Design darling Wu a winner for Target

Fashion phenom or design darling. Whatever you call Jason Wu, he’s got a new line coming to Target Feb. 5 that could be a big deal on several levels.

Wu won the equivalent of the fashion world’s lottery when First Lady Michelle Obama wore one of his dresses to the presidential inauguration and since then everything has gone right for the native of Taiwan. There’s been plenty of favorable media coverage for the 26-year-old and his collaboration with Target is another big win on his fast track career. Now it remains to be seen whether his collection of 53 items priced between $19.99 to $59.99 is a hit with shoppers in the real world as opposed to those in the high fashion world.

That’s the good thing about these designer exclusives. If they flop, the merchandise is only in stores for a month and in that amount of time it’s not like the company is going to take a bath on markdowns. Conversely, if sell through is strong it reinforces the message among Target’s best customers that designers exclusives need to be shopped early or they risk getting shut out of the cool stuff. Lastly, the offering from Wu gets Target’s new fiscal year started off the right way with a strong, “expect more, pay less” statement with some highly-differentiated merchandise.

Check out the commercial for Wu here.