Grey Gardens Owner And Maternity Brand Maverick Liz Lange Forges New Path With Figue

When Liz Lange noticed that she and her friends lacked chic wardrobe choices during their pregnancies, she created the first designer maternity clothing brand. In a new stage of life, the designer who purchased the infamous Grey Gardens estate once inhabited by Jackie Kennedy Onassis’ eccentric aunt and cousin Big and Little Edie Beale respectively, acquired the rich-hippy caftan brand Figue aimed at her demographic. The Resort 2021 collection unveiled this month on Figue.com and is the first offering under Lange’s direction and just the beginning of the designer’s plans for her new project.

“I was looking for a new brand to build but didn’t want to start from scratch, and I understood Figue perfectly since I am its target demo,” Lange told me, adding “I was a fan and customer from the start and knew its founder Stephanie Von Watsdorf through mutual friends. When I heard it was winding down in late 2020, I knew it was meant to be.” 

By December of 2020, Lange had officially purchased Figue with 100 percent ownership fulfilling that premonition. She sold Liz Lange maternity in 2007 to a private equity firm but remained the face of the brand’s uber-successful licensing deal with Target TGT until 2018 and was ready for a new project. Lange remained steadfast in knowing the apparel industry would bounce back post-pandemic shutdowns and that the comfort dressing it afforded would not disappear.

Lange maintains Figue feels suitable for the way women want to dress right now, both glamorous and easy and comfortable. “To me, Figue is the warm weather version of a sweatsuit but with far more panache,” she says. The collection offers dresses and kaftans that go everywhere from the beach to the city and from daytime to black tie.  

She is also resolute that Figue can be a powerhouse much like her first brand, with which she sees synergies just for different stages of life. Both can offer 24/7, 365 days a year wardrobe solutions. “I know how women my age wants to dress and feel, and it’s the exact woman Figue is serving.” So, expect to continue to see the heavy embellishments, bold prints, hand-cut tassels and rich floaty fabrics in the euro-fabulous kaftans and glam dresses. 

Beyond that, though the brand will make deliveries year-round, Von Watsdorf and her team had dropped the fall delivery, which will return for Fall 2022. “Figue will be any season option, not just an ‘it’s always summer somewhere’ brand,” Lange notes. They plan to add knits and more separates such as blouses, sweaters, and bottoms using new materials and a plan to add swim and tabletop. In terms of pricing, it will still be luxury but generally a bit lower in the $295 to $495 space with a few specialty items at $895 and above. “I always found Figue’s prices a tad high, so although we’ll always do special pieces at higher price points, I am very focused on these price buckets.”

Figue plans to focus and invest heavily in DTC sales, especially via Instagram and Facebook as selling platforms, unlike the previous positioning. “At the moment, it’s about growing the existing Figue business through our existing channels, wholesale, private client shopping with a new focus on our relaunching website,” she continues.

Thus far the outlook is upbeat with the business returning to and in some cases, exceed pre-shut down sales levels. “We think there is a large opportunity set for the brand to potentially grow to two to three times multiple, in not more, of what it had been under prior ownership,” she added.

While the runway was once the place to market a brand, Lange doesn’t feel the urge right now. “I love how we talk to our customers through social media. Maybe we’d do a virtual show. Who knows, though, never say never?” This is a much different sentiment than she had 20 years ago when Liz Lange was the first maternity brand to debut at NYFW. However, it was infamous for other reasons.

The Liz Lange fashion show was scheduled at 9 am on the morning of 9/11. Feeling naturally excited, Lange says she arrived at the Bryant Park show tents ‘filled with anticipation for what should have been a career-defining moment’ as Good Morning America and CNN were covering the show live. The Today show had planned to follow up the next with a show recreation in their live studio audience. “I was debuting my new Liz Lange for Nike NKE (LL for swoosh) partnership and I was already in talks with Target. The world was watching the first-ever maternity clothing fashion show during NY’s fashion week. What followed, of course, had nothing to do with the way I envisioned the day going,” Lange recalls.

As she watched the show from backstage, she noticed the crew after crew ran from the tent, which confused Lange as they had scheduled hours of post-show interviews. “We knew nothing as this was pre iPhone and pre-social media; news didn’t travel as fast as it does today,” she points out.

As soon as the show ended, security guards rushed guests and crew out of the tents. This initially annoyed the designer because they didn’t know what had happened. “It was after that when I decided with all the uncertainty in the world that for sure I wanted to move forward with the Target partnership. That was one of the best decisions I ever made.”

To those enamored with its lore, another great decision was her purchase of the decrepit East Hampton estate, Grey Gardens, made famous in the 1975 film starring the infamous eccentric mother-daughter duo who owned it. Lange and her designer and contractors restored the class Hamptons-style shingle cottage for three painstaking years, even rebuilding the famous walled gardens. “Frankly, although I’m a fan of the documentary, we bought the house because we love the house itself; it’s next to the beach, and we can hear the ocean. Its gardens and grounds are magical,” she admits. However, it’s not without curious onlookers who sometimes trespass to take photos.

Moreover, the house sits near to where Lange grew up, spending summers out East. It’s the kind of place one can see the Figue woman going through her weekend days from farmer’s market to beach to lunch to drinks and dinner or a fancy Hamptons soiree. Lange takes her stewardship of Grey Gardens with a hefty amount of reverence. Exactly the guiding spirit she brings to Figue for its next chapter.