Preston Lane — the budding home care brand — has linked with Centric Brands and forged a long-term strategic partnership that will bring some operating muscle to the next leg of its journey.
Founded by lifestyle expert Preston Konrad and branding veteran Lisa Manice during the pandemic, Preston Lane launched over the summer and sells elevated home products through its own site and at Nordstrom.
The product line aims for “refined, down-to-earth elegance” and features home essentials, home decor and lifestyle accessories.
The products include all-purpose cleaners, dish soaps, hand washes and hand creams that are Made in Italy and sell for $19 and scented candles that start at $29.
Preston Lane products.
Courtesy
More is on the way, with home accessories and gifts launching early next year to be followed by pet products.
Centric is going to use the operational expertise that made it a licensee for more than 100 brands — including Tommy Hilfiger, Coach and Michael Kors — to help expand Preston Lane.
“We’ll do the sourcing and the logistics and it’s going to be all housed in our showroom,” said Jarrod Kahn, group president of accessories at Centric.
But the brand flows from Konrad and Manice.
“It’s their brand, it’s their vision, it’s all the products they are developing,” Kahn said. “We like working with talented people that have a clear vision.”
Incubating and building young brands has become part of the playbook at Centric, which has also helped support the growth of Sara and Erin Foster’s fashion brand Favorite Daughter as well as jeweler Jennifer Fisher.
Now it’s Preston Lane’s turn.
“It’s the perfect balance of creativity and capability,” Konrad said. “This partnership with Centric is exciting because it is that creativity from our side — the brand, the storytelling, the founder story, the journey — and then this incredible capability engine that Centric has.”
Konrad spent two decades in fashion becoming a lifestyle expert, from developing his style chops at Ralph Lauren to serving as global director of creative services at Belstaff and then as style director at American Eagle.
With Preston Lane, he’s looking to make “luxury level product” while “democratizing style for the everyday household and the everyday person.”
Konrad, who is also a TV personality, has built momentum for the brand by sharing its journey with his social media followers, who soon will be able to see it in its own IRL retail space with a pop-up at Hudson Yards in New York.
The space opens on Black Friday for a two-month run.
“Given the amazing kind of footfall they get over the holidays and the type of retailers that we are sitting alongside, we’re really excited to introduce ourselves brick-and-mortar there,” Konrad said.
Preston Lane is also going wider online.
“We are launching shortly on Amazon, which is really exciting for us given that we have such an extensive range already in home care that brings this luxury-level experience to people, whether they’re washing the dishes or tidying up after a meal or getting ready for a girls’ night at their house with a candle,” Konrad said. “Amazon is a no-brainer for us when it comes to bringing that experience to more households.”
Manice — who has worked with Kim Kardashian, Lenny Kravitz and Kylie Jenner, private equity companies and more — said she and Preston had been behind the scenes at a lot of other brands and decided to step out in front in 2020.
“We want to change the world and leave it better,” Manice said.
“It’s been a really fun partnership,” she said. “We dream up, ‘Where we could see these products? Where should they be at market? Which retailers? Which points of distribution?’”
She said the brand has the runway, a global platform with Centric and is on its way to being “the next lifestyle brand for today and tomorrow’s generation.”
