California Apparel News

When influential Orange County specialty chain The Closet shutters its Huntington Beach, Calif., location on March 13, it will have closed all of its stores except one. However, the retailer’s new management said it plans to relaunch its brand this year and embark on a store rollout.

The Closet shut down its location at the high-profile Fashion Island retail center in February and also shuttered its Irvine Spectrum location in January. The Huntington Beach store was on Main Street, a thoroughfare often considered to be the Rodeo Drive of surf fashion. The Closet had been a presence on Main Street since 1993.

The Closet’s last remaining location is a 10,000-square-foot emporium at 1800 Newport Blvd. in Costa Mesa, Calif., which includes popular restaurant Eat Chow. Bob Sayre, a retail veteran and one of the new partners running The Closet, said the shuttered stores were located too close together.

“You have to have geographic diversity, even in Orange County,” said Sayre, a former vice president for Pacific Sunwear. “In order to cater best to the customer, we’re going to where people are shopping—locations that are trending with our customer in apparel retail.”

Another store partner, Cliff Koon, said the store will take some time to sharpen its brand identity. In August, it will hold a relaunch event for the store and its website. In the next five years, Koon said, he hopes to roll out 15 locations for The Closet.

“It’s not just going to be a place to buy clothes,” Koon said about the new stores. “It’s going to be about how [people] live their lives.” New locations could share space with art galleries, cafes or beauty salons, for example.

The Closet’s head buyer, Patrick Riley, said the store hopes to carve out a niche as an eclectic specialty retailer. “We’re the only one that caters to a middle price point, but we still cater to the art, music, culture and fashion customer,” he said. The Closet offers brands such as Howe, Comune, Orthodox, Doppelganger, Publish, Hurley and Obey for men and women. Core price points for denim are $68 to $160.

The Closet’s new management took over the business in November. The group includes businessmen Koon, Hagop Sargisian, Jeff Cowan and Sayre, whose reacute;sumeacute; includes a stint as vice president at PacSun merchandising, young men’s and outlet stores, from 1996 to 1999. From 2000 to 2001, he was president of the 143-store, Seattle-based chain Mr. Rags. He served as president of skatewear company Worldwide Distribution and, later, its parent company, Dwindle Distribution, from 2002 to 2006. Until recently, he worked as a consultant.

For years, The Closet served as a Fred Segal–style boutique for Orange County, said Aaron Levant, founder of the Agenda trade show, a leading biannual trade event that offers surf, skate, snow and lifestyle apparel. Levant said independent surf shops as well as department stores shopped The Closet to scout new brands and also consulted with Billy Stade, the chain’s founder.

“Billy was really influential in bringing the fashion sense into the action-sports market. He was the one setting the pace,” Levant said.

Stade, who left the company in November, declined to discuss details on his departure. But he said he plans to open a new boutique, to be called Stade California, later this year.—Andrew Asch