Kohl’s x REED at Grand Central

In spring 2016 the department-store chain Kohl’s launched REED, a limited-edition collection designed by Reed Krakoff, and promoted it with a pop-up at New York’s Grand Central Terminal under the hashtag #MustREEDxKohls. This page sets out what published sources record about the collection and the event. It is an independent summary; it is not affiliated with Kohl’s or with the designer.

The designer

Reed Krakoff is best known for handbags. Coresight Research notes that he was executive creative director at Coach from 1996 to 2013 before working under his own name. FashionUnited, reporting the Kohl’s partnership in November 2015, described him as a designer whose luxury bags had sold at four-figure prices, and noted that he had announced in March 2015 that he was suspending operations at his namesake company.

The collection

The partnership was a first for Kohl’s in two ways. FashionUnited reported that, unlike earlier designer tie-ins such as Thakoon and Milly that sat under the retailer’s DesigNation label, REED was its first standalone designer collaboration. Kohl’s itself described REED as its first limited-edition designer line to feature handbags.

FashionUnited’s early report also listed footwear among the planned categories; later sources focus on handbags and apparel.

The Grand Central pop-up

Kohl’s corporate newsroom post on the event describes the launch stunt: during the morning commute at Grand Central Terminal, the retailer surprised 100 women with a handbag from the collection. Coresight described it as a personalized style experience for commuters. The newsroom post is dated 13 May and refers to the event as having taken place “last week”; it does not state the year on the page, but the collection’s April 2016 launch places it in spring 2016.

The blogger program

Alongside the pop-up, Kohl’s worked with five fashion bloggers, pairing each with a New York street-style photographer to post about REED pieces throughout the day. The newsroom post names Naty Michelle of the blog A Love Affair with Fashion as one of the five. That blog formerly used this web address; this site is a separate, independent project and is not connected with it or its author. See the about page.

Why it is a useful case study

The REED launch brought together several ideas that shaped mid-2010s retail: a designer with a luxury reputation working at accessible prices, a limited-edition drop to create urgency, a physical surprise event in a busy public space, and social media content from bloggers and photographers to spread it online the same day. Designer collaborations at mass retailers were not new in 2016, but a standalone, handbag-led line was new for Kohl’s, according to the sources above.