Avant Garde but Affordable
A year ago, Lara Dean-Fernandez and Eduardo Fernandez opened their first boutique, The Assembly, as a vendor of avant-garde fashion in downtown San Diego. But the owners soon found that their boutique’s price points weren’t entirely to the taste of the neighborhood.
“We had one sales rep come in and say we were right on point with New York and Los Angeles,” Dean-Fernandez said. “But we realized that we had to stock what was wearable to the average consumer in San Diego. We had to make sure that our price points wouldn’t go higher than $200.”
Their compromise paid good dividends for The Assembly. The San Diego edition of 944 magazine named it best unisex boutique of 2005. And the Fernandezes will be opening a second store in June—also named The Assembly— in San Diego’s fashionable Hillcrest neighborhood.
The Assembly’s owners did not compromise on one of the original missions: championing new European, Canadian and domestic labels. The store’s top-selling item for March was its “Shade” hoodie for women, manufactured by Canadian designer Gentle Fawn. The brown hoodie showed a fashion edge, with a blue floral embroidery on its left shoulder. Moreover, the hoodie’s price tag—$53.50—did not alarm The Assembly’s cost-conscious consumers. —Andrew Asch
