Kimora Lee Simmons Is Relaunching Baby Phat

Baby Phat is back.

Fashion designer Kimora Lee Simmons, 43, announced in a press release on Friday that not only has she purchased back her popular streetwear brand, but she will relaunch it later this year.

She declined to reveal to WWD how much she repurchased the company for or from whom she bought it, only saying, “We had to hunt around to find it.”

Simmons first created the brand 20 years ago under her then-husband Russell Simmons’ Phat Fashions company. She later expanded the womenswear brand into multiple categories, including fragrance and accessories, and made more than $1 billion in sales during it’s heyday.

When the label relaunches this spring, fans can expect it to look similar to all the most popular streetwear styles that have been revamped as of late. However, Kimora reportedly plans on tapping into her “amazing personal archive” as inspiration and include “retro” elements.

The brand will first re-emerge this summer with an unannounced collaboration and then debut a signature collection this fall.

In 2000, Simmons was named creative director of Baby Phat and later was named president. In 2004, Russell Simmons sold it to Kellwood Company for $140 million while Kimora stayed on. However, she split with the company in 2010.

She launched her own eponymous line in 2013, which she will continue to operate as a separate entity from Baby Phat. “They’re siblings, but one is older than the other,” she said.

Like the original product, the relaunch will be a family affair that includes her daughters Ming Lee Simmons and Aoki Lee Simmons. “It’s very important that you have women on both sides: women as the end user, women as the creator,” she told Bloomberg TV. “We need to take more of that responsibility and own it.”

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