Business

Dotcom couture

With luxury stores laid low by the recession, eBay is making another bid for style-savvy shoppers.

The online-auction giant is close to inking a partnership with top fashion designer Narciso Rodriguez to create its first clothing line. The collection, “Narciso Rodriguez for eBay,” will be sold exclusively on eBay starting next spring.

The pact with Rodriguez — who recently has won notoriety as a favorite designer of First Lady Michelle Obama — is a victory for eBay, which has long battled its reputation in the fashion world as a venue for cheap knockoffs and deeply discounted, off-season or out-of-style clothing.

Meanwhile, high-priced designers like Rodriguez are struggling to return to profitability as their well-heeled clientele shun the four-digit price tags that their designs typically carried during the boom years.

“I’ve never sold anything at these kinds of prices,” Rodriguez told The Post, noting that the eight pieces in the eBay collection will be offered from $75 to $350 each. “This gets my work to a wider audience.”

Rodriguez and eBay declined to discuss terms of their pact. But eBay spokesman Alan Marks portrayed the auction site as an outlet for designers looking to increase their distribution and appeal on more favorable financial terms.

Indeed, Rodriguez said eBay’s strong finances make it an attractive partner at a time when many cash-strapped boutiques “haven’t been able to pay” their suppliers.

While demand for high-priced clothing tanks, larger luxury chains like Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and Bloomingdale’s are pressing suppliers to develop lower-priced lines that qualify as “affordable luxury.”

Rodriguez said the small collection for eBay — which may be repeated in seasons to come — is a way of skirting the demands of creating a permanent, lower-priced line, which typically means “hundreds of pieces and deliveries every month.”

Like other sellers, Rodriguez will pay 35 cents to list an item for 30 days under eBay’s “Buy it Now” option, and will pay another fee once the item is sold. Marks said the terms are such that Rodriguez can boast of “double-digit” profit margins.

This isn’t the first foray into fashion for eBay, which has auctioned off a limited number of runway pieces straight from several designers, including Rodriguez and Proenza Schouler. Diane von Furstenberg has used eBay to sell vintage pieces, overstock and perfume.

Nevertheless, eBay may still have a few kinks to work out as it expands into luxury, said Marc Beckman, founder of Designers Management Agency, a New York consulting firm.

He noted that the first category listed on eBay’s Web site under “Clothing, Shoes & Accessories” is “Costumes & Reenactment Attire.”

“I wonder if Narciso is going to be above that or below that,” Beckman said.