Lia Kes Moves West With East Coast Aesthetic
Designer Lia Kes has fallen in love with San Francisco, but her design sensibility is decidedly still rooted in the East Coast.
Kes, who launched her self-named contemporary collection six years ago in New York, moved her brand to San Francisco in November after her husband was transferred west. As part of the move, Kes took the opportunity to open her first retail store.
Situated in the city’s Marina neighborhood, the store shares space with Kes’ design studio and allows Kes to interact directly with her consumer for the first time. “It has changed my whole experience as a designer,” she said. “With the store, I can see my entire line laid out on hangers at once in a retail environment.” Having direct access to shoppers also gives Kes an insight she didn’t have before. “It motivates me. I get to speak to these women, and it helps me to understand how they wear the garments and to understand what it is that they want.”
Still, even as Kes takes to the West Coast lifestyle and enjoys her daily strolls on the beach, she is holding on to her East Coast aesthetic. “I’m very happy in San Francisco. I love the city, the beautiful businesses and the restaurants,” Kes said. “The women here are very chic.” But, she says, her fashion muse remains the Big Apple. And that’s part of what is making her brand’s move west successful, she said.
“We stand out. We’re not like everything else that’s available,” Kes said. California is indeed more casual than New York, but “there are women here who want to dress up, who are sophisticated and who don’t want to blend in,” she said.
Kes, who now produces roughly half of her collection in San Francisco (with the rest of her production taking place in Los Angeles, China and New York), said the move wasn’t without its challenges. Finding new contractors and resources proved difficult, she said. “But I’m slowly finding ways to operate. I’m not changing my brand strategy, but I’m allowing San Francisco to inspire me.”
For more information about the Lia Kes collection, visit www.liakes.com.
