California Apparel News

Retailer Wendy Watson calls her Fairfax Avenue boutique her “big closet.” And she can describe her clientele as though they were her closest friends.

“She’s between the ages of 22 and 45, witty, feminine, not taken care of—she’s independent, she’s looking for something different, she wants to express herself creatively without having to follow rules or trends. She’s relaxed. There’s an ease about her style,” she said of her target customer.

At 2,200 square feet, Watson’s store, Kate, is a very big closet, with an airy loft-like feel and a mix of local and international labels, including Michelle Mason, Tree, Buddhist Punk, Midi, Japanese label Rita Flora and New York–based Jill Stewart.

Kate’s look and merchandise mix is a departure from the store’s previous incarnation, Mushi-Mushi, which was owned by Watson’s ex-husband, jewelry designer Moss Mills. Under Mills’ ownership, the store included casual contemporary apparel, as well as gift items and home deacute;cor. At Mushi-Mushi, Watson was a buyer but not an owner. After her split with Mills in 2002, she took over the space, reopening the store under the new name Kate—a nod to her middle name, Kathleen.

“All of a sudden, I had creative control—I’m the one calling the shots in the store,” said Watson, a Georgia native, who moved to Los Angeles in 1997.

The store’s offerings include young designer and contemporary women’s apparel; accessories; and, most recently, shoes from labels including Blay, Cyd Clabel and Rebecca Taylor. Eventually, Watson plans to devote half of Kate’s floor space to shoes.

Watson carries Los Angeles contemporary jeans brand Chip and Pepper but does not focus strongly on denim. “My girl doesn’t have a closet full of denim; she’s not a rhinestone tee–with-denim-and-a–trucker hat girl,” she said.

She finds her labels through her personal contacts and at contemporary trade shows such as Designers & Agents, where she shops the Japanese lines “because [she feels] they are less seen.”

She also produces her own line of Modal/cotton tops, dresses and skirts under the Kate label.

Location, location, location

Kate benefits from being near a growing retail district and slightly off the beaten path. The store is next door to hip and healthy eatery Mauml;ni’s Bakery Cafeacute; and a few blocks south of the bustling Farmer’s Market, The Grove shopping mall and the upscale boutiques of Third Street.

“The street is evolving,” Watson said. “It has a nice neighborhood feel, but we’re a destination shop.”

This being Los Angeles, Kate has the obligatory celebrity clientele, including Cameron Diaz, Carrie-Anne Moss, Sharon Warren (“Ray”) and Rachel Bilson (“The O.C.”), as well as plenty of local power players. “She’s somebody—even if you haven’t seen her on the cover of a magazine,” Watson said of her customer.

The store even features an oasis for her customers’ husbands and boyfriends. The second-floor loft contains a private collection of vinyl records, where the men can shop and sample oldies while their wives and girlfriends browse downstairs. Watson’s boyfriend, Yves Spinelli, manages the vinyl collection at the store, as well as an accompanying eBay boutique, stores.ebay.com/playbackrarities. Among the vinyl collection’s frequent visitors are actors Jason Lee and Billy Crudup.

Despite the star sightings, Kate retains that neighborhood boutique ambiance. Watson offers discounts to her regular customers as a way of telling them “I appreciate you choosing my store and not somewhere else.”

In return, they tend to buy in volume. Watson said the average sale at Kate includes 12 pieces.

Although the retailer doesn’t rule out opening new locations, for now, she plans to continue renovating the store. She recently painted the exterior and added a chandelier over the entrance’s vintage front door. She will continue to look for new shoe lines to bring in, as well as hunt for labels that mix modern edginess with retro femininity.

“It’s nice to have a label [of which] you know what to expect,” she said. “[But] it’s not about the label. It’s not about the style or the trend. It’s the quality and the fit. It’s about an outfit that you feel comfortable in and you feel beautiful in.”

—Alison A. Nieder