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Cindy Crawford Links In With J.C. Penney

Source: Dallas Morning News

Model Cindy Crawford is extending her brand with a new line of fine jewelry priced from $79 to $299 that will be exclusive to J.C. Penney beginning in April.

The One Kiss by Cindy Crawford collection will launch with 45 pieces. Necklaces, bracelets, rings and earrings are made from sterling silver and gold-plated silver featuring a henna symbol that means “to kiss.” Some pieces have diamonds, smoky quartz, lemon quartz, garnet-colored rhodolite and deep purple iolite.

This is the 44-year-old model turned entrepreneur’s second venture with Plano-based Penney. Last year, Penney started selling her Cindy Crawford Style brand of home furnishings and accessories, a line that offers window coverings to recently added outdoor furniture.

Crawford isn’t just lending her name, said Pam Mortensen, Penney’s senior vice president and general merchandise manager for fine jewelry. “She really has a customer focus. It’s a true collaboration. Everything in the line is something she would wear.”

In an interview, Crawford said she visits Penney’s headquarters every other month. “I feel like I’m in business school,” she said.

Star Power
Crawford isn’t the first famous model or actress to delve into the retail world.  Products ranging from wickless candles and wall mats to sofas and perfume are being sold under the names of some of the fashion and movie world’s most beautiful women.  Former model Kathy Ireland has a firmly established line of furniture and home décor products ranging from sofas to window coverings, and even former Charlie’s Angle Jacklyn Smith has a retail clothing line she’s been running successfully through K-Mart.

Working with Penney to bring merchandise with style but at affordable prices speaks to her blue-collar upbringing in DeKalb, Ill., she said. “I don’t want to put my name on a line that only a few people can afford.”

Penney plans to promote the jewelry heavily for Mother’s Day. Crawford said the symbol resonated with her because of its meaning. It’s a universal love symbol, yet “also appropriate for children to give to their mothers or good friends to give to each other,” she said.

As a luxury category, jewelry sales were hit hard during the recession. It recovered some at Christmas, but that’s all the more reason to give shoppers an affordable alternative, Mortensen said. “We may add gold later in the year, but silver jewelry has been hot sellers at Tiffany and David Yurman for years.”

This isn’t Crawford’s first jewelry connection. She worked with Kay Jewelers for several years and is associated with Omega watches.

One Kiss is Penney’s first exclusive fine jewelry brand, but one of several throughout the store in recent years as Penney steps up its style.

This fall, Penney will add Liz Claiborne-branded merchandise throughout the store under an agreement announced last year, Mortensen said. It will include a line of Liz watches.AT A GLANCE One Kiss products

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My Take: I’m not a big fan of brand names, but I do think it’s pretty savvy of these former glamour girls to take their hard-earned money and create a business with it.  Looks, after all, will fade, but money has staying power.  I know the business model for some of these companies they are starting is pretty formatted and, in many cases, they drop their names on a product line and sit back and watch the sales figures.  But with Crawford, the products sound like high-quality and she sounds like she’s pretty involved in the R&D development process, which makes her seem smarter than the average supermodel.

I’ve got no idea how you can make money off of selling candles, but there are some great new wickless candles from Scentsy that are fun to sell as home-party products.  You get your girls together and have food and drinks and make sales in the process.  Moms are making legitimate living’s selling Silpada jewelry and weaving in their home life around their “jobs.”  It’s never been easier to become an entrepreneur, thanks to the Internet and the new franchise business models out there.

Speaking of franchises, if you are thinking about buying a franchise and are scoping out locations to build a new store from the ground up, you might want to think about hiring an experienced construction software company to help.  What a good construction estimate software plan can do for you is help you figure out your construction costs in advance so you don’t waste money needlessly, save time on your plans and create the most efficient hard box location you can.

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