Three Dots Spotlights New Direction With Store
Garden Grove, Calif.–based contemporary tees label Three Dots will formally announce its plans to build the label into a lifestyle brand when the company opens a store on Los Angeles’ Melrose Avenue in mid-February, according to David Lazar, the brand’s executive vice president.
“This will be a significant push in branding for us,” Lazar said of the store, which will be located at 8117 Melrose Ave., across the street from landmark specialty store Ron Herman/Fred Segal Melrose. The 11-year-old Three Dots will use the store as a place to display the entire line and test new product. The company also will measure the store’s success to evaluate whether opening more retail stores will increase the label’s bottom line.
Executives of the privately held Three Dots forecast the company’s 2006 earnings will be 15 percent more than 2005, according to Lazar. The bullish outlook reflects the label’s efforts to be more fashionable and to broaden the appeal of the brand.
Although Three Dots was one of the first labels to make jersey T-shirts and dresses fashionable a decade ago, Lazar said the company needed to take more assertive steps to increase market share. “Our brand had lost a little bit of its contemporary edge,” Lazar said. “We wanted it back, and we wanted to own it.”
An increased focus on contemporary looks was revealed in the label’s May 2005 hire of Yuchin Mao, a former senior designer for Helmut Lang. Her first line for Three Dots was a resort line that was shipped for Nov. 30, 2005, delivery. Her larger Spring 2006 line will fill the new store’s inventory. Price points will be $38–$158 for a collection that will feature more than 100 pieces, including dresses, T-shirts and a greater variety of separates.
The collection may expand Three Dots’ core business from T-shirts to clothes appropriate for any situation. “It’s design,” Mao said, “but it’s more relaxed.” Her designers experimented with various fabrics so the company could offer new materials with the collection, such as garments made out of viscose Lycra or clothes constructed of Three Dots’ version of mixed media: cotton rib, cotton terry and cotton jersey.
The company will debut its first product in its lifestyle brand as the store opens. It will be a colorful flip-flop sandal. Lazar said none of the products would be licensed. “We need to maintain 100 percent control of the future of our brand,” he said. Lazar was hired in the same month as Mao. He previously worked as vice president of merchandising for Limited Brands’ Express division in 2003–04.
The interior of the Three Dots store was designed in-house.The 1,000 square feet of selling space will be accented by polished concrete floors, brushed aluminum fixtures and warm wood touches. The store also will feature a lounge space.
Retailers report doing well with Three Dots. Jeanette Chivvis, co-owner of Los Angeles–based boutique Sugar, said she looks forward to the larger collection. “We did fabulous with Three Dots cashmere last fall and winter,” Chivvis said. “We’re doing a lot going forward with the label’s dresses and skirts.” —Andrew Asch
