Hot Couture is the brainchild
of the marketer who brought Baileys from an unknown
category to a million case brand with a place among
the classic liqueurs. Now, Susan M. Lupien,
President of Hot Couture has turned her razor sharp
insights
towards another "hot category," namely fashion accessories. Zeroing in on the
turn of the Millennium fascination with functionalism wrapped in romance, she
took a look at a fashion note that has been around for centuries and is just
the solution for bringing together today’s frenetic pace and its longing
for a gentler, more romantic times. Enter the hand-held, handcrafted fashion
fan. Lupien saw the wilting spectators at golf, polo, and tennis matches; theater
audiences; and dancers on the club scene and observed their furtive efforts to
recycle napkins and programs into sources of a cooling breeze. Familiar with
the sourcing of luxurious European imports, she boarded a jet and headed out
to find where the skill and craft of shaping chic hand-held fans still existed.
She found them, and set to work with her Design Director, Chris Royer.
Chris Royer created the look and spirit of the sophisticated Azure Magazine and
is an alumna of fashion enterprises such as Halston, where she was the designer’s "muse" and
arbiter of early licensing. As a Revlon Vice President, she was a creative force
in the company’s emerging trends and building them into the brand’s promotions.
Susan
and Chris are joined by Creative Marketing/ Communications
Director Annette Sara Cunningham whose world class brand
experience includes work with Waterford Crystal and its
licensees, Lenox Brands and the launch of the Original
Swiss
Army Watch.
Hot
Couture’s flagship brand is MARIPOSA, a collection of
elegant handcrafted
fashion fans.
Hot Couture is taking on no less than the creation of a new fashion accessory
category, confident that the new Millennium will bring with it a new age of the
fashion fan.
