Fashion never dies; it’s always changing, evolving and most of all, it’s recyclable. Much of the fashion trends from the ’80s to the early 2000s have made their way back into mainstream wear. Fashion doesn’t go out of style but the same can’t be said about the companies behind some of today’s biggest fashion trends.

Kimora Lee Simmons Leissner created Baby Phat with the intention of fusing high-end fashion with streetwear that echoes black culture and the hip-hop music scene. The low-rise jeans, the fur coats, the stylish rhinestones, and the perfumes were all nostalgic remembrances of a company that shook the fashion industry. Though, by the end of a nostalgic decade, Baby Phat had almost entirely ceased to exist. Many suspected the company had closed it doors officially in 2010, but in truth, the fashion company has managed to adapt to the current fashion trends of today.

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Baby Phat Reaching The Masses

Kimora Lee Simmons Leissner and her ex-husband Russell Simmons created a billion-dollar fashion company that took the fashion world by storm. Baby Phat ushered in a new era of fashion that infused style with streetwear, making it not only mainstream wear but a way of life. Not only was the brand advertised in songs and movies but even black entertainment giants of the early 2000s like Missy Elliot, Beyonce, Lil Kim and Raven Simone started promoting Baby Phat. Sources report that by 2002, Baby Phat’s revenue skyrocketed from $30 million to $265 million. During that time, the brand went from showcasing fur coats to visa cards and diamond-encrusted Motorola flip-phones. Baby Phat had reached its highest pinnacle and showed no signs of slowing down.

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The Billion-Dollar Company Reinvents Itself

Though by 2010, the trailblazing company had lost its luster. During this time Kimora Lee Simmons Leissner had lost her position as the CEO of Baby Phat, and ultimately the company began to fall under. Baby Phat simply failed to compete with the current trends of the changing times, which happened to be the return of 80s pieces and hipster fashion. Though, that didn’t stop Simmons Leissner from competing with demanding fashion markets.

By the late 2010s, fashion trends that were reminiscent of the early 2000s were slowly returning to the mainstream, including Baby Phat. In 2019, Kimora Lee Simmons’ made the official announcement during an interview with People’s magazine that her fashion brand was making a comeback, but in partnership with the then-fashion giant Forever 21. Baby Phat x F21, however, wasn’t the collaboration everyone had hoped for.

Many fans of the nostalgic Baby Phat line were disappointed with many of the clothing choices, the 2019 relaunch only released 17 pieces that were under $25. Many of those items included pieces that were unfamiliar to the brand such as logo t-shirts, bodysuits, and bike shorts. In retrospect, the fashion collab did attempt at bringing back some familiars like “going-out-tops and low-rise jeans.”

The fashion mogul even defended the changes made in the brand through her collab with Forever 21, noting that despite “all the changes made in streetwear, there aren’t enough.” Catering to the Gen-Z, Gen-Y, and Millennials, Simmons Leissner wanted the brand to reflect today’s youth but with a hint of nostalgia. “I feel like there's a sizable gap [of female voices], and that's why I decided to reacquire the brand and relaunch it. Baby Phat was a movement, and people forget that,” the mother of five told Fashionista back in July 2019. Kimora Lee Simmons Leissner certainly has a good track record for appealing to the younger crowd. It doesn’t come as a surprise that the relaunch of Baby Phat performed so well, despite all the backlash it received.

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Baby Phat Goes From Clothes To Cosmetics

Given the 2019 relaunch of Baby Phat and its successful collaboration with fashion giant Forever 21, the brand has continued to revamp itself in recent months. In 2020, Baby Phat has once again dug its hand into a few more honey pots. Their next big venture is cosmetics. Kimora Lee Simmons Leissner newest cosmetic line, Baby Phat Beauty, may be an extension of the 2019 relaunch but the makeup line is a force all on its own. The collection has several beauty sets like the Shimmer Dreams Kit, which features a high shine lipgloss, moisturizing hand lotion, and body spray. Though Simmons Leissner's cosmetic line may seem like a new product, the fashion mogul believes that it’s a reintroduction of Baby Phat’s beauty collection from the early 2000s. During an interview with ELLE magazine, the businesswoman revealed, “If people remember, we had a very big beauty business in fragrance—the Golden Goddess, Seductive Goddess, Fabulosity, Dare Me, Love Me. I also had KLS cosmetics.” It seems that Baby Phat keeps reinventing itself over and over.

Baby Phat may be 20-years-old but it’s clear there’s no stopping the brand. Even after the billion-dollar company failed to compete with the ever-changing fashion market in the early 2010s, it managed to bounce back by 2019. Baby Phat may not be the same nostalgic fashion line it once was but that’s just a result of the changing times.

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