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Going Downtown? L.L.Bean Launching A Contemporary Line

  • NPR, Wednesday, September 2, 2009 8:35 AM
L.L.Bean says it wants to develop a clothing line -- dubbed L.L.Bean Signature -- that you can wear downtown as well as upstream, reports Maine Public Radio's Susan Sharon. And to accomplish that feat by next year, the venerable catalog company has hired 40-year-old stylist Alex Carleton.

Carleton worked for Ralph Lauren and Abercrombie & Fitch before creating a hipster T-shirt business that grew into a full clothing collection, Rogues Gallery. He says the twain shall not meet. "It is not L.L.Bean by Rogues Gallery. When I am working on L.L.Bean, I am thinking of L.L.Bean and thinking of their 98-year history and really existing within that world - which is pretty great," he says.

The new style will be for both men and women and includes apparel, footwear, some accessories and a couple of outerwear pieces, according to Chris Vickers, vp of the new brand. Lest you think this is not a big development, a Time magazine article retells the tale of the time founder Bean was asked if he had plans for expansion. "Yes," he said. "We have suspenders in the catalog."

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