Kenneth Cole Productions Taps Emily Cole as EVP, Women’s Creative Director and Product Strategy

Emily Cole has been named executive vice president, women’s creative director and product strategy, at Kenneth Cole Productions, a new role.

She will direct product development for all current women’s categories. In addition, she will lead the launch of the new women’s apparel collection that will be introduced this fall under a licensing agreement with The Kasper Group. Further, Cole will work with the strategic partnership team to add new categories and potentially brands to the women’s business.

Cole reports to her father, Kenneth Cole, chairman, chief executive officer and chief creative officer, who continues to lead the overall creative and purpose-driven mission of the company. Emily Cole will work closely with her father and serve as his creative partner. On operational matters, she reports to Jed Berger, president of Kenneth Cole Productions.

A former attorney at Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP (now Hecker & Fink), Cole joined Kenneth Cole Productions in September 2021 as executive director of strategy, and within the year became executive director strategy and product.

Asked why she decided to leave law to join her father’s fashion firm, the 35-year-old Cole said, “Honestly I really always wanted to. I feel like I’ve grown up in the business in so many ways, watching my dad and learning from him. I’ve just always wanted to get to the point in my life where it made sense for me to get to do it together a little bit more. It’s been really fun.”

Since joining KCP, Cole worked on longer-term business plans, the way the brand was positioned and across various categories. “Over the past two to three years, I took on some more responsibility with the product creative. I’ve been working on overseeing design direction and merchandising, and working with my dad on a lot of categories, and more recently focusing on women’s,” she said.

Emily Cole said she’s enjoying all the various aspects of the business. “It’s honestly been really exciting to be creative, while also working on growing and running a business every day, while also getting to do the social impact work that’s so essential to the brand and to me personally. In almost all ways, this is a dream combination of everything I love to do,” she said.

Cole started her law career as counsel to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and then went to Kaplan Hecker & Fink. “It was really great, I got to do social impact work, and worked directly on a lot of important issues, and we worked on the Charlottesville case for almost four years. What I loved about being a lawyer was the advocacy and the issues that I care really passionately about,” said Cole. “I feel like I can do that just as well from a different platform. I feel that my dad has been such an inspiring example of a way to do really important work and provide a platform for issues that are really important and meaningful, while also getting to be creative and build a brand,” she said.

In her new role at Kenneth Cole, Cole will oversee the design direction and merchandising within the organization as a whole and focus on the development of women’s categories specifically.

While Cole doesn’t have any formal design training, Kenneth Cole said, “When Emily was a little girl she would cut up her jeans and make handbags and clothes. This was a passion she would always have. In school, she studied art. She made jewelry and made her own handbags,” he said. At Columbia University, Cole studied art and political science before attending Columbia University Law School.

“I had a hope she’d make a turn in this direction, but she went in the other,” said Kenneth Cole, 70. “I was surprised when she said she wanted to take a break [from law] and learn the business,” said Cole, to which his daughter jumped in, “I don’t know how much of a break this has been. I’m working as hard as anything I’ve ever done.”

Emily Cole is the oldest of Cole and Maria Cuomo Cole’s three daughters and the only one actively involved in the business. “My sisters have spent time in the business at different points and have worked really collaboratively with my dad on the Mental Health Coalition,” she said. The Kenneth Cole Foundation champions social impact initiatives with a focus on mental health.

Cole said she’s been working with Kasper on the women’s line and is eager to see the collection come to life in stores in October. It will have a soft launch in the fall, and a full launch in the spring.

As reported, Kenneth Cole Productions entered a strategic partnership with The Kasper Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Premier Brands Group Holdings, to manufacture and distribute a new line of modern, wear-to-work women’s apparel last summer. Starting this fall, Kasper will manufacture and distribute women’s sportswear under the Kenneth Cole New York label.

Emily Cole said she worked with Kasper in identifying Cole’s female customer. “We worked together a lot to think of the best ways to elevate the brand and add value in terms of design and accessibility,” she said.

She said she has enjoyed exploring the brand’s heritage in the women’s business, starting out in women’s shoes and becoming much more than that over the years. Relaunching women’s apparel is a way for the brand to re-introduce itself to “a lot of people who didn’t know us then or don’t totally remember what we stand for now,” she said.

“It couldn’t be a more relevant time to have a brand have a voice and really wants to contribute to the conversation in a meaningful way,” she added.

Cole said she wants to create clothing for women who are multifaceted. “I’m a mom, and also a daughter as well as a creative and a business person. Women are a lot of things, and younger women are playing a million roles every day. They’re taking care of kids and running families and running businesses. We want to make things for that person,” she said. She is considering doing a small elevated capsule for the website at some point.

Cole’s personal style emulates the brand — and her dad — she said. “We probably differ in a few ways, but we tend to like a lot of the same things and we tend to decorate things the same way,” she said. “The idea is to make things that are versatile and flexible for a flexible way of life, and are elevated and special to the woman who is going to spend her time and money picking them out and making them part of her day-to-day life. “

Kenneth Cole said he’s been inspired by Emily throughout his career. “She’s also been a muse but she may not be aware of it. The brand has been conscious of Emily, and she was impacting it before she knew she was,” he said.

Over the years, Cole had women’s sportswear, handbags, swim, footwear, jewelry and outerwear. “Right now we’ve retrenched,” he said. The business just relaunched sportswear with Kasper and is looking at different categories. In women’s, they continue to do outerwear with G-III Apparel Group, footwear with Vida, sunglasses and optical with Marcolin, watches with Geneva, socks with GCE, and fragrance with Parlux. “We want to get this [Kasper] off the ground, and at that point, we’ll figure out how to broaden the platform,” said Kenneth Cole.