FASHION

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s Next Fashion Conquest Is Kohl’s

Mary-Kate and Ashley are bringing Elizabeth and James to the masses.

by Steph Eckardt

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Good news if you’ve ever harbored the fantasy—only to immediately realize it’s practically impossible—of having style as impeccable as Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen: Now, thanks to an unexpected partnership, you can. For the second month in a row, the twins have broken with their famous tendency to shy away from interviews to talk shop—this time, to announce that Kohl’s will exclusively carry their label Elizabeth and James, which the pair named after their siblings, as soon as later this year.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that Olsen-endorsed apparel and accessories have been made available to the public. Over the past six years, Mary-Kate and Ashley have received no fewer than four CFDA awards for their high-fashion label the Row, which quickly became an industry favorite and staple of New York Fashion Week. As high-profile as those designs have been, however, they’re not exactly easy to come by. In 2011, for example, the Row’s most coveted item, an alligator handbag, promptly sold out—even though it retailed for $39,000 (or $55,000, if you’re counting the pill-covered version made in collaboration with Damien Hirst).

In other words, even tabloids couldn’t help but notice that it’d be cheaper to buy a Birkin—not that that stopped the label from being any less popular. And, unfortunately for Olsens fans, price tags didn’t prove prohibitive for Elizabeth and James either; while less expensive, the line still could only be found at stores like Net-a-Porter, Bergdorf Goodman, and Saks.

And yet, at the end of last year, Elizabeth and James announced that it would be shutting down its stores and in-house operations. The news of its new licensing agreement with Kohl’s, then, may not seem like something to celebrate, but there’s been no confirmation that it’s a sign of financial hardship; in fact, it appears you can now actually afford to dress the way the Olsens see fit.

“We have always seen Elizabeth and James speaking to a much larger audience and this new business model with Kohl’s will allow us to achieve that,” Ashley told WWD, adding that she and her sister are “excited” to work with Kohl’s in “building out additional lifestyle categories”—expanding their offerings, which also include beauty products, and creating “a new shopping experience” for their customers. (A new experience is most definitely in store for those on the design team at Kohl’s too: that of having the Olsens oversee their work.)

While she refrained from citing specific prices, Mary-Kate assured WWD that her and her sister’s “vision” for Elizabeth and James is to “offer women access to premium fashion at an affordable price without sacrificing quality and fit.” So while the Journal Sentinel, which, like Kohl’s, is based in Milwaukee, might be right in describing the store’s clientele as “suburban moms,” if Narciso Rodriguez and plenty of other designers who have Kohl’s diffusion lines are any indication, they will be quite fashionable ones at that.

Related: Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen Would Like to Remind You That They Are Still Two Separate People

33 Years of Coordination Starring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in West Hollywood, California, September 1994. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in New York, New York, January 1993. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in West Hollywood, California, July 2001. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Los Angeles, California, March 2002. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen at the premiere of Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle in Hollywood, California, June 2003. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in Los Angeles, California, May 2004. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen at the 12th annual amfAR Gala in Cannes, France, May 2005. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen at the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards in New York, New York, November 2006. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen front-row at Jenni Kayne during New York Fashion Week Fall 2007. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen at the CFDA Fashion Awards in New York, New York, June 2007. Photo by Getty Images. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, both in Diane Von Furstenberg, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala for “Superheros: Fashion and Fantasy” in New York, New York, May 2008. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Mary-Kate, in Lanvin, and Ashley Olsen, in Christian Lacroix, at the Elle Style Awards in London, England, February 2010. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen at the Metropolitan Opera premiere in New York, New York, March 2011. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala for “Charles James: Beyond Fashion” in New York, New York, May 2014. Photo by Getty Images. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in The Row at the “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology” Costume Institute Exhibition Gala in New York, New York, May 2016. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen with Elizabeth Olsen, all in The Row, at the CFDA Fashion Awards in New York, New York, June 2016. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen arrive at “Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garcons: Art Of The In-Between” Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum on May 1, 2017 in New York City. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Sean Zanni

Ashley Olsen and Mary-Kate Olsen attend the Studio in a School 40th Anniversary Gala at Seagram Building Plaza on May 3, 2017 in New York City. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Patrick McMullan

Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen attend the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 7, 2018 in New York City. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Jamie McCarthy

Ashley Olsen and Mary-Kate attend WSJ Magazine 2018 Innovator Awards Sponsored By Harry Winston, FlexJet & Barneys New York at MOMA on November 7, 2018 in New York City. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Bennett Raglin

Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen attend The 2019 Met Gala Celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 06, 2019 in New York City. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

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