Jeffrey Rudes Launches New Brand

Jeffrey Rudes, who founded the premium women’s jeans line J Brand, is launching a new luxury menswear brand called Jeffrey Rüdes.

Jeffrey Rüdes will be headquartered in Los Angeles with a design and production studio in Bologna, Italy, according to Women’s Wear Daily.

The company, which will be rooted in retail, will open a two-story, 5800-square-foot store at 57 Greene Street in New York’s SoHo July 1, coinciding with the launch of the brand’s website.

“I knew five years ago that I would finish my career doing luxury menswear, and my vision for this goes back 10 years,” said 57-year-old Rudes, who resigned as ceo of J Brand last May following its sale.

The umlaut in the Jeffrey Rüdes brand is an acknowledgement of the German town from which his family emigrated, Rüdesheim am Rhein, about 40 miles west of Frankfurt, reports WWD.