California Apparel News

North Cahuenga Boulevard in Los Angeles’ Hollywood district is a 30-minute drive from the nearest beach, and until a few years ago, it was a world away from the California dream. But in 2002, Ashley Paige saw the then-gritty address as the perfect place to debut her namesake luxe swimwear shop.

She opened her shop at 1616 N. Cahuenga Blvd. when the neighborhood looked like a backdrop for a television crime drama. Tough guys regularly walked the street with fierce-looking pit-bull dogs. Her first customers were prostitutes and transvestites. And her boutique was burglarized twice in its first year of doing business. Yet Paige has outlasted the neighborhood toughs. Her swimwear, which sells at luxury retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue, has earned the designer a base of luxury customers who now make trips to her Hollywood atelier.

Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson of hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas and actors Carmen Electra and Mena Suvari are among this year’s shoppers at Ashley Paige. The street still has a gritty feel, but the area has improved, and swank restaurants and cozy cafes now surround the boutique.

Paige is among the designer swimwear brands—including Kushcush by Kerry Cushman, Parke & Ronen and Shay Todd—on the runways at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Miami Swim. In the past few years, all have opened shops devoted to their fashion labels.

Like their contemporary-fashion and premium-denim counterparts, swimwear designers have demonstrated that they have the moxie to open boutiques devoted to their brands. And like the contemporary and premium-denim categories, swimwear lines are enjoying the heightened brand recognition that comes with successfully building a lifestyle brand.

Consumers are more aware of swimwear brands and many people have been increasingly demanding them, said swimwear retailer Diane Biggs, owner of the Torrance, Calif.–based swimwear boutique chain Diane’s.

“Companies have invested a lot of money in promoting suits. Now customers are coming into stores saying, ’I want a Vix’ or ’I want a Sunset,’” said Biggs, naming two top swimwear brands. Biggs, who has been selling swimwear since 1965, now owns more than 14 Diane’s swimwear boutiques in Southern California and two swim lifestyle boutiques called Bikini.

But branding is only half the story, Biggs said. In the last year, the swim-obsessed resort season has gained in popularity. Customers planning a winter getaway to Mexico or Tahiti are shopping for resortwear—or for those staying closer to home, there’s a growing interest in casual clothes for trips to day spas.

Biggs’ consumers are requesting branded resort clothes, such as coverup dresses, flip-flops and even sweat suits, to complement the design and look of their bikinis. The trend is good news for swim designers interested in building a fashion collection beyond swimwear.

Biggs has already demonstrated success with Bikini, a boutique concept specializing in selling designer swimwear and clothes intended to be part of a stylish resort collection.

In 2006, Biggs opened a Bikini boutique in the wealthy Corona Del Mar section of Newport Beach, Calif. The store’s swimwear and its complementary styles were typically produced by the top brands in fashion swimwear such as Vix, Salinas, Gottex and Trina Turk. It also sold denim from popular brands such as True Religion, which also debuted a swimwear line in 2007.

Biggs deemed the concept successful enough that in September 2007, she opened another Bikini boutique at 705 Montana Ave. in Santa Monica, Calif. Biggs said there was the possibility she might open other locations for Bikini.

As swimwear designers begin branching into broader lifestyle lines, retail is an obvious next step.

SHAY TODD

Shiro Gutzie, president and partner of Los Angeles–based Shay Todd LLC, and his wife and partner, Shay Todd, plan to open six Shay Todd boutiques by mid-2009. In August 2007, the two opened a boutique at 320 Manhattan Beach Blvd. in Manhattan Beach, Calif.

More than 35 percent of the store’s stock is Shay Todd swimwear. The rest of the store’s retail mix offers coverup dresses, shorts and other fashions designed by Todd.

The Shay Todd brand started in 2003 with swimwear designs and still is best known for its bikinis. However, Gutzie said empire-building swim designers cannot rely entirely on swim for their business. He estimated that even swim aficionados buy no more than five suits a year.

The secret in attracting a sizable consumer base to the store, and even stocking the store with product, is to think more like Ralph Lauren, Gutzie said. Shay Todd’s swimwear roots do not have to be sacrificed in a line that includes hats, accessories and shoes.

“There are 42 looks per season, but the main thrust of what we do is swim,” Gutzie said.

For the Manhattan Beach boutique, Shay Todd partnered with 4-year-old contemporary fashion shop Bombshell. The swimwear designer took half the boutique’s 1,800-square-foot space. Gutzie designed the back of the boutique as a Zen garden with a waterfall and a large wood Buddha sculpture.

