Beauty giant Coty announced from New York on 4 November 2026 that it has extended its fragrance and beauty licence for the Marc Jacobs brand on a long-term basis. On the other side of the deal are the brand’s new owners: brand management company WHP Global and apparel group G-III Apparel Group. The headline of Coty’s announcement states that the licence now runs for a 40-year term; the company describes it as a step that secures one of the core brands in its prestige portfolio for “decades”. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
New owners, long-standing partner
The timing of the deal is no coincidence. LVMH sold Marc Jacobs this year to a 50/50 joint venture between G-III and WHP Global; the sale was completed in September 2026. Under the new structure, the brand’s intellectual property is held equally by the two companies. G-III has taken over the brand’s apparel and accessories operations, while WHP Global manages its licensing relationships. After the change of ownership, one of the questions the market was most curious about was what would happen to the fragrance business, one of the brand’s most visible revenue streams. This announcement largely answers that question.
The partnership between Coty and Marc Jacobs dates back to 2003. In 2023 the licence was expanded to cover the beauty category as well as fragrance. The new extension covers both fragrance and make-up.
From Daisy to a make-up comeback
Marc Jacobs’ strength in the beauty world comes largely from its fragrances. Daisy, launched in 2007, became the brand’s best-known scent and has grown over time into a large family. Perfect, launched in 2020, and Daisy Wild, which arrived in 2024, show that Coty has continued to refresh the line. According to Coty’s figures, Marc Jacobs fragrances rank among the top 10–15 women’s prestige fragrances in the US, the UK, Canada and Australia.
Another important step in 2026 was make-up. Marc Jacobs Beauty relaunched this year under Coty and took its place in hundreds of Sephora stores and online in the US, the UK, Australia and Canada. Coty said sales of the make-up line are running ahead of targets; the brand is cited among the top 20 best-selling make-up brands in Sephora’s UK and Australia-New Zealand markets. Daisy hair and body mists were also added to the line this year.
What did the parties say?
Markus Strobel, Coty’s executive chairman and interim CEO, said in his statement:
“Marc Jacobs is one of the great creative names in fashion”
In other words, Strobel described Marc Jacobs as one of fashion’s great creative names. Yehuda Shmidman, founder and CEO of WHP Global, said Coty had played a decisive role both in growing the fragrance business and in the rebirth of Marc Jacobs Beauty. Morris Goldfarb, chairman and CEO of G-III, described Coty as an extraordinary partner for the brand.
Why it matters
For luxury fashion brands, fragrance and make-up are often the doorway that reaches a far wider audience than the runway. The customer who connects with a brand through a bottle of scent rather than an expensive handbag makes up the brand’s largest base. That is why licensing deals, especially for brands that have changed hands, are watched as one of the first signs of whether value will be preserved.
What stands out about this deal is its length. The Impression points out that a licence of this length is unusual in the industry; such a long horizon is rarely seen in fashion brands’ beauty agreements. Coty’s statement does not give a precise end year, referring only to a long-term extension. Still, the message is clear: rather than moving the brand’s beauty arm to another company, the new owners chose to tie its future to the existing partner. For Coty, it means securing one of the most stable revenue sources in its portfolio for a long time.
The view from Turkey
The brand management model is also an instructive example for fashion ventures in Turkey. As seen with Marc Jacobs, big brands today are not in the hands of a single company; intellectual property, operations and licences are spread across different specialist partners. Entrusting categories such as fragrance or cosmetics to a company that is strong in that field can carry a designer’s name to shelves it could never reach on its own. For local designers aiming to expand internationally, the term, scope and control rights of licensing agreements are as important as the collection itself.
Readers who want to follow the business side of fashion and the season calendar can also take a look at our 2026–2027 fashion week calendar.
Sources
- Coty’s official press release (Business Wire, 4 November 2026)
- The Impression: report on Coty’s Marc Jacobs licence extension
- Global Cosmetics News: report on the 40-year licence
Image: The Marc Jacobs store at Brickell City Centre in Miami, October 2024 (representative image) — Phillip Pessar, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
