Nostalgia never looked so good. Back in March, on International Women's Day, Kimora Lee Simmons announced that she personally purchased her streetwear label Baby Phat with plans to relaunch come summer. After a teaser collection with Forever21, now, the cat is officially back: Baby Phat's first drop just went live exclusively on its website.
The first collection has 10 to 15 styles, including an updated version of its now-iconic velour tracksuit. In the drops to follow, shoppers can expect windbreakers, oversized hoodies, and knitwear separates. Everything will be priced between $70 and $300.
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The timing couldn't be more perfect.
“When I created Baby Phat 20 years ago, it was because women – especially women of color – had no voice at all in the streetwear category,” Simmons said. “It’s in our DNA that this brand is created for women, by women – which was rare then and still is today once you really look closely at who truly owns and controls many womenswear brands on the market.”
It felt like an organic time to share her big secret during her keynote at the United Nations Women Global Innovator for Change in March. “It’s a personal allegory for ‘look how far we’ve come’ and a reminder to women everywhere to expose young girls to entrepreneurial endeavors and bring them along with you,” Simmons said.
Simmons' daughters, Ming Lee, 19, and Aoki Lee, 16, were also a catalyst for the brand's return. “I think it’s a huge opportunity to teach by example: to always keep growing and pushing yourself to evolve,” Simmons continued. “Baby Phat is our family business in a lot of ways, and I’m excited for them to participate in a hands-on way to rebuild it alongside me.” She continued: “Our strategy is tied to embracing all the exciting things that have happened in the market so that Ming Lee and Aoki Lee can tell their story to a new generation young women, some of whom may not have even been born during our first go around.”
“I think it’s really exciting to see how Baby Phat lives in 2019,” Aoki Lee Simmons said in a press release announcing the launch. “We have this whole online shopping and social media universe that didn’t exist before. From the first day we announced that there was a Baby Phat relaunch in the works, back on International Women’s Day in March, we have had women clamoring for new tracksuits via comments and DMs on Instagram — or begging us to restock our [Forever 21] capsule collab. There’s so much passion and we take all the feedback to heart. We get to interact with Baby Phat fans in a way the brand never got to do before.”
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