Caviar Kaspia Hits New York, Cotton Inc.’s Waste Fight, The Queen of Barbies – WWD

HARDY ON THE BLOCK?: Catterton is getting ready to bid adieu to John Hardy and has tapped Evercore to explore a sale of the company, according to sources. 

The private equity giant, which counts itself as the largest consumer-focused fund in the world with investments from Birkenstock to Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty, is looking to get about $200 million for the luxury jeweler, which it has owned for eight years.  

L Catterton declined to comment and a representative for Evercore could not immediately be reached. 

The investor bought John Hardy from 3i Group and installed former American Eagle Outfitters chief executive officer Robert Hanson as CEO. 

Hanson focused on developing the brand’s direct-to-consumer retail and e-commerce businesses and bolstering global operations. He passed the CEO reins over to Kareem Gahed in 2019. 

The sale process, which was first reported by Bloomberg, is said to have piqued the interest of both strategic buyers and other private equity firms. 

Jewelry has become a closely watched category in dealmaking, particularly since the pandemic saw increased spending in the category. It’s a category that LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, which has a stake in L Catterton, has also been expanding in, especially through its acquisition of Tiffany & Co.

John Hardy was founded by Canadian designer John Hardy in 1975, after he visited Bali and struck up a collaboration with the island’s artisans. 

The potential sale is just one of many moving parts at L Catterton, which is also said to be weighing an IPO while Rihanna weighs a similar move for Fenty x Savage.

BONJOUR: Need your fix of Paris?

Caviar Kaspia, the storied Parisian institution with a fashion cult following, is coming to New York. It will open its first permanent location at The Mark Hotel this fall. The iconic eatery in Paris’s 8th arrondissement on the Place de la Madeleine has been a celebrity and designer favorite since it opened in 1927.

The restaurant and boutique, designed by Jacques Grange, will offer the house’s favorite twice-baked potato topped with caviar, eggs with caviar, pasta with caviar, blinis with salmon, and bottarga, among other delights.

The landmark boutique will also offer Caviar Kaspia delicacies to enjoy at home or to give as a gourmet gift.

Caviar Kaspia will occupy the street level space on the corner of 77th Street and Madison Avenue.

Cavia Kaspia has another permanent location in Dubai and previously has had pop-ups in New York, Courcheval, London and Monte Carlo. — LISA LOCKWOOD

FIGHTING WASTE: As part of an Earth Day cotton crusade, Cotton Incorporated is running a campaign to tackle textile waste.

Beginning April 22, Cotton Incorporated’s Blue Jeans Go Green program runs its “Every Piece Pledge,” asking shoppers to pledge to recycle every pair of jeans at the end of a pair’s life cycle. Since the inception of the program 16 years ago, Cotton Incorporated has collected more than 4.2 million pieces of denim, continuing its commitment to reduce textile waste. Collectively, that’s more than 1,950 tons rescued from landfill.

To take the pledge, shoppers can simply visit the Blue Jeans Go Green program website and see instructions for how to donate their denim goods. From there, shoppers can ship off denim by mail using their Zappos or Amazon account to print a prepaid label to be used at any U.S. UPS store location. The only stipulations are that the denim must be at least 90 percent cotton (and free of hangers, stickers or plastic attached).

“Knowing that we’re making a difference together to reduce textile waste by recycling authentic denim is truly rewarding,” said Andrea Samber, director of brand partnerships at Cotton Incorporated. “Cotton’s Every Piece Pledge is designed to inspire shoppers to continue that commitment to recycling every pair of jeans at the end of its life cycle.”

Brands like American Eagle, Frank and Oak, Madewell, PacSun and more participate in in-store denim drop-offs either year-round or seasonally. After their useful denim life, the donated materials find their way through various recycling partners into insulation for building efforts, pet bed inserts and thermal insulation (as in sustainable food or pharmaceutical packaging), and the like. — KALEY ROSHITSH

SELLING NFTS: Move over, physical merch. The NFTs are multiplying, and getting their very own space at Harvey Nichols Hong Kong.

On Wednesday, Harvey Nichols launched an NFT retail concept space, HN NFT Vault, at its Pacific Place Hong Kong store.

Harvey Nichols said it is the first major luxury department store to offer a curated selection of NFTs from “top blue-chip projects, for exploration and sale,” including CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, CloneX x Takashi Murakami, Azuki and Doodles.

The store is promising “a seamless purchasing journey,” where both cryptocurrency and credit-card payments are accepted. The majority of NFTs in the collection are exclusively available for purchase at the HN NFT Vault.

Harvey Nichols said it wants to make NFTs “more accessible to a broader audience” by featuring a range of NFTs “from some of the most successful projects globally.”

The collection has been curated to cater both to first-time buyers and NFT experts, with prices ranging from 500 pounds to more than 100,000 pounds.

The store said it wanted to make NFT purchasing as democratic as possible so that even shoppers with no prior experience with NFTs or cryptocurrencies can “plunge into the metaverse, and learn more about the space.”

The store noted that each NFT can also be purchased with “a cold wallet, where the NFT that has been purchased can be securely stored. This marks the first luxury fashion retailer in Hong Kong to offer convenient, secure and swift transactions for NFT purchases. Through the space, customers and other collectors will also be able to create and purchase apparel based on their NFTs, and bring their digital art pieces to life.”

As part of the new concept, Harvey Nichols will also be launching a service allowing NFT owners to showcase and sell their NFTs through the HN NFT Vault. Only NFTs from “select, reputable projects” will be accepted and all such NFTs are first vetted by Harvey Nichols before being showcased at the space for sale. — SAMANTHA CONTI

A ROYAL COLLECTIBLE: To commemorate Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II’s platinum jubilee ahead of the ceremony on June 2, Barbie is releasing a tribute collection doll in her likeness on Thursday, the day the queen turns 96.

The doll is dressed in an ivory gown and blue riband adorned with miniature medallions inspired by the royal family orders. The pink ribbon was given to the Queen by her father George VI, and the pale blue one by her grandfather George V.

The mini tiara worn by the doll is inspired by Queen Mary’s Fringe Tiara, which was worn by the Queen on her wedding day.

The Queen Elizabeth II doll will be presented in a box inspired by the Buckingham Palace interiors and printed with a crest-shaped logo and a badge commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne.

The doll will be available on Amazon and at Harrods, Hamley’s, Selfridges and John Lewis. — TIANWEI ZHANG