Ted Baker
Cooper Design Space Suite 220 (213) 622-0010emmeline.ros@tedbaker.com
British lifestyle label Ted Baker will make a bigger gambit for America’s wholesale business, and its first stop is downtown Los Angeles.
At the Cooper Design Space, the company is debuting the headquarters for its American wholesale operation in time for the August run of the Los Angeles Fashion Market. Baker’s American licensing deals lapsed in 2009, and the primary licensee, Hartmarx Corp., declared bankruptcy in the same year. The London-based company chose to bring its wholesale in-house, said Patrick Heitkam, executive vice president of Ted Baker’s wholesale and licensing in United States.
With the corporate wholesale operation, Heitkam hopes to place the label—which mixes a Monty Python-esque humor, British tailoring and contemporary looks—in better department stores and boutiques. Nordstrom will be one of the high-marquee retailers to sell the label’s Spring 2010 collection.
The label also is intent on putting a larger retail stamp on America. By the end of the year, it will operate 15 boutiques in the United States. The next California store opens Aug. 6 at new luxury retail center Santa Monica Place in Santa Monica, Calif. A Scottsdale, Ariz., store opened in July, and a Chicago store and a boutique in New York’s Meatpacking District will debut by the end of the year, Heitkam said.
The Cooper Design Space headquarters will be the first spot in America where Ted Baker’s entire collection, from men’s suiting to women’s casual dresses and accessories, will be on view in one place in the United States. Previously, retailers had to make a trip to London to see the collection in its full glory.
The 4,000-square-foot showroom is designed much like a Ted Baker boutique. It features a taxidermied deer’s head that has been affectionately named Bambi. There also will be graphics familiar to Ted Baker fans, such as a lobster in a fishbowl and a pink flamingo in a sock drawer.
“We don’t have a lot of rules,” Heitkam said. “If we have questions on something, we ask, ’Would Ted do it that way?’”—Andrew Asch
