Lady Gaga’s beauty brand, Haus Labs, is readying for its next phase.
The business has hired beauty veteran Kelly Coller, a former KVD and NYX executive and early advocate for cruelty-free and vegan beauty, as chief marketing officer. Haus also hired Gloria Ryu as senior vice president of product and innovation, and Sheauen Park as senior vice president of people.
The brand is looking to ramp up innovation and creativity moving forward, chief executive office Ben Jones told WWD in an interview, and to broaden its consumer base beyond Gaga’s fans.
“We were really drawn to Kelly and what she’s done not just on the creative side, but also what she did with KVD and her experience at Kendo,” said Jones.
“We will for sure be leaning into being a product-first brand with epic product storytelling. We are taking a look at formulations, ingredients, packaging — and I also need to help build a real bigger ecosystem of advocacy because truth be told, not everybody knows that LG has a makeup brand,” Coller said.
Haus Labs launched in September 2019 on its own website and on Amazon.
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Coller called Haus “literally a cruelty-free diamond in the rough” and said that she envisions helping to build it into a “world-class level lifestyle brand.”
“We want to get more expressive in our creativity in some of the chances that we take,” Jones said, noting that fans [who are the main customers] want the brand to be innovative and differentiated. “So, that’s the direction we’re going.”
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Haus would not comment on sales numbers, but Jones did say that Haus grew 30 percent in 2020, despite the pandemic. The business now has about 40 employees, and has garnered more than 100,000 reviews on Amazon, which it mines for product ideas and feedback.
“We actually took our foot off the gas for months at a time, where Gaga was like, ‘this is not appropriate to push anything right now,’” Jones said.
Going forward, Haus will continue to release beauty staples, like the 13 shades of brow pencil it recently launched, as well as special one-off releases, like the Stupid Love palette, which launched in conjunction with Gaga’s “Chromatica” album.
“Where you’ll see growth, or maybe evolution, is in how creative we get and original with some of our formulations and how we build things,” Jones said. Good is good enough for some people, but not Gaga, Jones said—”she is always raising the bar.”
During the pandemic, Gaga raised almost $130 million in aid via a televised concert. She also performed the national anthem at President Joe Biden’s inauguration, and has started shooting “House of Gucci” in Italy.
Industry sources said that Haus has started talking to retailers about potential in-store distribution, but Jones said there is no rush, especially given difficult retailing conditions due to the pandemic. “Our brand is about getting people to the people — accessibility — so whatever avenues we have to do to do that, we’re going to do it. It’s just when we do it,” he said.
For more from WWD.com, see:
Lady Gaga Opens Creative Hub in L.A.
Inside Lady Gaga’s Tech-first Beauty Brand
A First Look at Lady Gaga’s New Makeup Products
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