By Marcy Magiera
Designer and TV personality Whitney Port has a new apparel line with QVC. Simply called Whitney Port, the seven-piece QVC line includes dresses, sweaters, pants and skirts, each priced below $60. While still channeling Port’s “feminine California style with a little New York City edge,” the collection is less funky, according to the designer, than Port’s higher priced ready-to-wear brand, Whitney Eve. That line is sold in Nordstrom and boutiques nationwide.
Port joins her former “The Hills” costar Lauren Conrad in mass market distribution. Conrad has marketed her LC Lauren Conrad line exclusively through Kohl’s since 2009.
Licensed fashion sales totaled $20.3 billion in the U.S. and Canada in 2014, according to TLL’s Annual Licensing Business Survey. The 3.4% increase was above the overall growth rate of 2.5% for all licensed sales in U.S./Canada, but below the 4.1% increase the fashion sector posted in 2013. Apparel grew 4.0% in the U.S./Canada, and at just under $17.3 billion represented roughly 85% of all licensed fashion sales.