Reed Krakoff talks John Hardy’s new direction

At this year’s Fashion Group International’s Night of Stars 40th anniversary, Reed Krakoff was named Fashion Visionary, thanks to his storied career that left indelible marks on brands such as Coach, Tiffany, his namesake luxury label, and now John Hardy. Since assuming the role of John Hardy’s creative chairman in September 2022, Krakoff has been working his magic, which draws upon a brand’s core identity while refreshing it for today’s customers.

The latest evidence of this is a new store unveiled in Rockefeller Center.

FashionNetwork.com visited the shop for a private meeting before the store opened to the public.

As fitting for a jewelry store, the space is jewel-box sized and site directly across from Saks between 49th and 50th and lines the promenade referred to as the Channel Gardens. The space is planned to be opened for six months and ostensibly will lead to a bigger space in Rockefeller Center, which has renewed interest as a retail, dining, and entertainment hub post-pandemic.

Krakoff’s affiliation with menswear designer Todd Snyder also led to the opening at Rockefeller Center, and the new John Hardy store is next door to one of Snyder’s top-performing locations.

The store offers specially curated and exclusive John Hardy men’s styles, which have been solid sales performers, thus creating a natural inclination to open in the popular Midtown attraction.

(In a luxury-is-a-small-world coincidence, the store sits just across the Plaza from a Tiffany store opened under Krakoff’s tenure as creative director.)

The new design features floor-to-ceiling orange walls – the color drawn from the prevalence of the Marigold in Bali and the ‘Umbul-Umbul’ flags in the same hue ubiquitous on the island and at John Hardy’s headquarters outside of Ubud—with stone veneer accent walls, campaign imagery, and Italian crystal pendant.

The design was road-tested in a Soho pop-up that opened in August. Given the touches such as new packaging, an orange custom surfboard, and orange-tipped wooden stool legs, it’s clear that Krakoff’s vision includes building upon the brand color, which he calls optimistic.

“We redid everything: the packaging, the branding,” Krakoff said, adding, “Everything has a direct connection to the spirit of the brand, but it’s more refined. Everything felt crafty before and literal. We jump off from that craft aesthetic and go from there, adding design. The product before was well done, but there had been no real silhouette development.”

(The brand still uses independent artisans based in the Indonesian island country, particularly women who have become self-sustainable by working from home and weaving silver and gold chains.)

Krakoff honed in on the brand offerings and tightened up the choices for groups such as the Surf, Spear, Naga, Love Knot, and Essentials to deliver more impactful merchandise. Certain styles will be exclusive, and a new collection, Black Sand, will launch in mid-November and will carry teaser pieces at the Rockefeller Center shop.

“We looked across the whole assortment, took what is great, updated it, and added to choices to what the customer already has,” he continued, noting they reduced 60 to 70 percent of existing SKUs since he came on board.

The overall effect of the product is a sleeker look aided by pavè diamond versus a cobblestone setting, polished sterling silver, and more delicate iterations of motifs.

The result is a more sophisticated take on the handwoven silver-based brand to appeal to a younger generation and current customers’ changing tastes. Categories such as rings and earrings were increased as the brand was typically bracelet and necklace-heavy. Currently, the brand focuses on natural diamonds, but Krakoff hasn’t ruled out using lab-grown diamonds in the future.

He also increased the men’s styles.

“We have doubled our men’s offering since I started; it’s 30 percent of the business. There were products when I started but not a full assortment,” he said, noting most of the collections are unisex with sizes that range from women’s to men’s fit.

The brand is also approaching a significant milestone in 2025. While Krakoff and brand reps couldn’t divulge the full scope of the milestone, they assured that new products would be involved.

“We are redoing the classic John Hardy clasp to make it more streamlined in its design and will have redone the entire assortment by next fall,” he said.

While Krakoff’s career background includes designing various product styles, digging into a new brand involves a similar method.

“I try to find out as much as I can about the brand marketing, its archives, online products, and packaging, and to find older styles on eBay and TheRealReal, for example. John Hardy has a very good archive in Bali. I research the brand to find out who is shopping there, let it settle, and just start drawing,” Krakoff said, displaying various sketches for products, both actual and hypothetical, and store design sketches, such as an idea for a potential Miami Design District store on his iPad.

“It’s tempting to expand categories, but the next two years are focused on the core business. I’ve seen brands do this over and over; it’s hard to do many categories well. How many things can you talk to a customer about at a time?” he asked.

Krakoff suggests that the categories could relate to travel, something intrinsic to the brand based on its tropical paradise home base. So, think travel bags, totes, cosmetics bags, and homeware like incense, room diffusers, barware, and ceramics all sporting the orange accent.

Wholesale accounts, which are increasing due to newer accounts, a bigger buy and more substantial investment, are also booming for the brand. Key shop-in-shops will reflect the new look, too, Krakoff said, citing Puerto Rico’s Reinhold Jewelers and Cortes Ingles in Spain. The brand has stores in the U.S., Bali, and Hong Kong and a global wholesale distribution.

“There aren’t that many jewelry resources for the department store to pick from. It’s not like fashion where there are plenty of brands the stores can pick from,” Krakoff said, adding, “There is a definitive amount of jewelry brands stores can choose from.”

This jewelry white space is exciting to the creative director. He compares it with handbags and his time starting at Coach in 1996.

“When I was at Coach, there were five brands: two or three domestic and European ones. Jewelry is similar to that back then. There are a few huge players, some smaller midsize jewelers, and a ton of independent jewelers. Name five men’s jewelry brands,” he suggests, adding, “Unlike fashion, customers don’t buy jewelry from just anyone, so they go to trusted names and brands for fine jewelry, companies with brand awareness and retail presence.”

When asked to reflect on helming the creative direction for a brand that is turning 50—something that today’s data-driven and social media brands that haven’t built a design legacy may find hard to replicate—Krakoff has a pragmatic view.

“Heritage brands are changing directions; they are more malleable than they used to be,” he said, using Celine and its practical origins as an example.

“It’s liberating as a designer to do something exciting and not be held to a brand’s past just because that is how it was always done. The customer just wants something to fall in love with; they don’t care about the history so much. That whole moment of quality, craftsmanship, and heritage is over. It’s a good time to be in the world of luxury; it wasn’t like this 20 years ago.”