Jessica Simpson Asked Her Mom Tina for Money After Buying Back Her Namesake Clothing Brand
In a new interview with ‘Bustle,’ the multi-hyphenate opened up about the sacrifices she made to earn back financial ownership of her company
Charley Gallay/Getty
Jessica Simpson in 2022Jessica Simpson was willing to put her all into reclaiming her brand, Jessica Simpson Collection.
The mom and businesswoman, 42, opened up to Bustle in a candid interview reflecting on the tough financial decisions she had to make to eventually buy back her own company, founded in 2005, from Sequential, which acquired a major stake in the brand in 2015.
Five years later, Simpson decided she wanted to take matters into her own hands.
She, alongside her mother Tina, told Bustle that Sequential wanted to furlough most of the brand's 10-member team, which included both of the Simpson women. “For me that was disrespectful,” the former Dukes of Hazzard star said.
Tina also saw disaster looming on the horizon. “[Sequential was] headed to bankruptcy. I wanted to make sure we did not get caught up in all that,” she added. (Sequential filed for bankruptcy in 2021, according to CNBC.)
Simpson realized that she was in a sink-or-swim dilemma, coming to the conclusion that she and her mother were their own “lifesavers” in the ocean of uncertainty.
The two retained 37 percent of the business in the 2015 Sequential sale and ultimately brought back the remainder for $54 million in summer of 2021, with Simpson putting her home up for collateral. She also liquidated her stock portfolio, per Bustle.
Last May, the brand closed on a $67.5 million loan from Second Avenue Capital Partners, which will allow the Simpsons to put money back into their own company, with plans to launch a hair-care extension in 2024.
The “Irresistible” singer said she doesn't have any regrets about what she did. But, she confessed that she has had to rely on her mom for money (and money management help) in certain situations since.
Related: Jessica Simpson Regains Complete Ownership of Her Billion-Dollar Fashion Brand
“Honestly, she did reach out to me to borrow money. And I said to her, ‘Yeah, let's talk about it,’ ” Tina said, adding that her condition would be for Simpson to “control” her spending better. (Bustle revealed that Simpson’s latest shopping trip to a Louis Vuitton store involved an authorization phone call to her mom.)
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“In buying the brand back, I told her, if you're sure you want to do this, you’re just going to have to tighten up your belt a little bit," Tina said on the advice she shared with her daughter. "You're going to have to not live not quite as extravagantly.”
Challenging as it may be, Tina believes that the mother-daughter duo “do a really great job of balancing” their work and personal lives.
While speaking with Bloomberg Businessweek in 2022, Simpson said she considered “borrowing against her homes,” at the time of the buy back, even if that meant living “in a little, tiny place in Ireland.”
In a Footwear News cover story published in 2021, Simpson added that it meant the “absolute world to me to be able to take over complete ownership of my brand."
"After 16 years in business I feel ready to meet this next exciting phase with open arms. I know the sky is the limit when my mom, our incredible team and I lock into our customers completely."
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