How Kimora Lee Simmons Brought High Fashion to Hip Hop
In my last post I wrote that taste is a social activity that drives cultural capital. And in that mix, brands are status signals. Read that here.
A lot has been said on this platform about cultural brand strategy anchored in world building. Consider Baby Phat a case study. In the mid-2000s, Kimora Lee Simmons used high fashion nuance to build Baby Phat into a cultural entity.
Personally, this starts with a somewhat traditional backstory. I spent high school poring over Teen Vogue and Seventeen magazines. Ripping out pages that inspired me most, saving them in a binder. In my daydreams I sat at an editor’s desk, writing essays and curating trends.
Reality TV was just on the rise, and during those years I sometimes got to escape to a world filled with runway shows, over the top ad campaigns and general moving and shaking. I wasn’t actually running the Baby Phat fashion empire, but Life in the Fab Lane (Vulture 2007) got me close enough.
In 1999, Kimora Lee Simmons founded Baby Phat as the womenswear counterpart of Phat Farm. The brand took the best parts of high fashion, luxury and hip hop and turned them into an aspiration that shaped an era of style.
Natane Adock, Kimora Lee Simmons and May Andersen during The 4th Annual Urbanworld Film Festival and preview of Kimora new lingerie line "Baby Phat" at Sony Atrium in New York City, New York, United States - Getty
Timing played a part, the mid-2000s saw hip-hop begin to merge with popular culture. The brand carved out a niche by catering to women and their form: cropped and fur-trimmed puffer jackets, jeans with curve-hugging stretch, its infamous velour tracksuits. Between 2001-02, the company saw revenue grow from $20M to $265M (Osterman 2020).
It was the lifestyle that helped sell the clothes (blog post here).
A lot has been said on this platform about cultural brand strategy anchored in world building. Consider Baby Phat a case study. The brand was successful because of its strong creative vision, savvy marketing tactics, and ethos centered around women’s empowerment.
“More than that, Baby Phat was not simply a brand, it was a luxurious lifestyle, fueled by every gold-plated chain, rapper endorsement, and swipe of a cat-branded VISA. Simmons brought streetwear to a gender that didn’t have it before—and, through her model castings and close ties to the hip hop elite, brought representation to communities within that gender that had long been ignored” (Fashionista 2019).
The Muse of Karl Lagerfeld
At 13, Simmons signed an exclusive modeling contract with Chanel under the creative direction of Karl Lagerfeld. The DNA of that house is considered a form of female emancipation. Fluid, androgynous silhouettes that allowed women to move and breathe in their clothes, as men did in theirs (Cerini 2021). Fashion shapes culture in a way that is utilitarian – as a sign of the times. Simmons revolutionized streetwear for the female form. At the hear of Baby Phat is a celebration of womanhood through the personification of “fabulosity” (book).
Also, Lagerfeld wrote the playbook for global luxury brand management (Business of Fashion 2019). House codes as symbols imbued with meaning (semiotics).
On Positioning “Fabulosity”
The management of Baby Phat was anchored in its brand positioning of “fabulosity”, brought to life through a few marketing tentpoles I love to remember:
Iconic Runway Shows during NYFW: “The over-the-top runway shows were pop-cultural spectacles in and of themselves, a rotating who’s-who with everyone from Brittany Murphy to Queen Latifah mingling in the front row. The hip hop and fashion worlds happily clashed within Simmons’ fashion week tent, while many of the decade’s most iconic sartorial moments (like Cam’ron in that baby pink outfit) occurred right outside (Giovanna Osterman 2020).
Signature Ad Campaigns: Scenes that envisioned a world with women at the helm, wearing what they wanted. “Ads depicted Kimora living the glamorous life, stepping off a reimagined version of the Air Force One, clad in a pink printed jacket and oversized black sunglasses. The men in that famed image cater to her, holding her pink handbag and carrying her luggage as she waves to an adoring crowd of fans. In the world of Baby Phat, Kimora is President” (Andrews 2019).
Building a symbol of the cat logo: Licensing deals allowed Baby Phat to expand outside of clothes while staying true to its brand culture. In 2003, there was a Baby Phat branded VISA card. In 2004, the notorious quilted Motorola flip phone (Londner 2003) with 0.4-carat diamonds.
Baby Phat emerged as a disruptor, challenging contemporary notions of womanhood and streetwear. Offering its own spin. Those contributions have shaped the last decade.
