Rachel Zoe To The Max: Stylist To Launch Brand Under Deal With LF USA.

Byline: Jessica Iredale

Rachel Zoe to the Max: Stylist to Launch Brand Under Deal With LF USA

NEW YORK

First there were designer celebrities, then celebrity designers and now the latest phenomenon: stylists-turned-celebrities-turned-designers.

Rachel Zoe has just jumped into that pool, thanks to a deal with LF USA, a subsidiary of Li & Fung Ltd. The Rachel Zoe Collection will be a lifestyle brand contemporary accessories, shoes and apparel, for now, with the possibility of home down the line that will launch in better department stores, specialty stores and e-commerce worldwide for fall 2011. Sales projections were not available.

It's a huge deal for Zoe, not to mention LF USA, in that it marks a major strategic move by the manufacturing and sourcing giant into both the celebrity designer arena and in launching a line that would be completely created and designed in-house. "We see tremendous opportunities to support Rachel Zoe's talent as a designer and to build a new, differentiated brand concept," said Rick Darling, president of LF USA.

In introducing her own collection, she joins the likes of L'Wren …