Bloomie's New Look
Santa Monica Place’s ultra-chic new Bloomingdale’s takes the retailer’s SoHo concept and gives it a West Coast twist.
Most retailers promise newness when they debut a new venture, but iconic luxury department store Bloomingdale’s is promising change.
On Aug. 6, it opened its newest store, located at Santa Monica Place in Santa Monica, Calif. The store is the next step in the development of the retail giant’s highly edited, young-thinking, smaller-square-footage concept, which debuted in New York’s SoHo neighborhood in 2004, according to Charles Anderson, Bloomingdale’s senior vice president and director of stores.
“Santa Monica will be a departure for us,” Anderson said. “There will be more color.”
Santa Monica’s splashes of color are some of several striking changes for Bloomingdale’s, where black lacquer tiles and black-hued merchandise both serve as store signatures.
Along with color, the store’s merchandise features more prints, and there will be more bridge merchandise, new services and new design ideas. If it is deemed successful, the SoHo-style Bloomingdale’s might be a more prominent face for the 41-store luxury chain, which is a division of Macy’s Inc.
“We want to continue to learn,” Anderson said. “You see the best parts of SoHo here. If we get it right, we’ll develop more. Hopefully, it will translate.”
The Santa Monica Place store is a two-level, 101,000-square-foot box. It is less than half the size of the 235,000-square-foot Bloomingdale’s flagship in the Westfield Century City shopping center, located in the Century City neighborhood of Los Angeles.
The sleeker size sets the stage for a highly imaginative, dramatic design. Windows at the street and first-floor levels allow more natural light to shine inside the store. Aluminum discs line some parts of the building’s exterior, which give the exterior a shimmering look when sunlight hits it. Kevin Kennon Architects designed the exterior, and New York–based Mancini Duffy collaborated with Bloomingdale’s Executive Vice President, Creative Services Jack Hruska for the store’s interior design.
The goal was to create a look that was more Santa Monica than Manhattan, said Lisa Contreras, resources director for Mancini Duffy’s retail group. The architectural group also was asked to develop different environments and ambiances for various areas of the store.
Bloomingdale’s iconic black lacquer walls and polished black-and-white checkerboard-tile floors were toned down. There are some touches of black lacquer on the exposed concrete walls at the Santa Monica Place store. Black-and-white checkerboard was stenciled on the building’s existing concrete floor, which gives it a more weathered look, Contreras said.
For different environments, the fragrance area features paneling from a French chateau. On the second floor, a set of six-foot-high, retractable Chinese lantern–style pods serves as dressing rooms. And mannequins clad in the latest styles float over the Vince mini-shop thanks to a ceiling-mounted conveyor belt.
Photo murals of Santa Monica are splashed over interiors of elevators and in some bathrooms. Instead of conventional floral arrangements, the store features wall hangings covered with flowers.
Despite the high-style deacute;cor, the store’s merchandise should offer something for most people, said Stephanie Solomon, Bloomingdale’s fashion director. “It’s a mixture of high and low price points. It’s accessible fashion,” Solomon said.
Still, the Santa Monica store has a different character from other California Bloomingdale’s stores. Merchandise is not as “edgy” nor quite as fashion forward as the mix at the Beverly Center Bloomingdale’s. And the fashions are much more casual than those at the Bloomingdale’s Century City flagship store. The Santa Monica store also offers more activewear, and, unlike the original SoHo Bloomingdale’s, carries more office clothes.
Women’s ready-to-wear labels offered at Santa Monica include California brands such as Michael Stars, Sue Wong, Tadashi, Three Dots, Twelfth Street by Cynthia Vincent, 7 For All Mankind and Volcom. Other labels offered include Alice & Olivia, Alternative Apparel, DKNY, Theory and Under Armour.
Men’s ready-to-wear lines include Superdry, Trunk, The Same Guy, Vilebrequin, Theory, Polo Ralph Lauren, Loomstate, Levi’s Red Tab, Junk Food, John Varvatos, Woolrich, Hugo Boss and Affliction.
The Bloomingdale’s men’s store and the fragrance and cosmetics departments are located on the store’s first floor. Upstairs, shoppers can find women’s fashions; a jeans’ hub; and a location of Forty Carrots, the store’s frozen-yogurt bar. The second floor also houses the department store’s new b-Style Bar. The complimentary stylist service teams consumers with Bloomingdale’s stylists who can show them around the store.
