Four Marketing, the London-based fashion wholesale, retail and lifestyle company, has teamed with Archetype Showroom, a New York-based wholesale agency, to create Four Marketing Archetype.
The new agency will expand to encompass the entire second floor of Archetype’s gallery-like showroom at 676 Broadway in New York.
The brands that Four Marketing Archetype will work on together are Albam, Penfield, Perseverance London and Stutterheim (brought from Four Marketing), and Freda Salvador, Gents, IWS, Maiden Noir, Maria Black, Nika Tang, Stine Goya, and Zespa (brought from Archetype).
Known for its brand building, Four Marketing has created impactful bricks-and-mortar and online retail experiences throughout the U.K.; they open retail stores for their brands, have their own e-commerce site, Oki-ni.com and have a public relations and creative marketing company, Present Agency. The full-service company has been interested in breaking into the U.S. market for some time. Four Marketing’s parent company Four Holdings owns Agent Provocateur.
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Ben Banks, founder and director of Four Marketing, said his foray into the U.S. market is “part of a long-term ambition of the Four Marketing group.” He said he was happy to welcome Four Marketing Archetype into the larger Four Marketing network of showrooms located in London and Paris. “We have spent time considering the best way to enter the important U.S. market and we feel that partnering with the experienced and talented Archetype team gives us all the best possible chance to succeed in both a potentially fertile but immensely challenging market,” said Banks.
Audrey Gingras, Archetype’s founder, said, “As the world becomes a smaller place, individual style and expression expand. It is exciting to partner with a company like Four Marketing which has built large and successful businesses with great foresight while balancing integrity and acumen.” She said that together she expects they will be able to help talented designers grow and succeed globally.
The Four Marketing Archetype business launched Nov. 1 and the company will be showing pre-fall 2018 collections shortly.
Gingras, who is based in New York, will be showroom director for the new Four Marketing Archetype location. Banks and other sales executives will join the team in New York during New York sales market weeks. Gingras and other members of the New York staff will conversely travel to the London-based showroom during London Fashion Weeks.
Adrianna Smith, a sales executive at Four Marketing, will join the Four Marketing Archetype staff as a senior sales executive. The remainder of the Archetype Four Marketing full-time showroom personnel come from the Archetype staff. At present, the total employee count is six full-time staff members and the company seeks to hire two sales assistants.