Michael Fiddelke stepped up as Target Corp.’s new chief executive officer in February promising to bring back the discounter’s style and design savvy.
And it looks like he’s going to do it with at least one very familiar face.
Isaac Mizrahi is due to return to Target in a major way, three industry sources told WWD, although it could not be learned if a contract had been signed or exactly what the relationship would be. Neither the brand’s owner, WHP Global, nor Target could be reached immediately for comment.
Mizrahi was early on in pushing to democratize fashion, linking with Target for a five-year run that started in 2002.
This was during the retailer’s heyday and Mizrahi clearly had fun with it.
In 2004, the designer returned to the runway for the first time in six years, showing what WWD described at the time as “his big, bold experiment of pairing his new stratospherically priced custom collection for Bergdorf Goodman with his inexpensive clothes made for Target.”
While the intention was never to really sell $20,000 ballgowns and $9.99 tank tops to the same consumer, it was a show that garnered plenty of attention and helped give Target that extra zing.
And some zing is what Fiddelke is looking for.
Target, which recently opened its 2,000th store, logged a 1.7 percent sales decline last year with the top line totaling $104.8 billion. Style and design are a big part of the CEO’s plan to win back shoppers.
In March, Fiddelke held an investor day in the company’s hometown of Minneapolis and said, “It’s a new chapter at Target. Our plans build on what’s always been true about Target when we’re on our best. We’re moving forward with urgency and a firm focus on Target’s unique place in American retail. That means delivering the style, design, experience and value consumers crave and delivering the consistent performance we all expect.”
Fiddelke said investors would see “more change to what we sell and how we sell it than you’ve seen in a decade.”
“We want to spark an emotional connection,” he said. “So shopping is a joy. That spans everything we do from the products we sell to the experiences we create, from the design of our carts to the way we greet our guests from making our marketing campaigns to our community partnerships. When we democratize great design, when we’re pacesetters of what’s cool. That’s what merchandising authority is. And it’s what we aspire to deliver.”
Mizrahi left Target to try to revive Liz Claiborne in 2009 — a tough gig given the state of the brand and the Great Recession. But the designer has always proven to be especially flexible, working in turns as a cabaret performer, an actor, a writer, singer, artist, TV talk show host and more.
In 2022, brand management firm WHP bought control of the brand in a deal that valued it at $68 million.
