HBO parent Warner Bros. Discovery clearly understood the potential of that emotional connection. Instead of just stamping its name on a bunch of frilly summer wear, the series made its costume designer Alex Bovaird available to the H&M design team, giving the collection unassailable bona fides. (The series also created boutique collections with travel accessories maker Away and beauty brand Kiehl’s Since 1851).
“The White Lotus is a cultural phenomenon,” WBD’s head of global consumer products Robert Oberschelp said. “These collaborations are giving fans the chance to be part of that experience, extending the world of The White Lotus beyond the screen and into their everyday lives.”
This same kind of extension describes The New Yorker’s reason for a fashion partnership, too.
“We launched The New Yorker Store a few years ago and found that our readers are eager to wear their love of the magazine on their sleeves, so to speak, with New Yorker-branded merchandise,” the magazine’s creative director Nicholas Blechman told ADWEEK. “As we prepared to celebrate our 100th anniversary, we knew we wanted to mark the occasion with a particularly special collection. J. Crew [is] a legacy brand, like ours, with a strong sense of heritage and a commitment to quality.”
One liability of these limited-time offerings is that they’re, well, limited. Both clothing brands and media properties have a small window of time to accrue some benefit from the deal—be it sales, publicity, or both. And while fans snapped up most of J. Crew’s New Yorker pieces and H&M’s White Lotus stuff, Zac Posen’s Wicked-themed dresses, and Crocs’ green Elphaba clogs were on steep markdown at press time.
This points out another trend when it comes to apparel collaborations: there appear to be too many of them. Last year, a poll conducted by Highsnobiety found that 44% of fashion collabs are “boring” and 67% would like to see fewer of them.
