London denim brand Made in Heaven wants to let customers get a look into its world.
Chloe Lonsdale, who two years ago revived the line that her godfather, Tony O’Gorman, launched in 1969, opened a warehouse-style store this week that doubles as a showroom at the company’s headquarters in the Chelsea district.
“It happened organically,” Lonsdale said. “Customers would see our pieces hanging in the showroom windows and then started to ask to come in.”
Lonsdale began selling to the customers when the brand’s local stores had sold out of the season’s pieces.
“With a store, customers can see our whole range and Made in Heaven’s history,” added Misty Twigg, head of sales and marketing.
On display alongside the brand’s collection, which, for fall 2007, includes denim jeans, HotPants, knit sweaters, T-shirts and belts, are press clippings from the brand’s Sixties and Seventies heyday. That’s when Lonsdale’s parents, who owned the iconic London store Jean Machine on the Kings Road, frequently appeared on the society pages.
“I wanted it to have a Warhol Factory feel, slightly urban and industrial,” Lonsdale said of the cavernous space, which is decorated with vintage and rustic fittings sourced by Lonsdale and Twigg, such as luggage racks from Fifties trains that serve as shelves for the jeans, and apple crates hung on the walls that store dozens of colorful T-shirts.
Lonsdale said she’s already started to react to feedback from customers’ visits.
“Our slightly older customers had asked about higher-waisted jeans, so we’re re-creating a heritage corseted-back jean,” said Lonsdale, whose jeans retail in the U.K. from about 117 pounds, or $230 at current exchange, to 152.50 pounds, or $300.
The space also houses a T-shirt-printing area and Lonsdale hopes to offer limited-edition items, such as printed jeans, soon.
Made in Heaven is sold at retailers such as Harrods in London and Isetan in Japan. In the U.S., the brand is sold at eight Intermix locations and at Bergdorf Goodman, and will enter Neiman Marcus stores for spring. Twigg said the company does about 50 percent of its business in the U.S.
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“The U.K. denim market has been quite difficult recently,” Twigg said. “Big stores are sticking with the various big [denim] brands. Americans are willing to try something new.”
Lonsdale declined to give sales predictions for the store. However, she said she would consider opening more locations, depending on its success.
“The whole beauty of this location is that it’s our office, so our overheads are covered,” she said. “I took 1,000 pounds [$1,967] in half an hour last week, but if one person a day goes away happy, then it’s worth it.”