California Apparel News

With the opening of its sixth store, at Fashion Island in Newport Beach, Calif., Modern Amusement plans to ramp up its expansion over the next five years.

“At this point, we’re saying let’s double our stores and increase our accounts to about 100,” said Kurt Schroeder, who oversees sales and marketing for the Costa Mesa, Calif.–based firm.

Santa Barbara, New York, Florida and Boston are key locations targeted for new stores, Schroeder said.

It’s a more aggressive move for Modern Amusement, which has pursued a controlled growth strategy in the past. Begun in 1995 by Jeff Yokoyama, a former Stussy designer who founded Maui & Sons in the mid-1980s and later Pirate Surf, the retailer of men’s and women’s casual wear has focused on building the brand and creating its detailed line of T-shirts, woven shirts, sweaters, skirts and denim pants. Now that its women’s line is a year old, it has an even stronger opportunity to augment its 50 wholesale accounts.

“Rather than break out of the starting gate with 100 stores and then eating it, we’ve taken our time,” Schroeder said. “We’ve wanted to be slow and strong rather than fast and weak. We’ve had a waiting list of retailers who want to carry our product. Now, we think we’re ready for the next step.”

Currently, Modern Amusement has stores in Tokyo, Osaka, Hawaii and on Third Street in Los Angeles. Kbond in Los Angeles, Rolo in San Francisco and Calypso in New York are among its wholesale boutiques.

Most recently, Bloomingdale’s began to carry Modern Amusement at its 59th Street store in New York and at its Southern California locations: the Beverly Center mall in Los Angeles, the Westfield Shoppingtown Century City and Fashion Square Sherman Oaks. Plans call for pursuing similar department store accounts.

At its newest location, which features slate floors and the brand’s signature crow in paintings covering the interior’s bare, white walls, the goal was to keep the deacute;cor simple.

“We want to let the clothes do the talking,” Schroeder said.

It’s the first mall location for Modern Amusement, which usually scouts out trendy street locations.

“It’s an open-air mall, so that gives us the allure of the outdoor shopping scene and lets us capture clientele that normally doesn’t see our stuff,” he said.

The move to a shopping mall makes sense, according to industry observers, who say retail centers still provide critical mass for smaller retailers who usually rely on less-visible shopping streets.

“As locations go, that’s one of the great ones to open at,” said Tony Cherbak, a partner at the consumer practice of Deloitte & Touche LLP. “When you think of the two great shopping centers here—South Coast Plaza [in Costa Mesa, Calif.] and Fashion Island—Fashion Island seems to have more of the one-off boutiques. And, those edgy boutiques often do well based on the fashion-forward customer found at the center.”

Next on the list for the diversifying clothing company is a partnership with Canton, Mass.–based Reebok International Ltd. The pair will roll out a dual-label unisex vintage track shoe at stores carrying Modern Amusement and at specialty boutiques by next May. With design input from Yokoyama, the shoe, featuring a red crow on the side and blue Reebok striping on the tongue, will have a limited edition of 1,200 pairs.

For Reebok, the venture is part of the company’s ongoing strategy to raise its fashion bar, said John Spilman, Reebok’s senior sales manager of fashion. Reebok launched a co-branded shoe with British designer Paul Smith last year.

“We wanted to find a West Coast designer that’s up-and-coming and we thought Modern Amusement’s apparel was really exciting,” Spilman said, noting that Reebok promoted the product during Spring 2003 Los Angeles Fashion Week. —Nola Sarkisian-Miller