PARIS — It’s all change at Tara Jarmon. Seven months after selling a controlling stake in the business to AMS Industries, the brand’s namesake cofounder is handing over the creative reins to Colombe Campana, the house’s new artistic director.
A graduate of Studio Berçot, Campana has held design posts at Sonia Rykiel, Capucine Puerari and Claudie Pierlot. She also played a key role in the creation and launch of & Other Stories as manager of the brand’s Paris studio.
Canadian-born Jarmon cofounded her Paris-based brand with David Jarmon in 1986, with the former overseeing the design studio and the latter business operations. Inspired by light-hearted-yet-sophisticated Parisian style, the label is positioned in the affordable luxury segment.
AMS Industries founder Jean-Paul Bize in a recent interview with WWD said the brand, which boasts a network of more than 700 points of sale, including 52 free-standing boutiques and 80 shop-in-shop locations throughout Europe and Asia, has a strong potential for international growth, especially in the U.S. market. The brand will celebrate the reopening of its Champs-Élysées flagship here on Thursday.
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“Tara Jarmon is a successful brand even without advertising, so just imagine what could be achieved if we introduced advertising,” said Bize whose family-owned firm has roots in the industrial and energy fields but recently started buying up French brands from the fashion and jewelry sectors with the aim of diversifying its portfolio. Bize so far has focused on sleeping beauties and brands ready to be taken to the next level, with as his acquisitions to date: Poiray, Aurélie Bidermann and Tecla, a French pearl specialist. The company is open to investing in other brands, Bize said. AMS Industries is also present in the luxury hospitality and tourism sectors.
“I’m an entrepreneur, I like for things to succeed; for the brands we have to develop and grow, and — ultimately — make money. We are not an investment fund, we are a company, and we’re not buying with a view to selling these companies a year later. We’re in it for the long term, with the aim of making them great brands,” Bize said. “We don’t want to do like Sandro and Maje, which in three years ended up being sold to the Chinese.”