues' NEW YORK -- In the face of blah women's wear business in general and with more and more discounters emphasizing brands, K mart Corp. continues to blaze ahead with its new, upscale private label programs in juniors and women's apparel. The new programs are Beverly Hills Blues, Weathered Blues and The Body Company, all of which were started within the last 16 months, and, at least so far, K mart is satisfied with the results. Some industry executives and other observers have blamed the advent of stores moving into private label manufacturing as one of the reasons for the stagnation of the women's wear category. The view is that stores through private label can't produce the styling excitement that manufacturers do. Summing up those feelings at a recent retail panel held here, Elliot Jaffe, president of Dress Barn, the off-pricer, said, "We may be planting the seeds of our destruction. All fashion leadership comes from the manufacturing side. Retailers can't be two things." Yet K mart has been successfully expanding its private label lines over the last couple of years. The success of the Weathered Blues introduction in fall 1987, targeted more to an older-than-junior customer, prompted K mart to go after the younger, more active junior customer with Beverly Hills Blues, which appeared on store shelves in late spring/early summer 1988. Weathered Blues, geared more for fall, is a denim-dominated sportswear line that's in the midst of its second fall selling season. The line includes a wide array of tops, bottoms and jackets in stonewashed and acidwash denim, as well as knit and chambray tops. K mart has also spun off the "Blues" concept with Mystic Blues, a line of "women's size" (the discounters phrase for plus-size women's wear) sportswear separates. Beverly Hills Blues is a street activewear line with an even more fashion-forward cachet to it. Launched in April with a significant national television ad campaign, the private label juniors collection includes knit and woven tanks, camp shirts, crop pants, skirts and shorts. With accessories one of the very few women's apparel segments that's doing well (along with fleece and intimate apparel), K mart also put the Beverly Hills Blues label on a line of accessories that include socks, handbags, visors and tennis shoes. The current fall line features fleece and sweaters. The Body Company, a private label line of leotards (two-and one-piece), leggings, briefs, crop-tops, tights and leg-warmers, hasn't been broken out on a chainwide basis like Weathered Blues and Beverly Hills Blues. The line of exercise/bodywear debuted a little over a year ago. Those three new private label lines have joined an already abundant number of established private label lines in women's wear at the giant discounter. Of course, there's the Jaclyn Smith line, which is really something more than an everyday private label collection. But there's also: Hunters Glen, which features classic ladies' sportswear; New Departures, which includes younger sportswear and activewear lines; Cristin Stevens, a line of missy coordinated sportswear; and Greenwich Square and T.R. Bentley, both career apparel lines. K mart's private label business seems to have stabilized at about 40 percent of the department. However, while the chain wouldn't comment on such specifics as margins, it's probable that the retailer's private label business accounts for an even higher percentage of gross profits compared to its branded women's apparel business. PHOTO : K mart is aggressively pushing its new fashion-oriented private label lines: Weathered PHOTO : Blues, a collection of denim-dominated sportwear, and Beverly Hills Blues, a line of more PHOTO : activeoriented sportswear which for fall features fleece and knit tops. Private label PHOTO : merchandise is near 40 percent of the giant discounter's women's apparel mix. COPYRIGHT 1988 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission. Monkey sees, Monkey does funkoma vintage....

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