Anine Bing wants shoppers to feel at home when they walk into her stores, even as her empire continues to grow.
The Danish designer, model and blogger recently relocated her Los Angeles flagship on 3rd Street, tripling the size of her former digs on the same street to an airy, 3,000-square-foot boutique that comes amid much larger growth for Anine Bing retail.
Plans call for a store opening in Madrid in October and one in Brussels in February. A store in Berlin could also bow sometime in-between Madrid and Brussels. That’s all on the heels of the New York store that opened in February and August’s opening of a store in Antwerp, Belgium.
The Los Angeles flagship had outgrown its former space, pushing Bing to find a larger store to accommodate her growing ready-to-wear collection along with shoes, jewelry, lingerie and a swimwear line launched in the summer.
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The store mixes flea market finds, custom racks and cabinetry and some art pieces, including one by Dutch artist Allan Bestle that looms behind the checkout area.
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As for the company’s retail future, it’s not committing to a longer-term store count target.
“We still want to grow organically and whatever comes up naturally, that’s what we’re going to do,” Bing said. “We move really fast. When we make a decision, then we just go for it.”
That dexterity speaks to the company’s overall rapid growth since its founding in 2012, when Bing started it as a Web site with her husband in their Silver Lake garage. They relocated headquarters to downtown Los Angeles two-and-half years ago, where they have about 20 workers. There are about 50 employees companywide. Bing remains sole owner.
“I own 100 percent and I prefer it that way because that way I have 100 percent control and that’s also why I want to grow organically,” she said. “I don’t want to grow faster than I can manage it myself with my team.”
The company reported it has millions in revenue, although it declined to provide further detail on what that means or what the growth projection is for this year. Overall sales are split roughly between online-generated revenue and those coming from offline.
The Anine Bing brand is sold in roughly 300 stores globally.
Much of the company’s successes can be attributed to Bing’s full adoption of social media when it came to marketing her brand from the start. Bloggers such as Chiara Ferragni and Aimee Song wear pieces from her collection and she continues to partner with influencers, although none of the fashion bloggers she partners with have been paid to wear her clothing.
“I started three years ago and that’s when Instagram really picked up so I was a little bit ahead than most brands so I saw really quick that this is the way of doing it and it really worked out well for us,” she said. “And, of course, today it’s a huge thing and all these bloggers are bought.”