After a year of huge internal changes, 11 Honoré debuted its Spring 2022 private label collection at New York Fashion Week on Friday. Guests in attendance previewed the new collection designed by Danielle Williams Eke.
11 Honoré founder, Patrick Herning, said that the show was a celebration and “direct result” of the brand’s growth and change over the past year, including a new CEO for the plus-size company, Erin Milley.
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“Oftentimes founders end up being CEOs because they’re founders,” reflects Herning. “Though I think I was a great founder and CEO for the time I had that role, the world changed rapidly with COVID, inventory, team structure and more. We decided that it was time to bring in a new CEO.”
Milley says she’s proud of the partnership she and Herning have built. “I don’t think you could have found a better match than Patrick and I.”
She shares that for 11 Honoré, this New York Fashion Week event wasn’t merely “smoke and mirrors.” She remarked that a beautiful runway show may be in stark contrast to a company’s financial health, and that 11 Honoré has worked hard to have both. “The work that we have taken on over the past year enabled the event to happen and it enables this company to be something after this event,” says Milley.
“Erin was there at our first show,” shares Herning. “We had this big brand spectacle, but we didn’t really have a price point that resonated on the larger consumer level. Then we had a brand that was more rooted in an accessible price point, but it was the middle of COVID. It feels like we have been chasing equilibrium. I can really manifest the creative activation of a platform, but what Erin has ensured is that everything else lined up. This wasn’t just a beautiful event, it was a successful business investment.”
11 Honoré’s private label has moved from “the backseat” to the company’s true north star. Milley and Herning agree that 11 Honoré’s decision to center the private label has meant staking a claim to being a brand with “a point of view.”
The company is looking forward to exciting news in 2022, including a celebrity partnership and 11 Honoré’s five-year anniversary capsule.