In a bid to broaden its appeal to young consumers, Gucci has teamed up with pop music superstar Harry Styles to produce a line of vintage, rock-inspired apparel.
Styles became the latest musician to try his hand at fashion design when Gucci launched the HA HA HA clothing line Monday (June 20). The line includes 25 looks co-designed by the former One Direction vocalist and Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele.
The collection, which will be in Gucci stores in October includes “sport coats with meaty lapels, neckerchiefs and glen-plaid topcoats,” according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which noted “the clothes have a palpable ’70s look to them.”
“We were sharing for a long time images of eccentric men from that era,” Michele said, per the report.
Styles wore a tiered Gucci dress on the cover of Vogue magazine in December 2020 and has been a longtime advocate of and supporter of the brand. Making the HA HA HA line was “kind of like working at home on a rainy day between two friends, doing something to have fun,” said Michele in the report.
Styles is touring in support of his “Harry’s House” album.
The HA HA HA line marks Gucci’s boldest move to boost its annual sales from about $10.3 billion to about $15.8 billion, a plan announced by parent company Kering earlier this month. That growth, the company said in the report, will come through “the high potential of young millennials and Gen Z” consumers.
Styles joins an ever-growing list of entertainment icons in the fashion space, including Rihanna, who joined Forbes’ annual ranking of the world’s wealthiest people in the spring, with an estimated net worth of $1.7 billion landing her at No. 1,729 on the overall list.
Read more: Rihanna the Retail Billionaire Joins Growing List of Industry’s Celebrity Money Makers
Rihanna, whose full name is Robyn Fenty, is also shoring up her efforts for next year’s list, as she is set to use the momentum of her existing Fenty brand of beauty and cosmetics as she scales up her Savage X Fenty lingerie business and mulls a possible initial public offering (IPO).
Kanye West, meanwhile, is reported to be worth $2 billion thanks in part to his Yeezy designer deals with Gap and Adidas, up from about $1.8 billion a year ago, and Kim Kardashian returned to the billionaire’s list, as her own cosmetics and reality TV businesses nearly doubled over the past year, lifting her estimated net worth to $1.8 billion.