COMING SOON: JERRY GARCIA ART IN FASHION COLLECTION

If there’s any doubt about the eternal popularity of The Grateful Dead, consider this: according to Ticketmaster, more than a half million Deadheads lined up to buy tickets for the band’s recent farewell concert in Chicago and all tickets sold out within the first hour. And according to Stubhub.com, a three-day pass was listed for more than $1 million!

And so 50 years after the group first formed (and 20 years after they lost their fearless leader Jerry Garcia), the band is still front and center in hearts and minds around the world. Hollywood producer Martin Scorsese is currently working on a Grateful Dead documentary and new musical tributes regularly circulate around the globe, such as this one.

So it’s a pretty safe bet that when the Jerry Garcia Art in Fashion collection officially launches for Spring ’16, under the direction of marketing guru Irwin Sternberg with partners Jeff Sencer and Steven Kranz, it will be “built to last.” His company, Stonehenge Licensing Consultants LLC , now holds the master license for everything except the ties. With designs based on Garcia’s artwork, the collection will feature T-shirts, woven shirts, shorts, eyewear, accessories, leathergoods, jewelry, home goods, women’s fashion and more at moderate to upper moderate price points. Licensees include Steve Madden for 14 different product lines, Cleve Apparel for shorts and shirts, and other big names still in discussion. Each collection will be based on recreations of Garcia’s original artwork (that sells for as much as $100,000), with his famous fish drawing the brand’s official logo. As one might expect, a portion of sales will be donated to a charity of the Garcia family’s choosing.

How well we remember when Sternberg first launched his Jerry Garcia neckwear collection at Bloomingdale’s in July 1992 and sold 4,000 ties in the first few days with a waiting list of more than 500. Says Scott Polworth, Bloomingdales VP who was the assistant tie buyer at the time, “People drove for hours to come to 59th Street to buy the ties. But in addition to strong product, it was the marketing genius of Irwin Sternberg that made it happen: he sent a complete set of these Garcia ties to all the top DJs who promoted the collection on their radio stations so it got picked up by national publications. And  this was long before the internet…”

For a repeat performance (don’t we all wish!), contact him at irwinsternberg@comcast.net or Jeff Sencer at 914-241-1633.