DKNY is opting – yet again – to bank on an Instagram-friendly face for its latest ad campaign, likely aiming to boost sales despite lacking a creative director. The brand, which was sold off by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton almost exactly a year ago in light of years of lackluster growth, has lacked any big names at its helm since ousting Public School founders Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne late last year.
Caroline Brown, chief executive officer of Donna Karan International, also left the company around the same time, leaving the upper ranks of Donna Karan’s brand looking a bit sparse. To top matters off, the brand opted out of showing its Fall/Winter 2017 collection during New York Fashion Week this past February. It is not also not on the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s official Spring/Summer 2018 calendar of shows, which will take place in September.
As such, DKNY has swapped out Bella Hadid – who fronted the brand’s Spring/Summer 2017 campaign – for fellow Instagram famous model (and actress) Emily Ratajkowski for its Fall/Winter 2017 ready-to-wear campaign. Ratajkowski has appeared in prior campaigns for DKNY’s underwear line. The garments – which are logo-heavy athleisure wares – are nothing to write home about.
It is nothing if not clear that DKNY, in its current state, is stagnating, but maybe not for long. Its parent company G-III Apparel says it is in the process of rolling out a new Donna Karan and DKNY, and that it is “optimistic” about the next few years with those brands. The Donna Karan brand could, eventually, be one of its largest, according to NASDAQ.
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