Lisa Frank aims to renew brand with beauty line

By

Kate Dingwall

Published
Feb 22, 2017

Nineties tween brand Lisa Frank is looking to make a comeback, launching a Kickstarter for a beauty line late last week. The line, to be created by cruelty-free beauty brand Glamour Dolls, has already tripled its $30,000 fundraising goal.

The proposed line will include six limited-edition products, including lip balm, matte mousse, liquid liner, lipstick, highlight pattern, and a make-up bag. All the products will bear Lisa Frank’s signature whimsical illustrations.

In just seven days since the Kickstarter campaign launched, the campaign is already showing huge success - Glamour Dolls was looking to raise $30,000 by April 2nd for the project, but the project has raised well over $100,000 with over a month to go.

Lisa Frank rose to notoriety in the nineties, selling stationary, party supplies, stickers, and other small accessories with founder Lisa Frank’s girlish illustrations on them, quickly becoming the go-to stationary brand for elementary and middle-school aged girls.  With this beauty line, Lisa Frank is looking to appeal to those same girls who bought that stationary in their youth.

Kickstarter campaigns, which let consumers vote on products with their dollars, are becoming increasingly attractive for fashion brands, as they help smaller brands gain momentum and raise seed funds without a large investor. Vancouver-based athletic brand RYU apparel looks to the crowd-funding platform as a way to beta test new items. Sustainable-centric denim brand The Denim Project raised $177,000 for its first line. Famed show designer Tinker Hatfield looked to Kickstarter to raise funds for his power-lacing footwear technology. Amazon has capitalized off the innovation of crowdfunded products through Amazon’s Launchpad store, picking products from startups, accelerators, and Kickstarters to show in a dedicated section of Amazon’s website.

It is becoming more commonplace for brands, like Glamour Dolls, to look to nostalgia for inspiration. Urban Outfitters has launched several collaborative collections as of late, like a tracksuit with Juicy Couture, a retro collection with Nautica, and a 1970’s-inspired series of products with Fila. Gap recently launched 'Generation Gap", bringing in famous faces from 90's Gap ads for a star-studded campaign.