Derek Lam Buys Back Derek Lam

Lam and Labelux are parting ways amicably.  Labelux shares an owner with Coty Inc., a large fragrance company, and they want to focus on their leather accessories businesses.  Other brands in the Labelux family include Jimmy Choo and Bally.  

About Derek Lam:

Derek Lam International, LLC was founded in New York by Derek Lam and partner Jan-Hendrik Schlottmann in October 2002. Lam, a native of San Francisco, began his fashion career in 1990 after graduating from Visit Parsons School of Design. Lam spent twelve years at the highest levels of American fashion as a designer at Michael Kors before starting his own label. In 2006 the collection expanded to include handbags, followed by shoes and eyewear in 2007.
Lam's vision for his label is to create clothes that are both luxurious and wearable, with a feminine but unfussy beauty about them. His touch is especially sophisticated: modern but never cold, fantastical but always rational. He skillfully manages the combination of refinement and sensuality, with exceptional fabrics and highly perfected detail. He strives to make fashion that is timeless in its elegance: to offer one clear example, Lam is known already for cutting the most perfect trench. "I am interested in what it means to live a contemporary life," says Lam. "I always consider what will work for women at this moment, and to me this moment is about luxury without formality. Even at their most feminine, my clothes are not precious or staid."

Lam has received abundant recognition within the fashion industry. He won the CFDA Perry Ellis-Swarovski Award for Emerging Talent in Womenswear in 2005, and was a winner of the Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund Prize in 2005. In 2007, he won Accessory Designer of the Year at the 2007 CFDA Awards. His work was exhibited at the Kennedy Center's "The New China Chic" exhibition in 2006, London's Victoria and Albert Museum's exhibit of significant New York fashion, and The Museum at FIT's Gothic: Dark Glamour exhibition in 2008. His deep engagement and creative dialogue with the worlds of art and architecture led to the inclusion of his design in the Neue Galerie's monograph on Egon Schiele, whom Lam considers an inspiration.

In July 2008, LABELUX Group, a European multi brand luxury goods company, acquired the controlling stake in Derek Lam International LLC. The partnership ensures the continued growth of Derek Lam as a global luxury brand while extending Derek Lam's long term vision of modern luxury and uncompromised quality.