Bringing Only the Quintessential to E-Commerce

Last week, Business of Fashion featured an interview with stylist and fashion muse, Vanessa Traina. Traina, who consults for designers such as Alexander Wang and Altuzarra, has helped launch a new e-commerce site, The Line. The Line features clothing, beauty products, and housewares for a pared down lifestyle. The items reflect Traina's clean, modern, and minimal aesthetic and are a reaction to the mass consumption of trends. They represent what is "quintessential." Christophe Lemaire, Reed Krakoff, Linda Farrow, and Linda Rodin's Olio Lusso line are mixed in with KPM Dinnerware and Rene Herbst chairs.

While this pared down approach to consumerism interested me, what stood out most to me about the interview was the partnership that helped launch the site. The Line is one of the first projects from Assembled Objects, which was started by General Assembly co-founder Adam Pritzker. The goal of Assembled Objects is provide a toolkit for designers of consumer goods to get up and running quickly. Pritzker found that:

"[W]hile many companies provide services to larger consumer goods businesses, the vast majority of emerging creative talent must stitch together production, technology, marketing, and distribution capabilities on their own—often confronting barriers to entry due to the expertise and costs associated with each of these areas."

To that end, Assembled Objects provides back-end services in technology, marketing, and distribution to consumer goods companies. While the only clients so far are The Line and Protagonist, a clothing line actually featured on The Line, there is a clear need for these kind of services in the market. So many small brands and businesses have great products, but don't know how to connect their product with their customers. Assembled Objects' services present themselves as a solution to that dilemma. It will be interesting to watch if the firm can achieve its mission to transform emerging ideas into design-centric brands going forward.