The John Hardy brand is marking 50 years this year at a pivotal time for the brand as it looks forward with a refreshed expression ushered in by creative chair Reed Krakoff, who joined in 2022. Krakoff is a rare talent, having helped shape two mega American brands, Coach and Tiffany & Co., and now with John Hardy, he has walked the delicate balance of evolving the brand forward while anchoring it in the legacy of its founder.
 
“I think the first year was a lot of just understanding what had made the brand so successful for so long and distilling that essence. What it was in marketing, what it was in the aesthetic of the brand,” he explained. Once he had the foundation set, he got started with new collections, understanding that “product is the foundation of everything.”

Originally inspired by Indonesia and traditional Balinese crafts, John Hardy founded his namesake brand in 1975 with the goal of preserving the island’s history of artisanal metalworking. The designs struck a chord with many and maintained stock in over 500 stores. The founding designer departed from the company in 2007, with private equity fund L Catterton acquiring it in 2014, later bringing on Krakoff.
 
“It was mostly about craft and about technique,” Krakoff said of Hardy’s collections, adding that it was a vast assortment that needed some editing. “There was a lot of sameness. So, starting to work on new collections, I thought, ‘how do you just boil that down into clear, clean, crisp ideas that are distinct from each other, but still embrace what John Hardy is about?’”   

His first collection was called Spear and was centered around “the thinking about what’s the next chapter for John Hardy.” Spear, he explained, took the idea of hand-woven precious metals, “which is probably the original technique for John Hardy,” and combined it with a titanium core to make it flexible and introducing a more refined pavé of gemstones.

“The combination of all those things — refinement, reinforcing the history of the brand, something that has an ease and a comfort to it, but elevating it in a material that felt refined and more special” — was the end result. Eighteen months later, he reported, Spear has become the brand’s most iconic silhouette, selling to all genders. “It’s kind of established a foundation for the future,” he said.

He moved from there to develop Love Knot, a collection that embodied the symbol of  love and commitment. It is now his second-best seller.

Krakoff said the men’s business has almost doubled in the last two years and gold has become a much larger percentage of the business. He widened the brand aperture, too, with his take on a high fine jewelry expression with his Artisan Series, which elevates signature styles with rare diamonds and precious gemstones.  “Higher price points have really become much more integral to the brand,” he said.

Chief executive officer Jan-Patrick Schmitz cited the brand now reaching an unprecedented level of strength with messaging that has “never been clearer. The opportunities present within our categories are significant and expansive.”

Beyond product, Krakoff and team rethought retail, updating it from a dark wooded space to light, airy and inviting with splashes of orange, now a statement hue that is  also part of his packaging and the brand logo. “It’s that juxtaposition of sort of a bright, bold element and something more organic, more artisanal,” he said of the touch points.

He ushered in an new era of collaborations, but thoughtfully, like the most recent one with Athena Calderone, a new door to bring fresh eyes to the brand. “It was a way of expanding our consumer base to a customer that we feel like relates to John Hardy, someone that appreciates beautiful design, refined aesthetic. It came from more the home world, but this shared aesthetic and sort of approach to design felt like a really good fit,” said Krakoff.

The brand’s sustainability efforts remain at the forefront. While a buzzword over the last decade, Krakoff told WWD that what is different about John Hardy is that sustainability has been a part of the brand DNA since Day One. “It’s popular. Obviously, it’s something that consumers really care about today. But John Hardy, the founder, has been, and continues to be, very much involved in the environment, in sustainability, and essentially in being a good global citizen,” said Krakoff.

The brand has a significant wholesale business and freestanding stores in the U.S. in New York City and Miami, with room to grow. “The North American market remains a significant focus for our organization, and I anticipate considerable growth in the future,” Schmitz said. “Internationally, our operations in Asia present enormous opportunities for expansion over the coming decades. Moreover, Europe represents a vast and largely untapped market for John Hardy, as the brand’s values and design align well with the preferences of the European consumer.”
 
The CEO continued, “while our boutique network is specifically tailored for the New York and Miami markets, as well as select locations in Asia, the increasing significance of e-commerce prompts numerous direct-to-consumer initiatives. This strategy has resulted in strong double-digit growth across all markets where we operate digitally.”

Looking forward, Krakoff has two collections to mark the anniversary — Spear 50 and Icon 50 — and a new tag line: Fifty Years of Sustainable Luxury.  Marking its golden anniversary is a milestone, and customers are on board, seeing it in a new light.

“What’s really nice is the customer not only is embracing John Hardy, but they’re embracing the newness and kind of the new look and feel of it at higher price points, you know, more precious materials, and as I said, higher price points, and it kind of all tells a story that people wanted more from the brand,” he said.
 
 
 
 
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