Juicy Couture Attract Celebrity Squeezes

This wasn’t just incidental. Celebrity sightings supplied much of the early fuel for a brand that was always about designer cool at an affordable price, and that always had a strong idea of its target audience: young women from their early teens up.

The story goes that Gela Nash-Taylor and Pamela Skaist–Levy, co-founders of Juicy Couture, sent samples out to big names, including a version of their now-signature velour track suit, embroidered with the name Madge, to Madonna. She wore it and the rest is history.

Madonna’s image as a pop star with attitude chimed perfectly with Juicy Couture’s style, which was part hip glamour-puss, part Valley Girl. The brand used gothic print for its script, and an endlessly changing array of marketing slogans that combined irony with sassiness: “Some Girls Have All The Juicy” or “Dude, Where’s My Couture”.

Its watches, which are designed and distributed by Movado, press the same buttons, going for colour, youth and attitude. At the same time, there are all sorts of features that, combined, give these watches a strikingly original look that, with the frequent use of white guilloche dials, often also looks strangely vintage, as with the HRH Jelly. 

Faces make bold use of the Juicy Couture name in that gothic font, and often feature recurring symbols such as crowns and stars. Bezels often come multi-layered and crystals or rhinestones are used smartly and sparingly.

And true to form, the names they’ve been given – HRH, Princess, Rich Girl – are about irony and attitude. The one thing these watches aren’t is followers, and that’s the whole point.