Tomorrow Acquires Stake in Charles Jeffrey Loverboy – BoF
Tue 30 Mar
The brand accelerator is pushing a new model for growing emerging labels in a fashion market where going it alone as a small independent brand is tougher than ever.
Charles Jeffrey Loverboy has bagged its first investor.
Tomorrow, the showroom-turned-brand accelerator, has acquired a “sizeable” minority stake in the six-year-old brand, Tomorrow CEO Stefano Martinetto told BoF, declining to disclose the financial terms of the deal.
Since launch, Charles Jeffrey Loverboy has garnered a small but engaged following for designs celebrating gender-queer youth culture and its Glaswegian founder’s love of hedonistic nightlife.
“You feel the energy is there,” said Martinetto. “We recognise thought leaders and polymaths who are creative directors and can create above and beyond a single brand.”
Tomorrow, whose stable of labels includes A-Cold-Wall*, Coperni, Colville and Athletics Footwear, offers emerging labels shared services across business verticals like product development, manufacturing and distribution.
Jeffrey said his team of five had “hit a glass ceiling” in terms of growth. But selling out to scale up was not an option for the designer. “I’m always striving for authenticity and everything that I do,” he said. “I don’t think [Loverboy] needs to be this huge brand; I think it just needs to be something that is self sufficient.”
For Martinetto, niche labels with authentic followings is exactly where opportunity lies.
Photo: Oli Kearon