Aero & Co. Boutique Gambles on Moss Mills
Can a retail odd couple make sales skyrocket?
Aero & Co. owner Alisa Loftin thinks strange retail bedfellows will add a lot of value to her store, which specializes in avant-garde fashions. The boutique recently celebrated the opening of a mini-shop for Los Angeles– based designer. The label crafts soft, woodland-themed jewelry and fashions that often depict pictures of forest animals.
The mini-boutique, which opened Oct. 6, represents a change for Aero & Co. For the past eight years, the store has been offering new designers who create thoughtprovoking pieces. Since it first bowed in its new location on Los Angeles’ West Third Street five years ago, the boutique has found good customers because the retail area is known for its support of intellectual fashions.
But it needed more.
As West Third Street’s notoriety has increased, the thoroughfare has attracted more tourists. Loftin said that they often do not know what to make of the store’s avant-garde fashions and Los Angeles–based labels, such as Figment and Blood Is the New Black.
Enter Moss Mills and the in-store mini-shop.
Loftin said that Aero & Co. regulars and casual shoppers have embraced the store within a store. “It’s so approachable,” Loftin said.
The Mills mini-boutique takes up 800 square feet—about half of the space of Aero & Co. Retail price points range from $28 for a T-shirt to $175 for a dress. Mills’ red metal jewelry cases are decorated with real birds’ nests and fake grass to produce a woodsy look.
Loftin said she believes the look works well with Aero’s spare gallery ambience. The boutique owner also said she will be getting used to it. The Mills shop within a shop is set to be a permanent fixture at Aero & Co.—Andrew Asch
