G-Star's California Concept
Dutch denim brand G-Star Raw Denim made a classic Hollywood splash for the debut party of its Beverly Hills showroom, located at 8820 Wilshire Blvd., on June 4. In the parking lot of the two-story, 5,775-square-foot showroom, the 19-year-old denim brand hosted a gala for the pop-art paintings of Dennis Hopper, the 72-year-old film legend who appeared in iconic films such as “Easy Rider” (1969) and “Apocalypse Now” (1979).
More than 750 people browsed Hopper’s artwork and danced to the music of disc jockey Samantha Ronson. Also in attendance were G-Star’s Amsterdam-based Chief Executive Jos van Tilburg and Global Brand Director Shubhankar Ray.
G-Star plans to open more than 200 stores in North America in the next 20 years, said Deepak Gayadin, G-Star’s New York–based vice president of North American operations. There are 130 G-Star locations across the globe. Since 2003, four G-Star franchise stores have opened in California in San Diego, Newport Beach and San Francisco and on Los Angeles’ Melrose Avenue.
More than four G-Star boutiques will be opened in California in the next two years, said Jason Farrell, who has franchised the Los Angeles, Newport Beach and San Francisco stores. Farrell is a partner in retail company Swimming Horses Los Angeles.
Farrell said he was in lease negotiations to open boutiques in Los Angeles’ Beverly Center mall—the possible debut date for that store is spring 2009—and the remodeled Santa Monica Place retail center, which is scheduled to reopen in fall 2009. The Beverly Center store will be located less than one mile away from the Melrose Avenue store. Farrell said the stores will get two different customers. The Melrose customer enjoys destination shopping. “There’s a lot of tourist business in the Beverly Center. We’re going to see a broader scale of people” he said.—Andrew Asch
