Tar-Gey Chic
- 6 hours ago
- 4 min read
Isaac Mizrahi Comes Home to Target
Some designers make fashion, but not many make fashion fun. Isaac Mizrahi has always belonged in the second category.
His return to Target (this time as the retailer’s first Creative Director at Large) feels less like a corporate appointment and more like an old friend coming home. An old friend who knows exactly where the good stuff is hidden.
But there’s another reason Mizrahi’s return is so interesting. Target may be the retailer that figured out Isaac Mizrahi better than the fashion industry ever did.
Long before Tar-Gey, (a phrase only associated with the Mizrahi influence on the brand) Mizrahi was supposed to become one of America’s next great designers. He launched his own label in the late 1980s and quickly became a fashion-world darling. Critics loved him. Fashion editors loved him. Celebrities loved him. His personality was almost as colorful as his collections, and he possessed the kind of charisma that made people want to be around him.
Chanel (yes, the Chanel) apparently saw the potential too, investing (by most reports) $70 million in his business in 1990's. But there was a big problem. The clothes weren't selling enough.
Mizrahi had enormous fashion-world popularity, but the business struggled to convert all that enthusiasm into consistent sales. Depending on the period, annual revenues were reportedly in the $20–30 million range, yet the company continued losing money. Mizrahi had a quirky, yet approachable style that did not resonate with those that mattered…consumers!
Ralph Lauren built an entire universe around a story. You knew Ralph Lauren before you saw the label. Calvin Klein had minimalism and sex appeal. Donna Karan had sophisticated New York dressing. Armani owned relaxed Italian tailoring.
Mizrahi? One season could be glamorous and feminine. The next might be colorful, theatrical, whimsical or completely unexpected. This was wonderful for fashion editors but not necessarily wonderful for a department store trying to figure out who the customer was and where to put the clothes.
Then there was the pricing.
Mizrahi's beautifully made clothes could easily run into four figures, but the company never developed enough of the other machinery that turns a designer name into a global luxury business like accessories, fragrance, denim, licensing and all those wonderfully profitable products that allow fashion houses to make money even when nobody is buying the $3,000 runway dress.
There is an old saying in the fashion business: “One for the runway, one for the window”. The problem with Mizrahi was everything he beautifully designed was a “One For”. The lack of high end sales forced an attempt to broaden the audience with the more affordable secondary Isaac Collection, but that didn't solve the problem either. The bridge-price market was crowded, and the line disappeared after only a few seasons.
Markdowns are the silent killer of fashion.
By the late 1990s, Chanel was out, allegedly, lawsuits followed and Mizrahi's original fashion company was finished.
Then, something fascinating happened.
Isaac Mizrahi became more commercially relevant by getting cheaper.
Enter Target.
When Mizrahi partnered with the retailer in 2002, he helped create what became the original “Tar-Gey” phenomenon and proved something the fashion establishment had spent decades trying not to admit: Chic doesn't have to be expensive.
His Target collections helped establish the designer-meets-mass-retail formula that would become one of the retailer's greatest marketing weapons, eventually paving the way for collaborations with Missoni, Zac Posen, Anna Sui, Lilly Pulitzer, Jason Wu and a parade of other fashionable names.
But Mizrahi was particularly suited to it. He dove into it and loved it. The very qualities that made Isaac Mizrahi difficult to package as a traditional luxury brand made him perfect for Target.
His quirkiness. His color. His humor. His unpredictability. His willingness to combine something sophisticated with something slightly ridiculous. At luxury prices, those characteristics could make a buyer nervous, but at Target prices, they made shopping fun.
Ralph Lauren once said, “I took Brooks Brothers and gave it a point of view”. Mizrahi did the same with Target. His point of view. Mizrahi finally put his fashion personality in the price range where his personality could sell it.
It's the art of looking considerably more expensive than you actually spent. A terrific coat over a $25 sweater. A surprisingly elegant lamp sitting next to a stack of Assouline books. A colorful accessory that makes an otherwise ordinary outfit suddenly look intentional.
Mizrahi understands that trick better than almost anyone.
He knows that shoppers want great-looking things that happen to be affordable. There's a big difference. And now, more than two decades after his original Target debut, he's back! In his new role, Mizrahi will advise Target's designers on product concepts and innovation, mentor creative talent and help develop partnerships and experiences across the brand.
This isn't simply Isaac returning to slap his name on another inexpensive collection. Its much more than that and if you know Issac, you know he won’t be quiet about his work.
Target today is fighting in a retail landscape dominated by Amazon convenience, Walmart muscle, fast-fashion speed and an endless avalanche of cheap merchandise available through TikTok with two clicks and free shipping. What Mizrahi potentially brings back is something none of those things automatically deliver: Personality.
For Mizrahi, you can have taste without having a black card. You can mix high and low without apologizing for either. You can wear the expensive watch, carry the great handbag and still happily tell someone your jacket came from Target. That's style. That's Mizrahi.
Fun. Colorful. Slightly irreverent. Occasionally ridiculous and never boring.
So, welcome home, Isaac.
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