News  »  2010 » January » Tuesday the 26th » News Item

City dwellers who frequent Urban Outfitters stores for trendy clothing and accessories now have access to the retailer’s cool new beauty line, thanks to a partnership with Maesa Group. The line is an extension of one of the store’s private brands, Kimshi Blue.

“We were very pleased at the opportunity to interpret Urban Outfitters’ signature look into fragrance and cosmetics,” says Ludovic Bertron, creative director, Maesa Studio. “Urban Outfitters’ marketing team asked us to create something ‘industrial’ and rough looking, but wanted to be upscale and maintain a feminine touch. They loved an antique bulb atomizer that we presented to them, so we used this component—classy, edgy, and feminine at the same time—as the focal point of the entire line.”

For the launch, Maesa created eight SKUs, including a 100ml EDT, lip balms in various flavors, an eye quad compact kid, a four-color mini lipstick kit, a six-color eye & lip palette, and a mini 10ml rollerball.

Laure Pellarin, director packaging, Maesa Beauty, explains how the line was outwardly tied together with Kimshi Blue: “For the secondary packaging, we were provided with a swatch of metallic fabric, a staple of UO’s Kimshi Blue brand. Mimicking the look of that fabric was a challenge in development. Having an in-house comp studio that could articulate and test our ideas was a huge advantage. With Maesa Studio comps, we could provide clear direction to the paper mill with the exact process we wanted. In the end, we created a proprietary paper, custom-embossed and printed with a digital scan of the original fabric itself.” Pellarin adds, “We also decided to recreate the Kimshi Blue ribbon, which is part of the apparel labeling, to make it consistent with the collection.

The line launched in all Urban Outfitters stores.