By Lauren Zumbach – Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO – The Chicago-based cosmetics logo fashion show will soon be back on store shelves, with a small makeover.
When Fashion Fair was introduced in 1973, it was one of the only makeup logos to create cosmetics designed for women of color, but the logo struggled in the years leading up to the bankruptcy of its parent company, Ebony and Jet magazine publisher Johnson Publishing, in 2019.
Today, two former Johnson Publishing executives are reviving the brand, launching new products targeting herbal and vegan ingredients and swapping branch counters for Sephora shelves to attract a new generation of consumers to an attractive and highly competitive market.
One they intend to preserve: a sense of the brand’s history.
Fashion Fair “was at the forefront of making a good look anything that each and every woman had the opportunity to experience, especially black women and women of color. . . We need to maintain that entrepreneurial spirit, that ancient spirit,” Cheryl said. Mayberry McKissack, one of the owners of the brand.
Former Johnson Publishing executives Mayberry McKissack and Desiree Rogers bought Johnson Publishing’s Fashion Fair for $1. 85 million in arrears in 2019 with Alec Litowitz, founder and CEO of Evanston, Illinois-based hedge fund Magnetar Capital. Workers and a network of 60 consultants, is based at Merchandise Mart in Chicago along Black Opal, a customer cosmetics logo that is also owned by the Fashion Fair team.
They are now preparing to launch their first new products, which will be sold on the Fashion Fair website and on Sephora, which will be available online from September 1 and at outlets later this month.
Some of the first six products will prove familiar to unwavering fashion show buyers, as a powdered cream base and lipstick are added, of which 10 of the 14 parasols are components from beyond the collections. for the sun and have been reformulated to use plant and vegan ingredients.
“It’s from this fusion of the afterlife and the present,” Rogers said.
Fashion Fair will have more festivals from other brands catering to varied consumers, such as Rihanna’s premium brand Fenty Beauty, which presented its options with 40 base shades of sunshine in 2017.
“It’s become this new environment where if you didn’t come to market in shadows, you shot yourself in the foot,” said Sarah Jindal, senior beauty analyst at market research firm Mintel.
Beauty stores have also pledged to move up more good-looking black-owned brands in the wake of the national Black Lives Matter protests last summer.
Sephora, Ulta and BlueMercury have signed the 15 percent Pledge, a crusade that aims to get corporations to dedicate themselves to filling at least 15% of their garage with black-owned brands.
Chicago-based Ulta has also committed to making a $25 million investment in diversity advertising and has hired actress Tracee Ellis Ross, founder and CEO of Pattern Beauty, a haircare logo offered by ulta, as a diversity and inclusion advisor.
Target, meanwhile, said last year that it awards 50 good-looking black-owned brands and plans to increase that number as a component of a commitment to end more than $2 billion with black-owned businesses by the end of 2025.
Fashion Fair’s history as a black-owned logo helps it stand out, industry analysts said.
“You have to be original with that client,” said Desiree Reid, a multicultural marketing officer and founder and president of consulting firm Desiree Reid.
Fashion Fair worked with a dermatologist to expand products with ingredients designed to resolve disorders that can affect others with darker skin, such as hyperpigmentation and wider pores, Rogers said.
Brands that started with lighter sun curtains before expanding their sun curtain diversity don’t offer the full diversity of products for darker-skinned consumers, said Sam Fine, Fashion Fair’s global makeup ambassador.
“If she can’t have a full face, you’ll be offering her a bread crust from a full meal,” he said.
Fashion Fair’s number of solar sunshades (16, bar) is as extensive as that of some brands, but that’s because it focuses on parasols for women of color, Fine said.
“I felt Fashion Fair could do it magnificently in 16 sun curtains and later, when we take a look at other products, let’s take a look at where we want to expand,” he said.
While Rogers and Mayberry McKissack said they’ve heard from unwavering Fashion Show enthusiasts eager to get their products back on store shelves, the logo will also have to figure out how to stick to a new generation of consumers that didn’t peak.
Fashion Fair’s move toward vegan and herbal ingredients is expected to appeal to younger consumers, as its prestige as a brand owned by black women, Rogers and Mayberry McKissack said. The couple needs to see more women of color in the cosmetic industry and plans to do so. Release a scholarship at Spelman College in Atlanta that will come with an internship at Fashion Fair and some of your spouse companies.
“There are enough women of color on the cosmetics advertising side, especially considering the cash minorities spend on cosmetics,” Rogers said.
They also plan to move sales to channels that are more with consumers.
While Fashion Fair’s presence at branch makeup counters made it “a game-changer” when it launched, today, good-looking specialty chains are more popular destinations, Jindal said.
Fashion Fair plans to upload virtual test teams to its website, a generation already held at Black Opal. Rogers and Mayberry McKissack plan to upload an individual virtual-looking consultation feature, as well as a new series of products to be introduced next year, adding lip gloss and skincare products.
Many classic brands have figured out tactics to stay relevant, Reid said.
“The name, some will say, is old, but Estée Lauder is old and Clinique is old. . . There is no explanation as to why this (Fashion Fair) logo cannot do the same and be redefined,” he said.
By Lauren Zumbach
Chicago Tribune
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