Not Everyone Wants to Look Like Angelina Jolie

 
Correction: Not everyone CAN look like Angelina Jolie. That's why the new "revamped" collection for St. John is a bust.  According to an article in Wednesday's L.A.Times, "the loyal St. John customer was turned off by it's sexy new look and ad campaign. So now the label is trying to make amends."

The only people I know who wear St. John's neo-Chanel knit suits are Republican lawyers and stock brokers I know back in West Virginia. (Oh, and Gloria Allred.) These professional women wear the clothes well but I never thought that the "classic, forgiving wool knit suits trimmed with glittery buttons, vivid colors and heat-set paillettes" were all that forgiving....unless you had hair big enough to balance out the effect. (Just looking at a St. John knit suit makes me squirm....and run for the cover of a 100% cotton mu-mu.)

What I DID love about St. John was their old ad campaign that featured Kelly Gray, daughter of founding designer Marie Gray. The ads featured the age-indeterminate Kelly airbrushed into a flawless replica of a fully-independant female. This was a babe with a bank account big enough to pay for improbable romps with hot Argentinian polo-player gigolos at a variety of exotic locals. In these Cinderella-meets-The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone scenarios Ms. Gray possessed an allure that drove every (gay looking) male model surrounding her mad with indifference. Really -- those ads were the only reason to pick up VANITY FAIR. Indeed, their very presence seemed to mock everything that magazine sells as Glamour. Kelly Gray was (unknowingly) radical chic!

Each ad was more deliciously ridiculous than the last; with Ms. Gray calling the shots like some female Robert Evans. But whether the locale was Paris, St. Barts or the Greek Islands one always felt the crew never stepped foot out of Palm Beach. Or Dallas. Or Rancho Mirage.
 
As much as I would mock those ads (one L.A. Woman colunn in PAPER was devoted to this subject in ...oh Jeeze, when was that issue? A couple of years ago at least...) I DID admire Kelly Gray for daring to go toe-to-toe with the young supermodels of the world. Some may scoff but she got the last laugh...all the way to the bank. Why couldn't a middle-aged, full-figured woman pose as fiercely as her anoerxic underaged sistas?
 
This is why Kelly Gray was a big hit with the mature demographic that has the real spending power. Apparantly the company has refused all interview requests and are now dealing with the wrath of loyalists who refuse to wear the sleeker, new "Melrose" fit. They want the classic "Rodeo" fit! Why St. John thought they should court a younger demographic is a real head-scratcher. Isn't the first rule of business, "If it's not broke don't fix it?"
   
As the Times article puts it: 
   
    Here's a lesson: Never spurn older women with money.
St. John's year-and-a-half-old plan to capture a younger customer and update the luxury company's fusty image has backfired and killed the cash cow — the loyal, mature customers who built the Irvine-based knitwear maker into a $400-million luxury apparel powerhouse.

    And bring back Kelly Gray! In a pictorial featuring her and  a dozen Brad Pitt lookalikes. In Namibia. Surrounded by orphans. And paparazzi. Resort ready-to-wear. Fabulous.