NEW YORK — Shopping at home might never be the same.
QVC, the 18-year-old shopping channel, is planning its most directional fashion offering to date with a February benefit program showcasing the work of Alice Roi, Maria Cornejo, Liz Collins and John Bartlett — four designers whose work has included such nonmainstream looks as black elbow-length leather gloves, a sweater cut in the shape of a circle, unraveled knits and blindfolded male models, respectively.
The designers are each creating a capsule group of more conventional styles for QVC for its “New Fashion Designer Showcase,” planned to air Feb. 24, which initially will raise funds for the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s educational initiatives, but could lead to separate noncharity-related programs for the designers if the merchandise performs well.
For QVC, the event marks a next step in its campaign to bring a more directional fashion image to the channel, once dominated by large-size tunics and nubby sweaters. In recent months, QVC has introduced an eveningwear collection from Pamela Dennis and next year will show a new line by Marc Bouwer, adding to a cast of designer brands that includes Robert Lee Morris, Stan Herman, Bob Mackie and NYBased.
However, Roi, Cornejo, Collins and Bartlett are designers more accustomed to residing on the radical fringes of fashion than appealing to a potential audience of 86 million households, which makes the combination with QVC all the more intriguing as part of the ongoing evolution of masstige pairings. Their work is typically fraught with high-minded messages or controversial imagery, such as Bartlett’s exploration of gay sex themes or military casualties. But for QVC, they’ve toned it down with basic sportswear concepts, priced to retail from $50 to $100.
“It’s something I’ve wanted to explore for a long time, reaching out to that kind of audience with a collection that is tailored to a larger population,” said Bartlett, whose QVC line is called Portfolio by John Bartlett. It includes shrunken, striped rugby shirts with an overlying hibiscus print, cropped cargo pants and his signature camouflage motif in pale pink and baby blue, picking up on women’s looks he last showed in his signature collection in September 2002.
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“It was a pleasure to think outside of the edgy box, to do something that my sister in Cincinnati would want to be wearing,” Bartlett said. “It’s a great opportunity to see how far that customer is willing to go and see if there is possibly a meeting of the minds there.”
Janice Johnson, QVC’s director of public relations, said the channel already has a diverse offering of designer names, but “we are really looking to increase the variety and the high-end level of designers we offer at QVC. That allows us to reach a different customer that we haven’t reached before.”
Following the recent introductions of lines by Dennis and Bouwer, Johnson said, QVC would ideally like to introduce a new collection on a quarterly basis.
QVC connected with the four designers through the CFDA and Designers Management Agency. The designers all were eager to work on the project to reach a broader audience and potentially realize sales volumes in an hour that could be greater than what they sell in their signature lines in a season.
Peter Arnold, executive director of the CFDA, said the organization will receive a contribution from QVC, but the goal of the event is broader because it aims to expose the group to an audience they have never reached.
Collins is making lightweight sweaters with stripes, dots and ribbon details. Cornejo designed a basket-weave poncho with grosgrain trim and a viscose jersey wrap top. Roi made a cream sweater coat with cascading ruffles, pencil skirts and a sweater set trimmed with grosgrain ribbons and gold buttons that was inspired, she said, by Chanel.
“I liked the idea of broadening the venue for retail,” Roi said. “We’re in a different age right now. I think people still enjoy shopping, but there are so many new ways to shop, online or on television, that we need to explore. I think if QVC was appealing to a younger crowd, with a group of more exciting designers, it could be an interesting and innovative combination.”