The indispensable California Apparel News reports:
Los Angeles premium-denim maker J Brand is reportedly moving closer to selling its company for $90 million to a private equity firm.
The deal, which has been months in the making, is going through the final stages of negotiations, several sources said. The exact terms of the transaction are still being worked out. In an e-mail sent Dec. 10, Jeff Rudes, one of the company’s founders, said, “As of today, there is no transaction.”
Sources said Rudes is hoping to stay on with the company, while Susie Crippen, the company’s creative director and other cofounder, will probably leave to pursue other ventures after taking a few months off.
The sale to Star Avenue Capital, a relatively new investment entity based in the Century City area of Los Angeles, would be one of the few major deals this year to be completed in the California apparel and retail industries.
As far as Opera Chic is concerned, a Susie-less J Brand would be no J Brand at all.
Crippen is after all the former stylist who made J Brand the n. 1 provider of skinny jeans for all of us who are addicted to them; denim leggings, too. (Susie's so cool we even forgive her unexplicable love for U2)