SEE-NOW-BUY-NOW: Cacharel, the ready-to-wear brand owned by Jean Bousquet, has switched to a digital-only business model.
The brand, whose beauty operations are licensed to L’Oréal, is focusing on its e-shop to sell its rtw collections, pulling out from previous wholesalers.
Instead of two seasonal collections, Cacharel will deliver five drops a year — spring, summer, fall, winter and a holiday collection — straight to its e-commerce. It has also reintroduced men’s wear, which the brand stopped doing in 2014.
“It’s kind of a see-now-buy-now model,” said new creative director Pascal Millet, who joined the team in September to spearhead the brand’s new direction. “The idea is to offer clothes that work for the immediate season. If you see a Cacharel item in a magazine and fall in love with it, you can buy it straight away and don’t have to wait six months.”
Millet unveiled his first collection to the press on Tuesday, a selection of 21 men’s and women’s silhouettes for spring 2019. Some of them were done in a new micro print developed in-house (the brand is aiming to move away from its signature Liberty print): cotton shirts, trousers and canvas trainers sported a blue-and-white motif featuring the brand’s initial and illustrations of the green-winged teal, or “cacharel” in French, the bird native to the Camargue region that gave its name to the brand.
The spring 2019 collection, which was launched on the brand’s e-commerce on Feb. 14, will be followed by summer 2019 in May, fall 2019 in July, winter 2019 in September and a special holiday capsule in November.
Cacharel has also lowered its price point, hoping to make its pieces accessible to younger generations: garments are priced between $120 and
$400, with accessories such as printed bucket hats and belt bags retailing at $135 and $120, respectively.