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Justin Bieber Becomes First Artist To Have Tour Merch At Barneys With ‘Purpose’ Line

By Page Mackinley
Published on: 12:25 PST, Jul 14, 2016

Justin Bieber’s Purpose World Tour merch is great. So great, in fact that the superstar has just become the first artist ever to have tour merchandise carried by Barneys New York.

That’s a big deal, by anyone’s standards. As one observer noted, “Barneys doing an exclusive capsule with Bieber for his merch is quite a luxury retail moment (sic).”

The New York Times reports Bieber has partnered with Barneys, who will stock and sell the one-of-its-kind clothing on Barneys’ website and in-store locations in New York, Beverly Hills, and San Francisco on July 16.

Fevered Justin Bieber fans previously attended pop-ups in Toronto, New York City, and Miami in droves to get their hands on the Purpose Tour-themed graphic T-shirts, hoodies, and hats created by Los Angeles-based label Fear of God’s Jerry Lorenzo. Now, the Biebs has upped his merch game. And then some.

Bieber’s collection will include the printed T-shirts, but will also include Biebs’ jeans and a $1,675 USD leather biker jacket. And Barneys are all the way in. In fact, the chain store’s executives are eager to be partnering with the pop icon.

“It was a no-brainer for me,” Jay Bell, a senior vice president at Barneys, tells the Times. “It is the first time we’ve done it, but it felt right.” He adds, “It felt like something that would resonate with our customers, and that could sit seamlessly with the other brands we sell.”

While the “Sorry” singer is the first artist to have tour merch sold by Barneys, he isn’t the first celeb to elevate his merch into actual fashion. Kanye West kicked off the trend with a high-fashion Paris Fashion Week start that later morphed into his sports-centric, unisex “Yeezy” collection.

Artists including Beyoncé, Selena Gomez, Zayn Malik, and more followed suit with highly idiosyncratic clothing in their merch lines.

Merchandise is very lucrative for artists, so it is not surprising that Bieber — who has cited Yeezy, Saint Laurent, Fear of God, and Calvin Klein (who he models for) as inspirations — upgraded his Purpose Tour gear to what many are calling fashion.

“It’s important for an artist to break out of that idea of merch as a T-shirt, as a simple memento souvenir, because at the end of the day, they’re driving the trends,” states Mat Vlasic, the chief executive of Bravado, a merchandise and licensing company that produces Bieber’s Purpose collection.

Vlasic continues, “They’re driving fashion. They should own it a little more. And we should, too.”

Earlier this month, Bieber’s Miami pop-up at fashion salon Alchemist went on to rack up the store’s best 48 hours of business to date. For his part Bieber isn’t calling his merch “fashion” — yet.

“I’m happy and proud people are reacting to it and adopting it,” the singer said through a spokesman. “I don’t think of our tour merch as being ‘fashion.’ That’s a really high compliment for what it is.” The 22-year-old affirmed, “But I am really happy we were able to dial in to something cool the way we did.”

If you’re thinking of checking out Bieber’s Purpose Tour merch at Barneys, let us know in the comments section below.

[Photo by Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images]

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