For a short street, Neue Schönhauser Strasse in Berlin has a lot of denim labels.
Shoppers walking down the couple of hundred yards that constitute the narrow thoroughfare come across Levi’s, Replay, Mavi, Pepe, Diesel and Miss Sixty, with other labels such as Acne Jeans, Hilfiger Denim and Gas around the corner. Now, with the official opening of Lee’s first German flagship in November, this denim alley is extending its reach to include the street’s continuation, Alte Schönhauser Strasse.
“This stretch of the street is a bit offbeat but still has a high frequency of visitors,” Stefan Sommer, Lee’s director of sales, said at the store’s opening party on Nov. 17. “Berlin is rapidly becoming a fashion metropolis. The local people here are incredibly well informed about fashion, but you also have a lot of visitors and streams of tourists who come here to buy.”
With its focus on edgier premium ranges, the store suits the hip crowd of the neighborhood. Although only a 10-minute walk from the tour groups around Hackescher Markt train station, Lee is consciously moving up a notch, with neighbors such as Rene Lizard and Filippa K.
Lee started its transformation in Europe from retro nostalgia to hip high end three years ago. The label still produces basic jeans that retail in Europe for around 80 euros, or about $105, but is also pushing upscale with prices going as high as 250 euros, or $329, for premium denim.
This more diverse approach is a response to an increasingly tougher denim market and the move to more sophisticated styling.
“We’ve been going since 1889, and we were the first manufacturers to produce jeans with a zip,” Sommer said. “It is important to hang on to that heritage, authenticity and credibility.”
But he believes it is also crucial to be diverse enough to cater to a range of market segments.
Sommer declined to give a target for the store’s estimated sales.
“But we will be making money with this presence,” he said. “It’s not just about representation.”
The 753-square-foot store has been decorated in graffiti-style graphics by the artist MODE2, with white-on-black in the men’s half of the store and a mirror image of black-on-white in the women’s section. The street-art decor is designed to complement Berlin’s urban environment, where graffiti is ubiquitous.
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“It’s important not to get too fancy in Berlin,” Sommer said.
The Berlin store marks Lee’s fifth European flagship, along with London, Paris, Milan, Antwerp and Belgium and will exclusively showcase new collections such as the punk-rock-inspired X-Line or authentic workwear from the Thirties and Forties. Lee intends to open more flagships in the near future and is on the lookout for locations across Europe.
Denim and streetwear labels have steadily gravitated to the area surrounding Neue and Alte Schönhauser Strasse, drawn by the area’s young demographic.
“Berlin is the most urban city in Germany, and this area is the perfect place for flagships, not only as far as turnover goes but also for the style of people in this area,” said a spokesman for the streetwear brand Americana Germany. “It’s an important street. Everybody comes here for new inspiration.”
Americana celebrated the opening of its 1,507-square-foot Bench store, around the corner on Rosenthaler Strasse, the day before the Lee opening party. Previously a photocopying shop, the building’s transformation into a flagship is indicative of the change in the area.
Serdar Mazmanoglu, chief executive officer of the Turkish jeans brand Mavi, dismissed fears that the district was becoming saturated with denim. To the contrary, he believes it’s part of the attraction.
Mavi launched a 2,153-square-foot unit on Neue Schönhauser Strasse in November 2003 at a time when Miss Sixty, Diesel and Replay had already opened up in neighboring stores.
“Having other denim labels nearby doesn’t bother us at all,” Mazmanoglu said. “For us, it’s a really great area, because it is exactly where our customer base is. The people here are young and fashionable, and there are lots of popular bars, clubs and restaurants nearby.”