‘Major Coup’ : Lina Lee Store to Set Up Shop at South Coast
Rodeo Drive razzmatazz continues to flow south to South Coast Plaza.
Lina Lee, a designer women’s clothing store with two Rodeo Drive locations and a third shop in Manhattan’s Trump Tower, is scheduled to open its largest store of all, a $1-million-plus boutique at the Costa Mesa mall in mid-November.
The store is one of a growing number of Rodeo Drive tenants that developer Henry Segerstrom has lured to his extremely successful--and rapidly growing--mall. South Coast Plaza’s $150-million sister mall, under construction across the street, is scheduled to open in mid-November. Lina Lee has elected to locate in the present mall on Bristol Street and not in the new facility under construction on Bear Street. In May, Louis Vuitton U.S.A. Corp., the designer handbag and luggage maker, also said that it, too, has plans to open a store in the older mall.
Lina Lee’s addition to the mall pours more fuel on the fiery competition between South Coast Plaza and Newport Beach rival Fashion Island to attract the world’s biggest-name retailers. For the area’s upscale consumers, it means that the long drive to Beverly Hills for high-fashion shopping will soon be a thing of the past.
‘A Major Coup’
“Lina Lee is a major coup for Henry (Segerstrom),” said Steve Ginsberg, West Coast bureau chief at Women’s Wear Daily. “Lina Lee has been able to attract a movie star clientele, and its owner is especially good at discovering new designers.”
Best-known for its original women’s evening wear, Lina Lee will also carry sportswear, accessories and some men’s casual wear. Price tags will range from $50 for designer T-shirts to $2,000 for formal evening gowns. The store specializes in suedes and leathers.
The shop’s owner, 37-year-old Lina Lee Lidow, said she expects the Costa Mesa shop will post the largest sales volume of any of her stores. First-year sales could reach $9 million, estimated the Beverly Hills resident. Combined sales at her three other stores last year totaled $22 million.
“I don’t like to shop or to even be around shopping areas,” she said, “but I’ve been to South Coast Plaza three times and there’s something about the place that makes me want to spend money.” She said that she hopes that same feeling will “rub off” on her customers.
Indeed, South Coast Plaza’s biggest pull with name retailers is its huge sales volume--among the tops in the United States, said Maura Eggan, the center’s marketing director. In 1985, South Coast Plaza posted a sales volume of $450 million.
Mixture of Designers
Although designer stores have been a big pull at South Coast Plaza, what makes Lina Lee somewhat unique is its mixture of big name and unknown designers. Nearly half of the clothing in Lina Lee stores is from generally unknown designers. “We consciously look for the unknowns,” explained Lee, who travels worldwide six months each year searching for new fashion designs.
“Nobody has her look,” said Amen Wardy, owner of Amen Wardy, an upscale women’s designer clothing store at Fashion Island. “She carries the young and avant-garde styles that you don’t find anywhere else.”
Wardy, whose store has posted the highest sales volume per square foot at Fashion Island for three consecutive years, said he welcomes more competition. “The more the better,” he said. “It just brings more traffic to this area.”
A few miles east of Fashion Island, Lina Lee will be on the lower level of South Coast Plaza in the former Nordstrom Inc. department store that is being converted into multiple retail uses. Nordstrom has moved into a 225,000-square-foot facility north of the old store.
Lidow said she will keep the interior decor of the store fairly simple--but with lots of wood and lots of skylights. “We like the clothing to be our decoration,” she said.