The rest of the Shay Todd boutique is designed with shades of white, including a white leather couch and ivory-colored walls. The austere tone provides a stark contrast to Todd’s colorful fashions, as well as to the Bombshell boutique, which carries contemporary styles from Black Halo, Sass & Bide and Alice & Olivia.

PARKE & RONEN

Menswear boutique Parke & Ronen has been part of New York’s fashion scene since 1997, but in November 2007, designers Parke Lutter and Ronen Jehezkel opened another boutique in Los Angeles at 8012frac12; Melrose Ave. in the middle of the burgeoning Melrose Heights fashion district.

The duo’s form-fitting 1960s-inspired men’s bathing suits helped shape their label’s reputation, but the store carries the label’s entire collection, not just its leading swimwear styles.

In fact, the swimwear is placed under a display of Parke & Ronen’s stylish gym fashions, which occupy the central section of the boutique. The rest of the boutique space is devoted to the duo’s menswear, which includes woven shirts and trousers.

Jehezkel designed the boutique’s look with bamboo floors and an electric-blue back wall. He credits his company’s swimwear with bringing attention to his label. Indeed, 95 percent of the press that Parke & Ronen has received, from publications such as The New York Times and GQ, started with a reporter or an editor wandering into his store. “It’s a great P.R. tool,” he said of the boutique.

Parke & Ronen is sold at Barneys New York, and yet, Jehezkel said retail will serve as more than a mere catalyst to get people talking about his brand. In the future, Jehezkel hopes to expand his swimwear-boutique real estate. One of his boutiques will be devoted to swimwear, and another boutique will just offer menswear.

KUSHCUSH BY KERRY CUSHMAN

For Angelo Cushman and his wife and business partner, Kerry Cushman, opening a boutique has been more of a learning experience in fashion than a drive to build a new business.

The duo owns and designs fashion swimwear brand Kushcush by Kerry Cushman. In March 2007 they opened a 400-square-foot boutique for the brand at 315 Richmond St. in El Segundo, Calif. The town is located adjacent to Los Angeles International Airport. But it is a 30-minute drive south from the bustling action of Los Angeles’ fashion retail neighborhoods, and it even seems isolated from them.

El Segundo’s relative isolation is one reason why Angelo Cushman felt safe in opening a boutique. The location was far away from the real estate owned by his fashion line’s retail partners.

“Boutiques are our bread and butter. I don’t want to compete with them,” he said.

However, the geographic isolation did not bar their typical customer from patronizing the boutique. The Cushmans noted what their customers bought, tailoring the collection to suit customers’ needs.

“The store taught us how to make a complete line,” Angelo Cushman said. Like Gutzie, the Cushmans estimated that the most devoted fashion swimwear customer probably would not buy more than a few swimsuits annually. So it was up to the swim designer to complement the line with other styles, such as raw-silk jackets and a best-selling black turtleneck sweater.

ASHLEY PAIGE

Florida native Ashley Paige built her Hollywood boutique because she needed a location to fit all her business needs. The space needed to serve as a meeting place for her sales people and fashion retailers. It would also need to offer a VIP area for the celebrities and stylists making the special trip to her Hollywood boutique. And it would require a work area where she could construct her one-of-a-kind knit swimsuits.

Perhaps most important, the space needed to communicate her aesthetic, which was as unique as her swimwear. Paige designed the interior of the Hollywood boutique, which might be described as Florida bohemian luxe.

The boutique and meeting areas feature thrift-shop furniture and reclaimed Florida knickknacks such as a flamingo figure that was once part of a wrought-iron gate.

In the back of the meeting area, there is a VIP room, which Paige decorated with more of a Hollywood ambiance in mind. The rich, dark colors of the room and velvets of the fitting-room curtains bring to mind a hip nightclub.

The back of the Ashley Paige shop is where much of the label’s production work is done. Surrounded by colorful yarns and trims, tailor Juan Magana makes bikinis, gowns and other items at a loom.

Paige hosts pet adoptions every week at the Hollywood space and sponsors animal-rescue organization Ruff Houzen, which is headquartered at the boutique. It also is a space where Paige’s Hollywood artist friends come to socialize. “I like the edginess of [the store],” Paige said. “I’m an edgy designer.”

If the shop exudes the Ashley Paige character, the designer reasoned that its magic could be duplicated. She’s currently considering opening other Ashley Paige stores in fashion cities across the globe.