Agave Drives into Santa Barbara
One of Agave Denim's Fall/Winter2011 looks
Santa Barbara, Calif.’s fashion scene suffered a mighty setback when the town’s prominent retailer Blue Bee shuttered.
But the popular beach city will be treated to new casual, high end fashion styles and rides on Tesla Motors’ Roadsters on June 18, when the Agave Denim brand opens its first shop-in-shop on State Street, Santa Barbara’s main commercial drag.
For its first shop-in-shop, Agave will put down stakes at K. Frank, one of Santa Barbara's last high end, independent boutiques; it is located at 1023 State Street. Forall of its 9-year-history, Agave sold at department stores such asNordstrom and prominent specialty boutiques like Gary’s in NewportBeach.
The Agave shop-in-shop will compose 300-square-feet of the 3,800-square-feet store. K. Frank owner Kevin Frank said the shop will offer Agave’s Men’s and Women’s looks, as well as accessories. The Agave shop-in-shop will have a “hand crafted, industrial” feel.One of the shop’s table top rests on a big box which packed a mighty punch. The box served as a torpedo case during World War II.
The Agave shop-in-shop is something of a homecoming for Jeff Shafer, chief designer and president of the label. He graduated Santa Barbara’s San Marcos High School as well as University of California, Santa Barbara. Agave is headquartered in Ridgefield, Wash., outside of Portland, Ore. Shafer said K. Frank was the best candidate for the first Agave shop-in-shop.
“The idea of shops comes up a lot,” Shafer said. “It’s not an easy thing to execute.You got to make sure that you have the perfect partner to represent the brand, and they will also have a customer for it.”
While a shop-in-shop is not a big of an undertaking as an entire physical store, it still can cost more than $25,000 to build out Shafer said.
Shafer and the Agave team will be hanging out at K. Frank for the grand opening of the store.As an added thrill, Tesla Motors representatives will be offering test rides of their sleekRoadster electric card rides at the grand opening. Agave designed the uniforms that Tesla staffers wear when working at the stores of the pioneering electric car manufacturer.
Agave's Jeff Shafer at K. Frank Agave shop
