When Kimora Lee Simmons announced that she had bought back Baby Phat with plans to relaunch the brand, Black Twitter breathed a virtual sigh of a relief. In an era when blackface still appears on runways and in fast-fashion shops, Black-owned and designed brands are sorely needed. Baby Phat's comeback means that the brand could return even stronger and reclaim the Black and urban aesthetic that many Instabrands are profiting from today. Started in 1999, Baby Phat thrived during a time when teens were still sliding their studded flip phones into their low-rise boot cut jeans. As a sister brand to Phat Farm, Baby Phat quickly soared to new heights, even inspiring its peers like Rocawear and Apple Bottoms to start their own women’s lines. The unapologetically Black, street style aesthetic that Simmons promoted can be seen reimagined on many popular Instabrands such as Fashion Nova and Naked Wardrobe. Janice Combs (Puffy Combs' mother) walks the runway at the Baby Phat Lingerie fashion show at the 4th Annual Urbanworld Film Festival launch party.The event took place in the Sony Atrium in New York City. 8/3/2000 Photo: Scott Gries/ImageDirect Simmons embodied the Baby Phat brand in a time when there were few Black designers showing collections at New York Fashion Week. As a multiracial model and mogul, Simmons represented how multifaceted and influential Black style, and Black women, can be as former creative director and president of the brand. She and her daughters have starred in countless campaigns together, representing the image of a Black woman as self-made billionaire fashion designer. Simmons’s reality show “Life in the Fab Lane” provided refreshing insight on the life of a designer and mom managing a global brand. Therefore, announcing her relaunch of her brand at an International Women’s Day event was truly fitting, especially in an era where Black women are becoming more prominent in leadership, specifically within government. “Baby Phat will be woman-owned, woman-led, and as always, designed by and for women,” she said to the audience, according to BET. In addition to Baby Phat, Simmons also started a namesake line that has shown at NYFW. A model walks the runway at the Baby Phat Fall 2002 fashion show during the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Bryant Park in New York City. 2/9/2002. Photo: Evan Agostini/Getty Images Baby Phat owned the street style aesthetic (which Simmons dubbed "fabulosity") that many blackfishing (I.e. non-Black influencers pretending to be Black) Instamodels profit from today. In some cases, Instamodels are partnering with Instabrands to mimic the aesthetic that Simmons and Baby Phat (along with many other Black-led brands) are known for creating for the mass market. Fashion Nova has become known for figure-hugging, curve-celebrating, affordable (yet aspirational) outfits, although Baby Phat, and many Black-led brands, had been promoting that aesthetic years before it saturated the social media landscape. What separates Baby Phat from its peers today is that it’s authentic. Simmons did it before it was en vogue to celebrate curves, women of color, and street style overall. “And I was certainly embracing my history and where I’d come from...,” Simmons said in a Fader 2016 interview about how far-reaching the Baby Phat look has become. “I was paying homage to the feminine form, body, and shape and the references that I was using, the materials, the finishings, [and] the metals.” Even those chosen to front Baby Phat’s campaigns or walk in the brand’s shows, such as Lil Kim, truly reflected the lifestyle that Simmons was trying to promote. Lil' Kim walking the runway at the Baby Phat Lingerie fashion show at the 4th Annual Urbanworld Film Festival launch party.The event took place in the Sony Atrium in New York City. 8/3/2000 Photo: Scott Gries/ImageDirect Today, Baby Phat is part of a revitalization of the early 2000s Black culture, from fashion (FUBU) to music (The Millenium Tour) to plays (Madea’s farewell tour). What’s different now, though, is the power of social media to demonstrate how Black style and creativity is not a subculture, but a major powerplayer in the global fashion market. Street style today has been taken even more seriously, with marriages between luxury and youth culture brands (I.e. Louis Vuitton x Supreme) and limited edition ‘drops’ resulting in an estimated 200% markup on resale sites, proving the success of cross-tier collaborations. Baby Phat could arguably raise their prices (and prestige) in a street style-driven world, where limited drops are king, (or in this case queen) while simultaneously supporting other Black talent. It’s definitely time for ‘dream team’ collaborations between Black designers within both the luxury and fast-fashion spaces. Many other popular 2000s-era brands have benefitted from similar luxury and accessible brand partnerships, such as the Vetements x Juicy Couture collab and the Off-White x Converse collab. Could the new Baby Phat collaborate with Telfar, Off-White, Pyer Moss, or even Rihanna's much-awaited LVMH line? Only time will tell.<doc-sep>Kimora Lee Simmons is celebrating International Women's Day by sharing some big news: Baby Phat is coming back! Her daughter Ming Lee Simmons is sharing the exciting news on her Instagram, writing, "Baby Phat has always been a brand for women. We have always celebrated every shape, every size, every race, every background; every woman. In 2019, we're bringing it back for ALL of us... Because we're worth celebrating." Kimora is happy to share that she is once again the proud owner of the streetwear brand after leaving her position at the company in 2010. Now that she is back in business, Kimora has a grand vision for the future of the company, which includes a switch from designing streetwear to creating sportswear and an ambitious launch date for this later year. During her ten years as creative director, Kimora made the brand famous in the early 'aughts by staging over-the-top runway shows, creating memorable designs and attracting famous A-listers who regularly sported the clothing line.