Lord & Taylor’s New Owner Readies For Online Rebirth
Vicki M. Young
5 min read
The Lord & Taylor banner has a new retail chapter in its line of sight.
The new owner of the Lord & Taylor intellectual property (IP) assets since Sept. 10 is Regal Brands Global (RBG). While a revamped website for the retail nameplate is slated for early 2025, a soft launch could be up and running as soon as later this month.
Spearheading the revamp and operational oversight is Sina Yenel, RBG’s chief brand strategy officer. Unlike some IP acquirers who slap a retail banner onto a platform that then sells anything they can grab to put onto the site, Yenel said his plans are different and are more aligned with bringing Lord & Taylor back to its glory days.
“Our initial process is to basically split the IP into two different focus points. One is the retail part of the IP, and the other is the product part of the IP,” he said. “Last week, we signed a partner that will be launching sleepwear, including robes, socks and basic underwear under the Lord & Taylor heritage logo for wholesale.” RBG and the licensee are working out the details regarding the disclosure of the partner.
RBG is also talking with other manufacturers for soft textile goods, furniture, special occasion dresses, suiting, small leather goods, women’s sportswear and casual sportswear. “We’re all talking almost six months now with a lot of different parties to launch many different categories with the very top of the class partners,” he said. One thing that’s different includes having not just the signature Lord & Taylor brand in its stores, but also allowing for restricted distribution via the wholesale channel at select premier retailers.
For the IP’s retail component, RBG hired 70 professionals to support the brand, from building the website to handling marketing, social media and branding on the back end. “Our main focus is to launch the website with very well-known brand names, and to position the Lord & Taylor heritage products next to these brands,” the chief strategist said, adding that there is a dedicated team to run the online operation.
The site is expected to be operational early next year, with a soft launch likely before the end of 2024. He said the website initially will feature a luxury category for designer and luxury brands, a Lord & Taylor heritage section, a section dedicated just for dresses, and a Gen Z “focused-store”—he declined to share the name for now—that will have edgier styles in an affordable price range for the targeted demographic.
With RBG’s investors very well connected in both apparel and real estate, one question is whether a Lord & Taylor flagship also might be in the works. Yenel said those discussions have come up, but that right now he doesn’t think it makes sense. “There’s too much capital that’s been put on brick-and-mortar retail. And basically, we’re not trying to reinvent brick-and-mortar,” he said. “I would rather much work with the current brick-and-mortar players to find other partnerships, and if they’re open to it, do shop-in-shops or strategic pop ups.”
And while his dream down the road is to open a Lord & Taylor store, his first priority is to “conquer the online presence.” That means getting those operations up and running, while making decisions to ensure profitability.
One challenge for the chief strategist is on translating the in-store shopping experience to online. “Online retail is a very different game,” Yenel said, adding that he’s looking at bringing back “fun and entertainment into shopping” online that complements the heritage of Lord & Taylor.
An option is a blog on the website for people to share their stories about the brand. Another, addressing the entertainment component, is about people learning something new when they shop the site. He compares that with talking to a store associate and learning something about the product line or some other tidbit. As for translating the visual component of walking the aisles in an in-store experience to online, the chief strategist would only state that “technology [now] is so advanced in terms of graphics,” and that the full shopping experience will be understood over the next few months.
Yenel is the fifth generation in his family to have a background working in the textiles industry. He also has experience in wholesale manufacturing from fiber to fashion in all parts of the textile and apparel industries, including home textiles. Originally in charge of business development at apparel manufacturer Lorency & Company, Yenel moved over to RBG to lead the development and strategic initiatives at Lord & Taylor. RBG received funding for the acquisition through Parkrise Capital, the family office of the owners of Lorency. RBG has multiple owners, each with specialty in different fields ranging from apparel to licensing to real estate and more. And while the immediate focus is on Lord & Taylor, Yenel’s not ruling out the possibility for potentially more similar deals down the road.
According to Yenel, the acquisition was just for the IP assets. That means that the $14 million legal case Gucci filed in 2023 accusing the brand of selling counterfeit Gucci products remains a liability of its former owner, Saadia Group.
Samuel Lord founded a retail store in 1826 selling dry goods that was renamed Lord & Taylor in 1834 after a family member, George Washington Taylor, joined the business. The banner was part of Associated Dry Goods in 1916 until it was acquired by May Department Stores Co. in 1986. It was later sold to Federated Department Stores, now Macy’s Inc., in 2005. NRDC Equity Partners acquired the banner in 2006 for $1.2 billion, and then moved the operations to its Hudson’s Bay Co. division in 2008. Lord & Taylor was eventually sold to fashion rental subscription service Le Tote Inc. in 2019 for $75 million. Both Lord & Taylor and Le Tote filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection in August 2020 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Saadia Group acquired the IP in October 2020 for $12 million and shifted the operations to an online-only format. Word surfaced this past February that Saadia Group was facing financial distress. Following a default on a $45.3 million loan agreement, Saadia lost control over certain assets, including the Lord & Taylor IP, to its lender White Oak Commercial Finance, which then marketed those assets for sale.
