Livity Opening Flagship Store
Eco-fashion is more than a marketing concept for Al Gore fans. It’s a business model to build a thriving fashion company, said Isaac Nichelson, founder of the eco-brand Livity Outernational. Nichelson produced the soft opening of the first Livity Outernational flagship store on March 5 to prove eco-fashion labels and stores can be strong competitors.
“I think there has been a hesitation for the fashion industry to dive into eco-fashion,” said the Livity founder, who hopes to eventually build a chain of boutiques to be named Livity Outernational.
The first store debuted at 2401 Lincoln Blvd. in Santa Monica, Calif.
Industry wariness might be rooted in the public not seeing enough high-profile eco-fashion shops doing business on Main Streets and in malls, he said. According to Nichelson, if there were more chains such as Patagonia, the vertical retailer that runs more than 20 stores in America, the public would be more apt to buy more-eco-friendly clothes and investors would be more interested in opening up their wallets to fund eco-ventures.
The first step in Nichelson’s plans for Livity was opening the 1,800-square-foot boutique, which, ironically enough, is located adjacent to a truck-rental business. But the interior of the Livity flagship will seem far away from the busy traffic of Lincoln Boulevard, Nichelson guaranteed.
Under the Livity banners reminiscent of Jamaican art, the store will sell fedoras, T-shirts, socks, underwear and rainproof snowboarding outerwear for men and women. Livity’s more than 200 styles are constructed out of hemp, organic cotton, PET and other sustainable fabrics.
Core retail price points are $20 to $300 for his lines Livity Classic, which offers basics and jackets, and Livity Outernational, which offers hats and fair-trade accessories from Jamaica, Ecuador and Ghana. The space also holds a design studio and offices for Livity, which until recently was located in Topanga Canyon, a rural Southern California neighborhood above the surfing beaches of Malibu.
Livity’s fashions have a snowboarding and skate style, which is crucial in appealing to the public, said Robert Jungman, a pioneering designer of hemp fashions at Santa Barbara, Calif.–based Jungmaven. “You can’t just be green and expect to sell stuff,” he said. “It’s got to have the right branding. It’s got to have the right fit and style. Green is just the added benefit for many people.” Jungman also noted that Nichelson’s talents have been to prove that eco-fashions were more than styles for a Grateful Dead show. “He was able to cross into the whole skate and surf market. He made it cool to be green in that industry.”
Nichelson was a semi-professional snowboarder in the 1990s and designed outerwear for his now-defunct fashion label, Soop Kich’n. He started designing water-repellent outerwear with eco-friendly fabrics. He later developed an expertise as the go-to guy for eco-fabrics and has consulted with companies such as Quiksilver, Toms Shoes and Vans on manufacturing with eco-fabrics.
Now that he has consulted on eco-friendly fabrics, he hopes fashion businesses will be more willing to wear their eco-fabrics on their sleeves. “We have to show people in this industry that eco-fashion can be viable and we’re the guinea pigs.”
Trends in eco-retailing are changing. Jungman noted that many independent eco-boutiques closed after the financial meltdown of 2008. However, many mainstream retailers began devoting space to eco-products. Starre Vartan, founder and editor of fashion Web site Eco-Chick, said there is a mainstreaming of eco-fashion. More boutiques are selling eco-brands without calling much attention to the brands’ environmentally friendly roots.—Andrew Asch
