DALLAS — Fake cupcakes? Check. Cheeky slogans? Check. Charms galore? Check.
Last month’s opening of a gumball-laden Juicy Couture store at the NorthPark Center here was the first of eight to 10 store openings in major U.S. cities planned within the next year, as well as three to five abroad.
The two women who founded and design the label, Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor, see the stores as a means to strengthen the brand and collection.
“Our Juicy girl will be able to go into the store and see how Gela and I have designed it and how we want it to look,” Skaist-Levy said.
“It’s a perfect opportunity for us to show the world of Juicy because not everybody buys it the way we envision it,” added Nash-Taylor. “A lot of people don’t know how many categories we have.”
Launched with logoed T-shirts in 1994, the brand has steadily expanded from its women’s casual contemporary roots since Liz Claiborne bought it in 2003. Men’s and children’s clothing came first, followed by women’s jewelry and leather accessories. Next spring, Juicy will begin shipping its Couture Couture evening collection plus shoes, sunglasses and men’s accessories. A fragrance and women’s watches will follow in the fall.
The retail expansion is a “global strategy,” said Rebecca Blair, vice president of merchandising and sales. “London and Milan are priorities in Europe,” and domestically the brand is looking at all major cities.
Like the Dallas unit, the stores will be decorated in a silver and pink palette with a sense of girlish indulgence. Center stage is a long glass-topped table containing colorful shadowboxes that display Juicy’s jewelry and panties along with colorful books, such as the surfer paean “Girl in the Curl.” Fake layer cakes decorated with glass candies and big jars of gumballs form a visual buffet atop the table.
Juicy slogans, like “Let Them Eat Couture,” glow through backlit mirrors that line the walls, and “Live for Sugar” is inscribed in the pale terrazzo floor.
“It’s a fun environment that makes you want to go in and buy,” Skaist-Levy said.
Juicy’s first store opened a year ago in 2,100 square feet at the Forum Shops at Caesars in Las Vegas and is “far exceeding expectations,” Blair said, declining to reveal sales.
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The Vegas store has proven a bit small and can’t accommodate the men’s wear, so future stores will average 2,500 to 3,500 square feet with a couple of larger flagships. The Dallas store is 3,100 square feet and carries all categories.
The next unit opened Nov. 23 at Phipps Plaza in Atlanta, and will be followed by a flagship in the stylish Aoyama district of Tokyo in February. Leases have also been signed for a four-level, 5,100-square-foot flagship at the corner of Grant and Geary Streets near Union Square in San Francisco, and on Newberry Street in Boston.
The company plans to open in both Ala Moana Shopping Center and Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center in Honolulu, in Scottsdale, Ariz., Beverly Hills, London and New York — both on Madison Avenue as well as downtown, Blair said.
The firm also has plans for shop in shops both domestically and in Japan.
Juicy’s first in-store shop at Bloomingdale’s on 59th Street in New York opened this fall. In addition to Bloomingdale’s, the company sells to Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Barneys New York and Fred Segal, among others.