R+Co and Garren to Launch R+Co Bleu
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Luxury Brand Partners is cashing in on the growth in prestige hair care — again.
Launching with 21 stockkeeping units in November, Luxury Brand Partners will debut R+Co Bleu, the uptown sister brand to R+Co, in collaboration with brand cofounder Garren. The line is available for preorder today.
The brand draws inspiration from Garren’s five-decade career as a professional hairstylist, but most notably, his start. “In the early Seventies, I was scooped up by Polly Mellen and Irving Penn, and I went to my first couture shows. I was just overwhelmed with the beauty and the extravagance,“ he said. “I wanted to share that with my whole new venture. It’s the couture version of R+Co.”
With four collections, color-coded by concern (blue, orange-red, green and purple for essentials, color, repair and moisture and volume, respectively), each product’s formulation is color-safe, Leaping Bunny-certified, vegan and free of gluten, parabens and sulfates. The jars and bottles, inspired by couture shows Garren attended in the Seventies, are recyclable and completely made of post-consumer recycled materials, and the tubes are made of recyclable sugarcane-derived plastic. The product boxes contain seeds that can be planted.
“When you look around at the luxury level, there’s next to nothing that’s sustainable,” said Tev Finger, founder and chief executive officer of Luxury Brand Partners. “It’s almost like having a Rolls-Royce that’s electric. There’s literally nothing in that category. And from an LBP perspective, hair is one of our core strengths.…It’s going to set a sustainability standard for all of our brands.”
Following launch, R+Co Bleu will be distributed in salons and department stores globally. “We’re launching with a group of founding member salons, and the top retailers,” said Dan Langer, president of R+Co. Industry sources anticipate the brand will do $50 million in retail sales during its first year.
The line spans categories, across hair care, styling products and finishing products. Products include: Essential Hair Tonic, Smooth & Seal Blow Dry Mist, Elastic Styling Pomade, Hypersonic Heat Styling Mist, Featherlight Hairspray, Cult Classic Flexible Hairspray, Retroactive Dry Shampoo, Primary Color Shampoo & Conditioner, Primary Color Masque, De Luxe Reparative Shampoo & Conditioner, De Luxe Reparative Masque, Optical Illusion Smoothing Oil, Super Style Crème, Surreal Styling Serum, Ingenious Thickening Shampoo & Conditioner, Magnifier Thickening Spray, Highest Volumizing Mousse and Lifestyler Volume & Texture Spray. Prices range from $52 to $77.
Other ingredient highlights include time-release technology to reduce breakage and increase shine, Langer said.
The launch comes on the heels of steady growth for the prestige hair category, spurring a slew of introductions. Earlier this year, for example, Drunk Elephant launched its hair-care line with Chris McMillan.
For Garren, R+Co Bleu is his third product line, following an eponymous collection and R+Co. “The older we got, the more we wanted to just buy the best,” he said on how this line differs from past ones. “And the line is so Garren that it didn’t need my name on it.”
For more from WWD.com, see:
Gabrielle Union, Larry Sims Relaunch Flawless by Gabrielle Union
Pat McGrath, Garren Create a Hippie Beauty Look for Anna Sui
Luxury Brand Partners Raises $50 Million From Bookend Capital
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