NEW YORK — Bloomingdale’s has made denim a priority.
After a reshuffling of Bloomingdale’s 59th Street flagship’s second floor, the premium denim department occupies 4,000 square feet, carries 15 to 20 denim brands, and accommodates 45 fitting rooms, double the average of other departments.
Bloomingdale’s experimented four years ago with opening a premium denim department after the stock of a new brand, Seven For All Mankind, the first premium label the store carried, sold out in one weekend.
Jeanne Sottile, vice president of contemporary sportswear, said Bloomingdale’s contemporary denim buyer, Pearl Woodring, has “single-handedly taken it from a rolling rack to a 4,000-square-foot department.”
Perhaps even more important than the denim department’s growth into a bustling destination spot is the evolution of the premium denim category at Bloomingdale’s. Sottile said the category has morphed into a designer, luxe product.
“It’s redefining who we are,” she said, adding that denim, like designer, is constantly looking to enhance the brand and the consumer wants to follow the brand season-to-season.
For instance, consumers didn’t blink at a price tag of $400 to $700 when Seven For All Mankind collaborated this year with Great China Wall, best known for its reinterpretation of vintage rock ‘n’ roll T-shirts, Army pants and sweatshirts into artier pieces adorned with hand painting, embroidery and ornamentation.
“It was just like, ‘You have to have it,'” Sottile said of consumers’ willingness to follow the brand.
“The emergence of the premium denim market has put a lot of new business in the contemporary world and has kept a lot of customers who might have stopped shopping department stores,” she said. “It is the most productive space on the floor.”
She said the average price for denim at Bloomingdale’s is $160.
“This floor is always crowded,” said Sottile, so much so that even with 45 fitting rooms, women are still trekking to fitting rooms on the third floor.
Sottile credited Woodring with selecting the best denim brands the market offers. The top six sellers are: Seven For All Mankind, Citizens for Humanity, Rock & Republic, True Religion, Joe’s Jeans and People’s Liberation.
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“Our girl definitely wants to wear identifiable labels,” Woodring said in the denim department before the store opened. “I always measure each brand against our top two: Seven and Citizens. When we partner with vendors, we look for longevity. In terms of overall consistent product, Jerome Dahan [founder of Citizens for Humanity] is driven to have the best product on the floor.”
“Seven is an innovator in style and Citizens is an innovator in back pockets,” Sottile added.
Woodring said her consumers flock to Bloomingdale’s for two major reasons: “newness and to replenish the basics.”
“Our consumer is a true girl,” she said. “She likes feminine touches, like bows.”
Woodring said her consumer has moved beyond the distressed washes and into cleaner, more tailored styles, adding that “skinny is very strong.”
In November, the denim department hosted an event called, “Because Everyone Gets the Blues,” where shoppers brought in their old jeans to donate to the Women in Need Foundation that assists abused women. In return, they got a 15 percent discount certificate toward their next purchase of jeans.
Also last month, Seven For All Mankind held a trunk show at Bloomingdale’s for customers to preview designs.
“We had to get Peter Koral [chairman of Seven For All Mankind] a Sharpie so he could sign jeans,” Sottile said.