California Apparel News

Irreverent California contemporary brand Juicy Couture will open a boutique on Oct. 12 on stately Rodeo Drive, but the casual brand will not turn Rodeo elegance upside down, according to the boutique owners of the iconic Beverly Hills street.

Instead, boutique owners will be cheering when the Juicy Couture boutique debuts. The store will attract a younger customer to the street, according to Rodeo businesspeople interviewed. The Juicy Couture store is sandwiched between the buttoned-down Brooks Bros. flagship and the upper-crust Ralph Lauren store, both located on the 400 block of North Rodeo Drive at the intersection of Rodeo and South Santa Monica Boulevard.

While the new Juicy Couture store is expected to attract a new customer, this consumer might not yet be seeking Rodeo’s established fashions of Giorgio Armani, Gucci and Prada, according to Thomas Blumenthal, president of the event and marketing merchants’ group The Rodeo Drive Committee and chief executive of prominent Rodeo jeweler Gearys on Rodeo.

“We have a fairly young clientele. But it’s not as young as we’d like it to be,” Blumenthal said. If the Juicy Couture store attracts women in their mid-20s to the street, Blumenthal hopes they will stick around to shop the area’s Armani, Dior and Chanel boutiques in the future.

The Juicy store puts its irreverent outlook in plain view on Rodeo. Adjacent to the store’s imposing doors are brass plaques with the company coat of arms depicting two small scotch terriers holding a shield over the humorous slogan “Born in the Glamorous USA.”

The Rodeo store is the latest stop on a retail expansion that Juicy Couture has embarked on in the past few years. According to its parent company, New York–based Liz Claiborne Inc., more than 20 Juicy Couture stores opened between July 2006 and July 2007.

Sales productivity was $489 per square foot in these stores, according to the company’s financial documents dated July 31. Comparable-store sales, the measuring stick for retail success, increased 22 percent in the first half of 2007 compared with the same time in the previous year. Representatives from Juicy Couture could not be reached for comment.

Liz Claiborne Inc. reportedly has plans to open more than 300 stores for its branded labels, including Juicy Couture and Kate Spade, in the next few years. Juicy Couture’s leap to mass distribution marks a striking difference to its early days in the 1990s when the label was first championed by specialty stores.

Prominent Los Angeles specialty store Kitson stopped carrying Juicy Couture handbags and accessories in 2005. Kitson owner Fraser Ross said Juicy Couture’s success is well-deserved. “It’s an American icon brand. It’s part of American pop culture,” he said. “It’s becoming a chain-store brand, and it can’t be in specialty stores anymore. You got to be one or the other,” he said.

Juicy Couture should have a lot of product to fill up the Rodeo store. The label includes dog accessories and clothes for men and children, as well as two brands for women. Its moderately priced Juicy Couture line includes track suits with price points from $82 to $108. The Couture Couture line offers a blouse for $800.—Andrew Asch