Eva Varro Finds Retail Solution
Retail madness is everywhere. Designers and clothing labels are increasingly thinking about going vertical, as in, let's open our own store.
Lucky Brand Jeans was one of the first to go in that direction. Years later, True Religion was on the hunt for retail locations and then Joe's Jeans. The message was this: If you want to maximize your profits, get your own store.
Now Los Angeles designer Eva Varro has joined the club. In May, she opened her first store, a pop-up shop at the Promenade on The Peninsula, in the ritzy suburb of Rolling Hills Estates. Think horse country in the city. In August, she will open a permanent store in the redesigned, revamped, practically torndown and redone Santa Monica Place.
But instead of mounting her own in-house staff of retail experts, Varro turned to David Oliver, a long-time retailer whose family once operated the Ames Ladies Wear chain of shops. Oliver sold Ames and now operates small boutiques in Manhattan Beach and Calabasas. Oliver has been carrying Eva Varro's line of sophisticated knit dresses, tops and other styles for some time at his Trance and Besitos stores and knew how to merchandise the clothing.
"A lot of designers want to open stores to go vertical but don't have the know-how," Oliver said. "So Eva asked if we would consider doing this."
He said this is the first time he has operated a store that carries only one label. Varro supplies the merchandise, which is all made in Los Angeles, and Oliver and his crew provide the retail know-how.
If Santa Monica is a success, you could be seeing more Eva Varro stores along the way.
