The Decline Of Premium American Fashion Brands. What Happened, Ralph And Tommy?

Charles Lawry, a professor at Pace University's business school who specializes in studying the luxury market, points to how high-end American brands have been creating cheaper products for decades now. "Ralph Lauren was one of the first American luxury brands to reach across many different categories, and that is really what made it successful," Lawry explains, pointing out that the company has at least 25 different lines, including the lower-end Polo and Chaps. "It is possible to purchase products from $25 to $3,000."
For a time, this strategy was extremely lucrative; soon, other brands followed suit, including MK by Michael Kors and Donna Karan's DKNY. By the early 2000s, Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren, and Coach had gone public. By 2010, the public company Phillips Van Heusen Corp. owned both Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger. In their new incarnations, these companies all faced new shareholder pressures to keep business booming. "Growth became more important than brand," says Stephanie Sarka, who held various leadership positions at Coach throughout the 1990s and had a front-row seat to this wave of IPOs and mergers. "This meant everything from lowering the cost of manufacturing to making the brand accessible to new a wider spectrum of consumers."
https://www.fastcompany.com/3062474/fashion-forward/the-decline-of-premium-american-fashion-brands-what-happened-ralph-tommy