Walmart wants to try its hand on fashion and announced the hiring of Brandon Maxwell, the creative designer who dresses Hollywood celebrities like Lady Gaga and former U.S. first lady, Michelle Obama, to elevate its brand, Fox News and Yahoo Finance reported Wednesday.
The New York City-based Maxwell will serve as Walmart's creative director, overseeing its brands including Scoop and Free Assembly. His duties will encompass material selection, production, brand marketing and campaigns.
Maxwell established his own luxury label and was a judge on television show "Project Runway." The collaboration is a first for Walmart's private brand apparel business and his first full collections will be available in the spring next year.
The 36-year-old designer will bring a high level of Hollywood star power to Walmart. His other A-list clients include Oscar-winners Jane Fonda, Viola Davis, Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Lawrence, talk show icon Oprah Winfrey and Queen Rania of Jordan.
Maxwell designs a luxury brand sold by retailers like Neiman Marcus with items having a price tag of hundreds or thousands of dollars each.
"This partnership allows me to bring the experience and joy of fashion to countless people who live in small towns across the country," Retail Dive quoted Maxwell as saying in a statement.
Walmart has expanded beyond clothing basics in recent years. The discounter has bought established apparel brands, like menswear retailer Bonobos and Moosejaw, and rolled out its own. Walmart added almost 1,000 national names to its website, including Levi Strauss and Champion.
On top of overseeing the creative aspect of Walmart's clothing labels, Maxwell will design a line of face masks. Walmart will donate $100,000 of the proceeds from the sale of the masks to DonorsChoose.org, a charitable group Maxwell picked for its commitment to helping public school teachers get financial aid for school programs.
