MACHO, MACHO BRAND; EAGER TO LEVERAGE THEIR POWERFUL BRAND EQUITY, SOME VERY MACHO BRANDS -- JEEP, JOHNNIE WALKER AND STETSON -- THINK THEY HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO DRESS MEN.

Daily News Record, September, 2000 by Cunningham, Thomas

Lifestyle brand. Possibly the most overused phrase in the apparel business. The tag is cherished by designers, hawked by executives, loved by Wall Street analysts and appropriated by retailers. It conjures images of aspirational advertising, panoramic product extensions, fat profit margins and billion-dollar sales.

If only it were that easy.

Nevertheless, almost every brand, from VF's North Face to the surf label Quiksilver, is desperately trying to tar itself with the lifestyle brush. Designers such as Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein created the notion of fashion lifestyle marketing in the late '70s and early '80s and, on the way, revolutionized the way style is sold to America.

Now there is a clutch of brands, most of them relative newcomers...