For years now, there’s been a lot of misinformation about Jessica Simpson’s business, her eponymous fashion and shoe line. I’ve seen comments on this very blog claiming that Jessica doesn’t own her business, that she just licensed her name out and other people do the work. That’s not the case. What is the case is that Sequential Brands Group owned a majority stake in Jessica’s brand, but she and her mother still owned 37.5% of the label. Considering Jessica was one of the first singer-celebrity-designers to have a big, successful mass-market label, Jessica has made A LOT of money from her brand, even without the majority stake in the company. And now… she and Tina are about to gain a majority stake, if not the whole company:
Jessica Simpson and her mother, Tina, are about to pull off the ultimate mother-daughter power move as they plot the next chapter for their billion-dollar brand, which has defied the odds and become one of fashion’s longest-running success stories.
For the past several months, Jessica and Tina, who currently own 37.5% of the brand they founded in 2005, have been negotiating with Sequential Brands Group Inc. to buy the remainder of the business. (The Simpsons declined to comment on whether the deal had been completed. Sequential bought the majority share from Camuto Group in 2015 but filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August and has been rapidly selling off its portfolio.)
“It means the absolute world to me to be able to take over complete ownership of my brand,” Jessica told FN last week. “After 16 years in business I feel ready to meet this next exciting phase with open arms. I know the sky is the limit when my mom, our incredible team and I lock into our customers completely.”
The watershed moment also brings a sense of pride to mom Tina, who said this has been the team’s main goal for some time. “For all of our hard-working, talented, amazing licensing partners, to know Jessica is at the helm gives them strength and belief in the future. And for Jessica to regain control of her namesake brand, it allows her and I, alongside our amazing team, licensing and retail partners to build the legacy brand to carry on to her children and family,” she explained.
Currently, the Jessica Simpson women’s footwear line is licensed through Camuto Group as part of a long-term partnership, and will remain intact no matter who is the majority owner.
I’m happy for her! I wonder if she and Tina have the money to buy it outright or if they’ve getting money from silent partners or investors. In any case, Jessica’s label is the most successful part of her portfolio, and in recent years, that’s where most of her efforts have gone too, towards designing and building the business. People make fun of Jessica’s line for not being high-class or high-fashion, but she makes cute, affordable things and I know there are a lot of people who quietly swear by the quality. Like, Jessica’s shoe line is supposed to be particularly good for the price range, and Jessica really cares about making cute, affordable, wearable things. She’s not trying to be high-fashion!
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
I love the shoes from the Jessica Simpson line. The shoes are great quality for the price.
Her clothing line is a little young for me but the pieces I have purchase are just as high quality as the the shoes and the prices, for what you get, are more than fair.
I like Jessica Simpson. She’s really taken control of her image and her life and her business and its great to see. She seems healthy, happy, and depending on how many of these pictures are recent, she looks fantastic and I’d wear almost anything she’s wearing (minus the red snakeskin dress. that’s just not me.)
So you all know my feelings on wedges, but here’s where I’ll admit that I have a pair of black faux-leather ones from Jessica Simpson that I wear when I want to wear “heels” but can’t (I have bad feet, especially my right toe, so putting pressure on the ball of my foot hurts like hell) but these wedges I can wear and they’re pretty comfortable and while they’re not the most stylish thing in the world -they’re just pretty basic black wedges – I do love them and they’re in my constant work-shoes rotation, especially in winter when I wear pants that require a heel.
Sadly they are in my work cubicle and have remained there since March 2020 lol.
PS I wouldn’t wear the gray snakeskin thing she’s wearing either, but she looks good in it .
I have several of her shoes and a great lilac colored winter coat that always gets compliments. I like her stuff and I”m probably to old for her demographic (58).
It is a licensing business. You are right, but in this case, Sequential manages all the licensing deals as the licensor, rather than farming everything out to an agency. So Jessica will have more equity in the company that manages her licensing deals. Still licensing though. She’s not sitting in her own factory designing and manufacturing her clothes.
Is Jessica more or less involved with her fashion lines than the Olsen twins? I have heard things both ways regarding the degree of involvement of Mary-Kate and Ashley with their fashion lines.
From what I understand other designers see the Olsen twins as equals and designers. I can’t say the same for Jessica.
I’m glad this is Tina’s moment too and not Joe’s, he doesn’t deserve it, TIna carried him on her back for years.
It’s so true true. Joe got all the attention back then because he was her manager, but it seems Tina is the one who was making these deals behind the scenes.
Good for them, this is a great story.
I bought a black wool coat from her line on a trip to the states c.2006 and I actually kept it after it wore out with a plan to have it re-made by a tailor one day, I absolutely LOVED the cut of it. I miss that coat so much.
This would absolutely be my dream set up if I was a celeb. I’d love to have a clothing line where I could be involved in the fun parts, run by trustworthy people, and make me huge piles of money year after year. And Jessica doesn’t have to sell her soul for publicity or attention. This is the kind of (mostly) passive income that Britney needs. Jessica had addiction issues for years, and she still made a tons of money from her clothing and accessory sales.
I had a work event last week that required a dress and needed heels. And the only size they had for me was Jessica Simpson pumps. And hand to GOD they were stylish and comfortable for $29 bucks. I haven’t worn heels in 2 years. And I made it through the night fine. I’m a converted Simpson shoe line fan now.
Her shoes are gorgeous. I don’t like supporting celebrity brands, but I gravitate towards a shoe, low and behold it’s JS! I respect her line and the vision behind affordable fashion. She does it well where so many have tried and failed. I’m interested to see where it goes under she and her mom’s control, because I have seen less and less of her merchandise on shelves lately.
I have a lot of her shoes. Most of them have stood the test of time, and lasted me longer than I expected. I’m glad she gets this opportunity to buy the majority stake.