Stacy Keyes Showroom
The New MartSuite 1010(213) 488-9990
Veteran showroom owner Stacy Keyes mandated that 2010 would be a year of change.
Her first order of business was getting rid of her giant Range Rover and buying a stylish Audi Q7 sports car. On Jan. 8, she opened a 1,200-square-foot showroom in The New Mart building after selling contemporary fashion in the California Market Center for more than 20 years.
The reason for the address change came down to wanting new surroundings after her CMC lease expired, she said. But the new venue won’t change the fashion focus of her business, which is selling novelty tops that retail for under $80.
Stylish women’s tops with a moderate price point have proved to be a good bet in the weak economy of the past 18 months. “Business has not decreased—that’s the new fabulous,” Keyes said.
Fifty percent of Keyes’ business has been from major retailers. She hopes 2010 will see an increase in that business as well as a boost in specialty-store traffic.
Her showroom offers five lines. Among those are sister fashion lines Sweet Pea by Stacy Frati and Piper & Sparrow. Both are headquartered in Miami and wholesale from $30. Sweet Pea features fashion tops with colorful prints. Piper & Sparrow features tissue-weight fashion tops constructed out of a microfiber material.
The third line is Los Angeles–based 213 by Michelle Kim. The novelty tops, which wholesale for $30 to $48, feature stylish details such as shoulder epaulets and necklaces.
Keyes also sells the Los Angeles–based line Blue Tassel Collection. Its woven tops and embroidered skirts wholesale for $30 to $40. A fifth line, Awake Couture, offers T-shirt-inspired dresses and tunics, which wholesale for $26 to $38.—Andrew Asch
