John Elliott is about to get a new lease on life.
The Los Angeles-based brand has quietly changed hands, according to sources, and its new owners — Centric Brands and former Project founder Sam Ben-Avraham — are reportedly planning for a major relaunch later this year.
Centric declined to comment and Ben-Avraham could not be reached.
Last year there was speculation the once red-hot brand was on the verge of closing or being sold. Authentic Brands Group was among those believed to have kicked the tires, but John Elliott’s small size didn’t fit with the company’s prerequisite that an acquisition had to have sales in the $1 billion range.
Centric, however, has moved beyond its roots as a brand management company and has been building a luxury, sports and emerging brands platform under its president Andrew Berg. The division includes Robert Graham, Avirex, Off-White, Favorite Daughter, Jennifer Fisher, Game 7 and other brands. John Elliott would fit the mold.
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Ben-Avraham’s role in the John Elliott business is unknown, but the entrepreneur has a long track record of success in the retail and apparel space. In addition to starting Project, he cofounded Kith, started Atrium, Liberty Fairs and the Cabana Show. In 2019, he put together a group that submitted a bid for Barneys New York after it filed bankruptcy. That attempt was unsuccessful and Barneys was sold to Authentic.
Under the tutelage of Centric and Ben-Avraham, John Elliott may get his mojo back. A San Francisco native with an obsession for skate culture, basketball and fashion, Elliott founded his eponymous men’s brand in 2012 with his lifelong friend and business partner Aaron Lavee. It quickly became a cult favorite amongst athletes and influencers including Justin and Hailey Bieber, Kanye West, Victor Cruz and LeBron James. Elliott held his first show in New York in the fall of 2015 with a celebrity-packed front row, and then showed several more times during New York Fashion Week before decamping to Paris, where he showed his spring 2023 collection in an extravaganza on the rooftop of the Centre Pompidou.
He won GQ’s Best New Designer of the Year award two years after launching his brand, was nominated for Menswear Designer of the Year by the CFDA in 2016, and over the years collaborated with brands including Nike and the Gap and the City of Los Angeles. He also expanded into womenswear as well as furniture as his business grew.
But in recent years the brand began to lose momentum as appetites faded for Elliott’s aesthetic, and the privately owned company faced financial challenges. The aftermath of the pandemic was particularly hard on the company, sources said.
In its heyday, John Elliott operated six stores across the U.S., including flagships in New York’s SoHo and West Hollywood, which both remain open. The others, in Toronto, Aspen, Miami and on Madison Avenue, have closed.
The company’s website is still active and on Wednesday was selling a range of men’s basics including T-shirts, sweats, cargo pants, jeans and ballcaps. No women’s-specific collection was offered, although much of the offering is unisex.
