BOSTON — From the ornate birdcage with elaborately plumed, artificial violet birds to the numerous poodle statues, Nanette Lepore’s store on Newbury Street here is a Fifties powder room cast in a stark white and violet-pink palette. She calls it “modern baroque.”
The store bowed quietly in mid-October, but Lepore waited a month to throw an opening bash to celebrate the fact that her bohemian tweed coats and girly suits have been a major hit in Boston.
Her husband and business partner, Robert Savage, said the store “conservatively” is on pace to do $1.5 million to $1.8 million in its first 12 months, which puts it slightly behind her Los Angeles unit. “Obviously there is a niche here for us,” he said.
Asked if retail expansion (Lepore is opening in London in April and Oyster Bay, N.Y., in fall 2007) was a prelude to selling the company, Savage said, “We’ve been inundated with calls in that regard. We are not putting ourselves on the block, but we do listen. We’re also doing well enough to grow this on our own.”
He chose Boston after noticing the company’s Web site fielded a disproportionate amount of inquiries from customers in the region.
“Boston is way hipper than I expected. They are more stylish than my L.A. customers even,” she said.
The university crowd is heavily international, well-moneyed and “total shoppers,” said store manager Clint Cavanaugh, one of Lepore’s girlhood friends from her Youngstown, Ohio. Cavanaugh left Boston’s public radio station to run the new store. She’s one of numerous family members and longtime friends (Lepore’s uncle is the company’s architect, for example) who help steer the $63 million Nanette Lepore business.
The store is situated on the street’s mezzanine level, between Kate Spade and Fresh and across from Pottery Barn.
Next up for Lepore: shoes in fall 2006, handbags in spring 2007, denim as soon as possible — and, of course, bigger stores to fit everything in.