<doc-sep>Photo : Courtesy of Kimora Lee Simmons There is a certain generation of women *cough* who remember well the once-ubiquitous presence of the Baby Phat logo, a sinewy, sexy cat that seemed to peer out at us from cropped puffer jackets, velour tracksuits and jean pockets everywhere in the late 1990s to early-aughts. Advertisement That cat was rumored to have been modeled after founder and designer Kimora Lee Simmons’ childhood cat, Max. And it seems Simmons—now Kimora Lee Simmons Leissner—will be bringing back a bit of our childhoods (or, in my case, young adulthood) with the relaunch of Baby Phat by Kimora Lee Simmons. The iconic urbanwear is reportedly set to re-enter our collective consciousness later this year. On International Women’s Day, Simmons Leissner revealed her reacquisition of the label, which was acquired by former parent company Kellwood Company in 2004. (Simmons Leissner left the helm in 2010, following Baby Phat with a role as president at Just Fab and the launch of her own high-end line, KLS.) She made the announcement while giving a keynote address at a gathering for UN Women and the Gender Innovation Coalition for Change (GICC), during the celebration of another important launch: the coalition’s new ‘She Innovates’ principles, designed to help companies achieve gender equality within their workforces. Launched in 1998 as a spinoff of then-husband Russell Simmons’ menswear brand Phat Farm, the new iteration of Baby Phat will have an even more female-centric spin; Simmons Leissner announced the label will be “woman-owned, woman-led, and as always, designed by and for women,” according to a statement provided to The Glow Up. And keeping it all in the family, teenage daughters Ming Lee and Aoki Lee Simmons will also be on board, in an undisclosed capacity. Photo : Courtesy of Kimora Lee Simmons Simmons Leissner says we should expect to see new buzz from Baby Phat with an exciting collaboration this summer. A signature collection is set to debut in Fall 2019. No word on whether cropped puffer jackets will be making a comeback.<doc-sep>Baby Phat is back. Fashion designer Kimora Lee Simmons, 43, announced in a press release on Friday that not only has she purchased back her popular streetwear brand, but she will relaunch it later this year. She declined to reveal to WWD how much she repurchased the company for or from whom she bought it, only saying, “We had to hunt around to find it.” Simmons first created the brand 20 years ago under her then-husband Russell Simmons’ Phat Fashions company. She later expanded the womenswear brand into multiple categories, including fragrance and accessories, and made more than $1 billion in sales during it’s heyday. When the label relaunches this spring, fans can expect it to look similar to all the most popular streetwear styles that have been revamped as of late. However, Kimora reportedly plans on tapping into her “amazing personal archive” as inspiration and include “retro” elements. The brand will first re-emerge this summer with an unannounced collaboration and then debut a signature collection this fall. In 2000, Simmons was named creative director of Baby Phat and later was named president. In 2004, Russell Simmons sold it to Kellwood Company for $140 million while Kimora stayed on. However, she split with the company in 2010. She launched her own eponymous line in 2013, which she will continue to operate as a separate entity from Baby Phat. “They’re siblings, but one is older than the other,” she said. Like the original product, the relaunch will be a family affair that includes her daughters Ming Lee Simmons and Aoki Lee Simmons. “It’s very important that you have women on both sides: women as the end user, women as the creator,” she told Bloomberg TV. “We need to take more of that responsibility and own it.”<doc-sep>
The brand that defined the early 2000s is coming back. That’s right, Kimora Lee Simmons’ Baby Phat is making a return. Her daughter, Ming Lee Simons, shared the news on Instagram, writing, “Celebrating #internationalwomensday with a very special announcement! Baby Phat has always been a brand for women. We have always celebrated every shape, every size, every race, every background; every woman. In 2019, we’re bringing it back for ALL of us… Because we’re worth celebrating.” RELATED: Diddy, Usher, Kimora Lee Simmons And More Lay Kim Porter To Rest At Georgia Funeral Now Kimora Lee Simmons Leissner, she has repurchased the company she left at the end of 2010 with plans to relaunch the label later this year. Speaking to WWD about the brand she noted that they “had to hunt around to find it” but wouldn’t name who it was bought from or for how much. RELATED: Kimora Lee Simmons Defends Russell Simmons Against Sexual Misconduct Allegations: ‘No One Should Be Condemned Without A Fair Trial’ Baby Phat has sales more than $1 billion with major celebrities from Rihanna and Carrie Underwood as clients at the time. The relaunch will feature “mainstream sportswear” targeted towards Millennials with “retro” designs reimagined. Leissner plans on using her “amazing personal archive” for inspiration. “We’re working fast and furiously and have a lot up our sleeves,” she adds. Leissner has since created a women’s collection, she has a book and a line of perfume. No matter what she is working on, her mission is to champion women of colour. Adding, “That’s always been my message, but it’s never more relevant than it is now.” Leissner just joined the UN Women and the Gender Innovation Coalition for Change for their new “She Innovates” campaign to encourage gender equality in the workplace.