A year before multititle mailer Redcats USA loses the rights to the Lane Bryant Catalog, it has revealed its new name for the venerable plus-size women’s apparel brand: Woman Within.
New York-based Redcats USA, the U.S. division of French conglomerate Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR), for several years had a licensing agreement to use the Lane Bryant Catalog name. But the rights to Lane Bryant revert back to Charming Shoppes, the Bensalem, PA-based retailer that has owned and operated the Lane Bryant stores since 2001, in October 2007.
Redcats USA chairman/CEO Eric Faintreny says that the name change for Lane Bryant had been thoroughly discussed during the past 18 months. “The choice of Woman Within gives us a name that’s ours alone,” he says. “It’s our own brand. As they say in France, it’s a necessary, but useful pain. We had to move away from the Lane Bryant name in 2007, and we thought this name was extremely suitable for our customers.” From now on, Faintreny notes, there won’t be any confusion between Woman Within and Lane Bryant. Plus, the new name will “refresh the brand,” he says.
Redcats USA, which includes the apparel and home good titles Chadwick’s, Jessica London, Roaman’s, La Redoute USA, KingSize, BrylaneHome and BrylaneHome Kitchen catalogs, has some experience with introducing a new name for an existing brand. This past summer, the company began transitioning its Lerner women’s apparel catalog to the Metrostyle brand. The license agreement between Redcats USA and retailer New York & Co. ends this year, with the Lerner name–formerly the name of the primary store chain of New York & Co.–reverting back to the original owner.