Rebecca Taylor, under new owners The Ramani Group, has some big plans up its sleeves.
The contemporary womenswear label, which Vince Holding Corp. sold to The Ramani Group in December 2022, has been quietly building a team and getting the business off the ground under Devyani Ramani, chief operating officer of The Ramani Group.
Next week, Rebecca Taylor will move into a 6,500-square-foot, four-story townhouse in Tribeca that will be split between retail and showroom space, and offices and design.
The brand will present the fall 2024 collection to major stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus in the showroom for the first time under new management. Plans are underway for a Rebecca Taylor flagship to open at that location in June.
The Ramani Group was founded more than a decade ago by Ramani and her husband Deepak Ramani, chief executive officer. The company, located in the Garment District, does private label for stores such as Nordstrom, Macy’s and the TJX Cos. and has a licensed division.
“I am and was a fan of Rebecca Taylor herself and the brand. When I saw this [opportunity to buy the brand] come up, my husband and I thought this was a great way of us diversifying our own portfolio and going into the contemporary market,” said Ramani in an interview Wednesday. Rebecca Taylor, who left the brand in 2019, is not involved in the new company. Vince had discontinued the business in September 2022.
The brand’s comeback started online, with Ramani selling the line on its website, before going out to major retailers.
“We immediately started to create collections for our DTC website, which was the way for us to focus on the end consumer. This will be our first collection showing in our new location in Tribeca,” said Ramani.
For fall ’24, the company is offering soft wovens, tops, knitwear and sweaters, pants, structured vests, jackets and outerwear. “Tops and soft dressing and are top two categories with some classic key pants and some outfitting jacket pieces and outerwear pieces,” said Ramani. Prices range from $195 to $1,250. The fall collection has 75 stock keeping units, is manufactured in China, with fabrics sourced from Italy and Turkey, and is designed by an in-house team.
Ramani declined to reveal the purchase price for the Taylor business or give sales projections for this year.
The collection explores “femininity and romanticism in a more grown-up way,” Ramani said. “Many of the brands that I’ve seen in our price point are either quite basic or overly focused on the shabby chic and resort-oriented aesthetic. I think there’s an opportunity for a heritage brand to produce beautiful categories and capture a multigenerational consumer and serve retailers as a year-round source.”
She called the Rebecca Taylor collection feminine and multifunctional, containing pieces the customer can wear to the office, out to dinner and on the weekends.
So far, the brand has been performing well online. “We saw tailored suiting doing really well for us, lace pieces doing well, as well as our bubble top done in a tech-y fabric as well as poplin, which has been our number-one silhouette,” said Ramani.
Ramani sees home and accessories as big opportunities for the future. “She loves a print from us and that’s something we can learn from and build into other categories. I think the brand has done some collaborations in the past, and she loves some of our fringe bags and some of the hats that we’ve done,” she said.
There are plans to launch denim in spring 2025. “It’s not necessarily a five-pocket denim. We’re in the midst of doing beautiful washed panels. Everything in our product has an element of detail and an element of surprise,” she said.
Ramani said the brand has a very loyal customer.
“This woman wants to dress up but she is not so put together. She wants a little bit of femininity and uniqueness, but she doesn’t want it to be a fuss. She wants to feel like she can move in her clothing. That’s why I think of downtown. Everyone is well-dressed but there’s this beautiful ease and elegance in how they wear their clothes,” said Ramani.
