Breaking News: TSM takes minority stake in Rachel Roy

Rachel Roy, the New-York based designer and wife of hip-hop mogul Damon Dash, has announced that TSM Capital has taken a significant minority stake in her eponymous business. According to WWD, Roy's business is generating $10m in wholesale revenues.

The Rachel Roy brand is carried in an impressive set of department store chains including Bergdorf Goodman, Saks 5th Avenue, and Neiman Marcus, and also in reputable international stores like Kuwait's Villa Moda and Moscow's Tsum.

With a respectable wholesale business in place, TSM says the capital injection will be used to open retail stores, spur expansion outside the USA, and expand into new categories, likely through external licensing deals. In an interesting twist that runs opposite to the flow of designers moving into the Contemporary segment, Roy's business had originally been positioned as a Contemporary brand, but it was subsequently repositioned as a Designer brand, which meant raising prices by 40%. This was a move that was generally lauded by buyer and editors.

Rachel Roy is frequently out on the town, photographed in her own designs, as part of New York's young and active social set. She figured well on the now-defunct SocialiteRank site, which ranked New York's young socialites based on the number parties attended and the number of photographs that were taken of them.

Having an attractive, visible woman as the face of a brand is a formula that has worked well for other successful fashion businesses, including Tory Burch and Jimmy Choo, whose co-founder Tamara Mellon has become synonymous with the brand itself.

Earlier this year, TSM Capital announced its first investment in Matthew Williamson's business, alongside the king of the UK high street, Baugur Group, which is currently involved in an effort to take a stake in Saks 5th Avenue, the American department store chain.

Photo cips courtesy of Nirali Magazine and Style.com