The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 1925–2015
Rochas dressed stars for 80 years — then P&G killed the fashion line
Olivier Theyskens's $20,000 gowns won awards but no profits. In 2006, P&G shut Rochas's fashion division, leaving only the fragrance.
Rochas · Procter & Gamble · Interparfums · 2006-07
What happened
Marcel Rochas founded his fashion house in Paris in 1925, inventing the 2/3-length coat and padded shoulders alongside Schiaparelli. After his death in 1955, the house existed solely as a fragrance — the perfume Femme made the brand a household name. Wella brought back a clothing line in 1990, and Procter & Gamble eventually owned the house through acquisitions.
In 2003, P&G appointed Olivier Theyskens as creative director. His collections won the CFDA International Award in 2006 and earned critical raves. But his 'demicouture' pieces were too costly to mass-produce — gowns started at $20,000 — and he relied on no accessory sales or cheaper sister lines for revenue. The fashion division bled money.
In July 2006, P&G announced it was discontinuing the Rochas fashion division entirely, shocking the industry. The brand continued only as a fragrance. In 2015, Interparfums bought Rochas for $108 million. A fashion house that had dressed stars for 80 years was reduced to a perfume label.
Why it happened
- Theyskens's high-end low-volume strategy produced $20,000 gowns that won awards but could not sustain a ready-to-wear business — no accessories, no diffusion line, no volume.
- P&G, a consumer goods company, never understood how to run a luxury fashion house — it managed Rochas the way it managed toothpaste, killing the creativity that made it valuable.
- Rochas had no safety net: after the founder died in 1955, the fashion DNA was preserved by memory alone for 35 years, and no institutional expertise survived to guide the 1990s relaunch.
The lesson
Fashion houses are not soap brands. P&G thought it could manage Rochas the way it managed Tide, and the mismatch destroyed a business that awards and acclaim could not save.
Aftermath
Rochas survives as a fragrance brand under Interparfums, generating revenue from the Femme scent and newer perfumes. The clothing line has never been revived. Olivier Theyskens went on to design for Theory and Nina Ricci. The Rochas fashion story is a cautionary tale about corporate ownership of creative businesses — what P&G bought was a perfume with a dress problem it could not solve.
Sources
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