Fred Segal Announces Expansion Deal
Fred Segal is spreading from Los Angeles to the rest of the world.
The high-profile retailer has been an icon of Southern California fashion since 1961 and has built prominent boutique compounds in Santa Monica and Los Angeles. In January, New York–based Sandow Media acquired the worldwide rights to the Fred Segal brand. On Nov. 20, Sandow Media announced its first two Fred Segal locations outside of California.
One will be at the SLS Las Vegas hotel, located on the Las Vegas Strip. Formerly the Sahara Hotel and Casino, the SLS Las Vegas is undergoing a renovation. Fred Segal will build seven stores at the SLS Las Vegas, which will cover 10,000 square feet of the property. Fred Segal will occupy all of the retail space in the hotel, said Adam I. Sandow, chairman and chief executive of Sandow Media. “Las Vegas is a luxury retail mecca at the crossroads of the world and a key market for our expansion of the Fred Segal brand,” he said.
The stores will open when the hotel’s new look debuts in 2014.
In September 2013, the first overseas Fred Segal shop will debut in Tokyo. It will offer luxury brands as well as Fred Segal–branded merchandise. Like the California Fred Segal compounds, the Tokyo store will offer a salon and, perhaps, a cafe. Fred Segal will open boutiques in other Japanese cities as well as shops-in-shop at Japanese department stores.
The Japanese Fred Segal stores will be a venture between Sandow and Japanese business Mark Styler Co. Ltd.Mitsubishi Corp. Fashion Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corp., will manufacture Fred Segal–branded product for the Japanese stores.
More Fred Segal projects will be announced in the next 18 months, said Jessica Kleiman, executive vice president of Sandow. “We’re considering major U.S. cities such as Miami and New York,” she said. “We’re not going to expand rapidly; we want to choose the right partners to protect the integrity of the Fred Segal brand.”—Andrew Asch
