When was esprit founded

Esprit Holdings Ltd. This partnership with the designer has existed since His design and architecture formed the Esprit stores and showrooms worldwide. Ettore Sottsass was substantially involved in building up the brand. More than 20, products are designed each year for 12 product lines for women, men and kids — and in addition a wide variety of licensed products. The first set of garments presented by de. Sign up for WWD news straight to your inbox every day.

All Rights reserved. Fashion Moore From L. Newsletters Sign up for WWD news straight to your inbox every day. Doug's "buy only what you need" campaign included hang tags with the warning on each article of clothing, as well as a new line of fashions in more traditional, muted colors. Initially the line was profitable, but it eventually declined, and, during this time, critics noted that Doug seemed to be more interested in ecology than fashion. While Esprit had recovered from the previous two years' losses, the company was still regarded as unsteady and lacking a corporate vision.

In July Esprit announced a new plan to refocus Esprit under one Tompkins. Doug was given the option to buy out Susie's 50 percent within days of the agreement. If he did not, both halves of the company would go up for sale at auction. Clothing and footwear manufacturing giants Benetton and Reebok became interested in acquiring Esprit, when, after the requisite days, Doug had not exercised his option.

Analysts speculated that by forcing the auction of the company Doug had initially hoped to acquire Esprit for a lower price than he would have paid to buy out Susie's share. However, as Reebok and Benetton became interested in purchasing Esprit, the price would have escalated.

One day before the bidding on Esprit was to close, Doug and Susie worked out a deal, and Esprit never went to auction. Industry observers believed that Doug had been concerned that both he and Susie would lose the company to higher bidders, and, in order to keep Esprit in the family, he accepted Susie's offer in return for some interest in the company's international division.

Susie Tompkins returned to head Esprit amid much publicity. Trade journals, newspapers, and magazines depicted her as the victor in the war to control Esprit. Some observed, however, that the recession of the early s could prove particularly challenging for the company and her leadership.

Under Susie's ownership, Stein was named Esprit's chairperson. Federico remained president until his resignation in April of the following year; Stein subsequently assumed the presidency. Appointing herself creative director, Susie brought back the design team with which she had worked before leaving Esprit in Expressing the desire to produce casual fashions that exuded social awareness, she stated that her mission was to ensure "that Esprit inspire good values. In the recently appointed "image director," Neil Kraft, produced the "What would you do?

Although the advertisements won several awards and generated a great deal of media attention, sales figures were nevertheless disappointing.

The following year Kraft left Esprit, and his duties were taken over by Fritz Ammann, who was named chief executive officer while Stein remained chairperson. Pursuing her goal of promoting a socially responsible work force, Susie Tompkins replaced the employees' free vacation program with a lunchtime lecture series featuring controversial figures speaking on current issues.

She also established a volunteer program that paid Esprit employees for working ten hours per month at a nonprofit organization, providing that the employee matched that amount of time on his own.

Furthermore, the ecological soundness of Esprit's manufacturing practices was monitored by a new environmental and community affairs department in the company called the "Eco Desk. The Ecollection line of Esprit clothing and accessories, touted as both ecologically sound and fashionable, was introduced early in The line featured buttons made from reconstituted glass or carved from nuts, organically grown or vegetable dyed cloth, and purses handwoven in a Mexican cooperative.

Also that year Susie introduced the adult clothing line she had conceived years before. Tompkins referred to the designs as "creative career" wear for the Esprit customer who had matured.

The tailored trousers, sophisticated, pleated skirts, jackets, and vests were manufactured in earth tones such as plum, green, brown, and burgundy. Tompkins maintained that these clothes were functional as well as fun and appropriate for the business world.

The unconventional fashion show at which the Susie Tompkins collection debuted received mixed reviews. Rather than provide a runway and models, Susie commissioned Reverend Cecil Williams of San Francisco's popular Glide Memorial Church to give a sermon on the troubled lives and deplorable living conditions of youth in America's inner cities. While some reviewers were entertained, others reportedly were offended by Esprit's tactics.

Soon thereafter, however, Susie Tompkins stepped down, or was forced out, as creative director of Esprit. Despite her lack of corporate title at Esprit, Susie remained involved as an advisor and consultant. From a public perspective, Esprit may have fumbled, but the damage was recoverable. More telling of things to come was the state of the financial end, which was described as a disaster by industry analysts and insiders.

Forced to restructure its loans in , Esprit saw a succession of CEOs and fashion failures. In , the company made a short-lived foray back into the mail-order business with a catalog devoted to the Esprit Ecollection. In , on a whim, the company picked up the master apparel license for Dr. Seuss and produced a few t-shirts and hats to sell in Esprit boutiques during the holiday season. Intended for the children's market, the Dr.

Seuss items were wildly popular among adults and served as the one bright spot in the company's mids slump. Meanwhile, Esprit's U. Although Tomkins and Esprit de Corp. Bolstered by a Women's Wear Daily poll which ranked Esprit as 28th in a list of most recognized fashion brands, Margolis refocused marketing to attract a slightly older clientele, moving to more expensive fabrics and quality control. At the end of Margolis' first year, Esprit had added ten "shop-in shops" in departments stores around the country and two retail stores, and, more significantly, had shown a profit for seven straight months.

In , Margolis stepped up the pace of Esprit's turnaround even further. The company started by announcing a new catalog, a tool for consolidating Esprit's made-over image as "modern and sophisticated, yet distinctly fun. They founded their company with—according to their website—a focus on taking care of their employees, the environment and the world at large.

Okay, so it sounds a little more clown-ready than boho-chic, but, again, it was the 80s. So when and where did the decline happen? So the story could end there though it will live forever in our high school yearbook photos —BUT, a visit to the current Esprit website had us pleasantly surprised, mostly by the, er, very ishness of it all clean current design, user friendliness, a socially conscious message and really super elegant, clean and modern clothing designs … as opposed to the rather depressing Chic Jeans website we found recently.