Nearly three years after taking the family-owned Haspel menswear brand back in-house from the manufacturer that had been licensing the label since the 1990s and relaunching it to rave reviews in the world of high fashion, Haspel owner Laurie Aronson is making some changes at the Baton Rouge-based company.
She has entered into a new licensing agreement with an overseas manufacturer, Studio Moda, to design and produce the company’s tailored line, which includes its famed seersucker suits. She has also hired a new designer, Glenn Mance, to design Haspel’s sportswear line, which will continue to be made in the U.S.
Together, the changes will make Haspel’s clothes more accessible, giving the brand wider distribution in a more moderate price range.
“The pricing structure had to be a little different, and to do that we had to take the production overseas,” says Aronson, who also runs the family-owned Lipsey’s, a firearm distribution company. “You just get more bang for your buck.”
Haspel’s spring 2017 summer suits will retail for between $595 and $695, as opposed to the $795-$895 they were selling for before. As a result, the number of stores carrying the line is expected to double from around 40 to around 80.
Aronson says the changes were prompted by the fact that there is a lot of competition in the market for inexpensive suits and also at the upper end of the spectrum. Haspel, she believes, can carve a niche in that middle range.
“There’s really no one else competing at that level,” she says.
Haspel was founded more than a century ago in New Orleans by Aronson’s grandfather, Joseph Haspel Jr. He invented the seersucker suit, and over the decades built Haspel into a venerable brand in men’s fashion, known for its quality, and crisp, tailored, conservative looks.
After Joseph Haspel died in 1977, the family sold the company, but it bought it back in the 1990s and Aronson became president and CEO in 2002. Until 2013, however, all the design and manufacturing was done by other clothiers under a licensing agreement.
When Aronson brought the brand back in house in 2013, she originally hired two of New York’s hottest fashion designers, Sam Shipley and Jeff Halmos, to do both suits and sportswear. They are no longer designing for the brand, which tries to strike a balance between its conservative roots and the fashion forward trends of the day.
Aronson has also brought in a new executive vice president to help run the company on a day-to-day basis, Will Swilley. He is a Baton Rouge native with more than two decades of experience in the apparel business.
Aaron says her long-term goal is to expand the Haspel brand in the next few years to include such categories as women’s, accessories, shoes and eyewear.
—Stephanie Riegel
