Esteban Cortazar implements disruptive strategy

By

Florent Gilles

Published
Jun 3, 2014

Buoyed by the injection of new investment, the designer Esteban Cortazar has unveiled plans to expand his label. Based in Paris since 2012, his company sold a minority stake to the London-based firm MH Luxury at the end of 2013, although exact details have not been made public.

“I’m very excited to start a new chapter in my career with MH Luxe,” said the young designer, a member of CFDA who is based in Paris. “The partnership is based on a shared commitment to expand the Parisian brand Esteban Cortazar from an overal point of view.”

Pragmatic, Esteban Cortazar’s new brand strategy is based on the pre-collections calendar, his work having become a real highlight for fashion buyers. He will present two large collections to retailers during the early July resort shows, and winter collections in January. As for the press, it will have to wait until the September-October fashion weeks to circulate images from the spring/summer 2015 collection. Store deliveries will begin in November only weeks after photos of the designs have been released.

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"We’re going to break up the collections into three deliveries in order to shorten the wait between media exposure and product releases,” says the designer, adding that he got the idea from his partnership with Net-A-Porter in 2012.

The British site relaunched his label by putting up his designs for sale just after initial media coverage - successfully. "Net-A-Porter has provided me with invaluable support ever since Nathalie Massenet suggested that I relaunch my brand through its website following my stint at Ungaro," he recalls.
Esteban Cortazar also counts Poumaillou Maria Luisa among the faithful. Her store in Printemps Haussmann also released a preview of his collection last year. The designer's label will continue its partnership with Net-A-Porter for online customers and hopes to develop a selective network "of fifteen or so shops" for summer 2015.

The designer launched his first collection at the age of 18 in New York, meeting huge success among influential customers between 2002 and 2007 including the department store Bloomingdale's. "I want first and foremost to continue the special relationship I share with the stores that have been with me since the beginning,” says designer, “while also thinking of new ways to market my collections." Shows in the various fashion capitals - this time for the media - are scheduled to start in September.