Who doesn’t like a bag of candy, right?
That’s the thought behind Dylan Lauren’s latest project.
The founder and CEO of Dylan’s Candy Bar is expanding the candy empire she launched in 2001.
Her latest is a collaboration with bag maker LeSportsac that will produce brightly colored candy-printed bags.
Lauren says the new candy-inspired bags, including totes, weekenders and handbags , are patterned with her best-selling confections like the signature “candy spill.”
Lauren has 60 locations, with shops in major department stores and hotels across the US, including Neiman Marcus, and Four Seasons. She’s also in the Empire State Building, and soon she’ll be in airports.
Lauren plans on opening a shop at JFK’s JetBlue Terminal 5 later this year, and she is looking to sell products in flight again, as she did when Delta’s Song was in business.
Of course, she also has the mothership: a 15,000-square-foot candy flagship on the Upper East Side, with 7,000 kinds of candy and products including stationery, toys, jewelry and body lotion. She also has stores in East Hampton, Los Angeles and Miami.
What’s next? More stores, and a Dylan’s candy-bar stroller deal with Maclaren, featuring her signature strip and candy-spill pattern.–Julie Earle-Levine
Oil barons
ArtNews has just come out with its annual list of the world’s top 200 collectors, prompting On the Money to pause in our continuing contemplation of the beautiful to riffle through the nitty-gritty of who’s throwing the bucks around.
Boldface New York finance names do us proud on the tasteful 200; the tippy-top 10 include Debra and Leon Black, Alexandra and Steve Cohen and Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder.
Also in the ranks of the 200 are publisher Si Newhouse Jr., hedgie Dan Loeb, private-equity kingpin Henry Kravis and Barnes & Noble owner Len Riggio.–Post staff
Aussie style
How do the top aspiring Australian designers get to work with the best in fashion in New York?
They vie for the Australian Fashion Foundation internship. This year’s winners are Tim Watson, who is learning the ropes at Thom Browne, and Natasha F
agg, who is interning at Alexander McQueen.
Both winners will be feted at the AUSFF annual party Tuesday night.
The gala raises $20,000 for the intern program and is sponsored by the Woolmark Co., which underwrites the event in New York and Sydney.
This year’s party is at Gilligan’s at the Soho Grand Hotel, where catwalkers including Carolyn Murphy, Dree Hemingway, Ruby Jean Wilson will be sipping frozen watermelon cocktails and wine.
Woolmark is bumping up its presence in New York for the first time in years; its marketing budget for the 2013-2014 fiscal year is $54 million. –Julie Earle-Levine
Time Inc. CEO ‘Bookend’
Will Michael Klingensmith be the CEO over the troubled water at Time Inc.?
Time Warner watchers noted that Klingensmith, the man who is being buzzed as the front-runner to land the Time CEO job, bears a striking resemblance to singer Art Garfunkel (left), of Simon & Garfunkel fame.
Former colleagues said that Klingensmith himself was aware that others thought they looked alike. But he did not have comment by presstime.–Keith J. Kelly