New Push by the Posh at the Plaza : Vuitton Added to Expanding List of Upscale Mall Shops
A new contestant is about to enter Orange County’s designer derby.
Louis Vuitton U.S.A. Inc., one of the premier names in designer luggage and handbags, plans to open a South Coast Plaza store in November--just a year after rival Gucci Shops Inc. opened its doors at the same mall.
The addition of the upscale store signals that South Coast Plaza developer Henry Segerstrom is continuing his drive to turn a wing of the center into a sort of Rodeo Drive South. Not only will Gucci and Vuitton--two of the sexiest names in designer leather and vinyl goods--soon be under the same retail roof, they will be sharing it with the likes of Mark Cross, Cartier, Polo/Ralph Lauren and Saint Laurent Rive Gauche. And retail executives insist that yet more big-name designers are on the way to Orange County. Fashion Island in Newport Beach, for example, has four shops that also have Rodeo Drive addresses, and more are expected to be drawn to the center’s newly renovated Atrium Court collection of upscale shops.
Industry analysts and executives say that the growing number of signature stores in Orange County is evidence of a continued upward spiral of sophistication and affluence among local shoppers. But some consultants warn that even the designer market could soon peak here. “If you get too many of the high-end merchants, there could be problems,” said Bob Peterson, vice president at Coldwell Banker in Anaheim.
Meanwhile, the upscale merchants who gave Rodeo Drive its glitter continue to discover Orange County. “Louis Vuitton and Gucci make for a nice pair of bookends,” said Maura Eggan, marketing director at South Coast Plaza. Vuitton will sell strictly handbags and luggage while Gucci also sells a jewelry and line of clothing.
The 1,300-square-foot Louis Vuitton store will move into a portion of the 130,000-square-foot space that Nordstrom Inc. is scheduled to vacate Thursday. Nordstrom is moving into a 225,000-square-foot facility directly north of the old store.
Vuitton, the 130-year-old French manufacturer, already has California stores in Beverly Hills, Palm Springs and San Francisco. It also has four New York locations among its 22 international stores. But company officials expect the Costa Mesa store to eventually rank among its most successful outlets.
“It’s time we opened in Orange County,” said Francois Poirel, president of Vuitton’s New York-based American arm. “We see it as a big growth area.”
Poirel said he does not expect to compete with Gucci. “The two stores are more complementary than competitive,” he said. “Together, we’re the Mercedes-Benz and BMW of our class,” he said.
Gucci executives agree and insist that the area demands more designer shops. “In the past there has not been enough of our kind of store at South Coast Plaza,” said Carlo Armenise, manager of the Costa Mesa Gucci. “People who shop at Cartier and Louis Vuitton are part of the Gucci clientele.”
The timing of the two designer goods stores couldn’t be better. Nationwide, designer goods of all kinds--especially handbags--are selling at historically high levels.
“Designer handbags are the single hottest resource we have,” said J. Neal Vantosky, vice president and merchandise manager at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York. “There’s been a massive resurgence in recent years toward better-styled, better-structured goods.”
At Saks’ South Coast Plaza store, the Louis Vuitton line represents a “substantial” portion of the shop’s handbag business, Vantosky said. Vuitton officials said the company’s leather-trimmed, vinyl handbags typically retail for about $220, while a new line of all-leather bags is expected to be priced closer to $300. Because of the limited distribution of Vuitton products, Saks can “coexist and prosper” with another Vuitton outlet in the mall, Vantosky said.
Although privately owned Gucci will no longer reveal sales or profit figures, officials earlier had projected first-year sales of $3 million at the Costa Mesa store. And Poirel said sales are running 10% higher than original projections.
Meanwhile, publicly held Louis Vuitton S.A. said its fiscal 1985 net income of $30 million was up 26.4% year to year, while revenue of $186 million was up 25.6%. The company, which employs 1,000 workers worldwide, plans to begin hiring staff for its South Coast Plaza store soon.
