NEW YORK — Dylan’s Candy Bar, the kaleidoscopic Upper East Side emporium for sugarheads, has set up a main-floor outpost at Henri Bendel.
Aside from offering harried holiday shoppers quick fixes for any slumping blood sugar levels, the pop-up shop provides real eye candy, as evidenced by the lollipop trees, giant candy cane columns and stools shaped like peppermints. Henri Bendel has set up an eye-catching window display to reel in pedestrians to its makeshift Candyland, which will be up through the end of the year.
All those sheets of candy dots, jelly beans and other temptations gel with Henri Bendel’s holiday theme. On top of that, Dylan’s Candy Bar founder Dylan Lauren is “young, modern and hip, with a positive view on life. It was just kismet at that point,” said Henri Bendel president Ed Bucciarelli.
Lauren suspects many on the FAO Schwarz and American Girl shopping circuit will find their way to the Fifth Avenue store instead of trekking over to her 10,000-square-foot Third Avenue store, as they normally would. She said she was pleased with Bendel’s since “it was one of the inspirations for my store. It’s a boutique with cool design that plays good music. Bendel’s is very good at capturing the essence of a brand in small spaces.”
Along with the rainbow-colored truffles, candy necklaces and $100 gift baskets, Dylan’s Candy Bar will sell cherry-covered bags, candy-printed umbrellas and chocolate bar soaps, among other items. Candy-related apparel — something that initially struck her father, Ralph, as a little cheesy, but has turned out to be “a shocker” in terms of profitability in her New York store — is also being sold at Henri Bendel, she said.
Dressed in a purple boatneck cashmere sweater, Lauren admitted she is “very color crazy” and knows her Pantone shades by heart. While she leans toward clothes in pinks and other cheerful hues regardless of the season, she doesn’t let her sunny disposition dictate color trends in her four freestanding stores. M&Ms, for example, are offered in 25 colors, and candy corn is offered in its traditional color scheme for fall; in red, white and green for Christmas; in pink, white and purple for Easter, and red, white and blue for the Fourth of July.
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“A lot of the products we create are not just about the quality, but also design. I would like to be seen as a designer, not just as a candy girl,” she said.
Now that the holiday shop is up and running, Lauren, who also has stores in Orlando, Fla., Houston and Garden City, N.Y., is casting her sights on Los Angeles, London, San Francisco, Chicago and Tokyo for other store openings. She aims to open a Los Angeles store next year and a London location “sooner than later.”