THIS GIMMICK WORKS : Make-Believe Alex Sebastian Makes for-Real Fortune for South Coast Plaza Partners, Ober and Barnett

Alex Sebastian has spent much of the past decade in the public eye. He has gotten piles of fan mail, appeared in glossy magazine ads, produced his own private-label Cabernet Sauvignon and sold bottles of sexy cologne with his name on the label.

Not bad for a 10-year-old, especially one who lives only in the make-believe world of advertising, with next-door neighbors like Mrs. Paul and Mr. Goodwrench.

Alex Sebastian, you see, was created in 1977 as a sales tool to help introduce a new men’s clothing store called--what else--Alex Sebastian Men’s Wear.

But while Alex got all the ink, it is Larry Ober, his creator and one of South Coast Plaza’s most successful merchants, who has been raking in the profits.

Sales Have Climbed

In the decade since Ober and partner Douglas Barnett opened the store, sales at Alex Sebastian have climbed ever upward. Last year, the tony shop was the top full-line men’s store at the megamall and, on a sales-per-square-foot basis, possibly the most successful in the nation. Gross revenue for the 2,500-square-foot store was “well over $2 million,” Ober said, or about four times the national average of $250 a square foot.

Today, Ober and Barnett own three stores at the county’s premiere mall: Alex Sebastian, the new Alex Sport and Larry Douglas (which was the partners’ first store and is named after them).

They also own a second Larry Douglas and two other Alex Sebastians, all in other Southern California malls. Combined annual sales for the six stores--which are managed through a holding company, Larry Douglas Ltd.--are “well over $5 million,” Ober said.

A former May Co. buyer who successfully made the transition to entrepreneurship, Ober, 50, is considerably more soft-spoken and understated than his brash alter ego.

Advertising Gimmick

He created Alex Sebastian as an advertising gimmick to launch the first store of that name, telling his tale in a biography that was mailed to 100,000 Southland households.

The story--which mentioned that Alex was opening a clothing store at South Coast Plaza to share his love of tasteful things with other men of the world--told of how Sebastian grew up in the world of hand-tailored clothes, thoroughbred horses and manicured lawns.

Born into an old-world European family that made its fortune in wine, Sebastian was described as the sort who sipped his private-label Cabernet Sauvignon by the fireplace, draped to perfection in a silk jacket and trousers of crisp linen--all sold, of course, at the new South Coast store.

And a star was born.

“He became kind of a mystique,” Ober recalled. “Some people asked for him” when they came into the store. Others wrote him letters.

To feed the myth, Alex Sebastian wine was served in the store. The wine has since been discontinued, but four-ounce bottles of Alex Sebastian cologne still are sold at $34.50 a bottle.

Nowadays, merchandise from all six of the Ober-Barnett stores is promoted in Visions, an oversized, full-color “fashion brochure” Ober mails quarterly to 125,000 carefully selected households.

Another of Ober’s marketing touches is to impress on his salespeople that they are not salespeople but “clothing counselors” who “don’t sell anything.” His staff helps customers coordinate outfits, but never bothers them with a sales pitch, Ober claims.

The Ober-Barnett stores’ shoppers tend to be affluent men in their 30s, 40s and 50s who like fashionable, well-made--and sometimes very pricey--clothing. It’s the sort of merchandise that would appeal to, say, LA Law’s Arnie Becker.

And Ober’s customers do include some real-life stars. Celebrities like Merv Griffin, Kenny Loggins and Donny Osmond wear threads from Alex Sebastian and Alex Sport. A busload of athletes like Rod Carew, Joe Montana and Eric Dickerson also have made a few selections.

But the stores’ main appeal isn’t their celebrity clientele.

Instead, it is the line of clothing that Ober and Barnett have put together and constantly update.

It is “very, very contemporary, and that seems to be the market today,” said Howard Chasin, manager of Chasin’s, a men’s and women’s apparel store at South Coast Plaza. “It’s super, super high fashion and a real trendy look. . . . He caters to the young, affluent kid who’s 20-40 years old and . . . he’s really got that market at the mall.”

Ober prefers to describe his merchandise as “upscale, quality, international clothing.”

That translates to full lines of clothing--including suits, shoes, and sportswear--at Alex Sebastian and Larry Douglas.

The partners opened their first store, Larry Douglas, at South Coast in 1975. Ober describes the merchandise in the 1,900-square-foot store as “younger, international clothing . . . moderately priced.” That translates to sportswear and suits in the $350-$550 range.

Alex Sebastian, located between Bullock’s and Saks Fifth Avenue, emphasizes tailored clothing and caters to an older and wealthier clientele. Its customers, in the 30-55 age bracket, buy international designer styles. Suits are priced in the $550-$900 range.

The newest store, Alex Sport, is the most casual. The 2,100-square-foot store, which opened in mid-October in South Coast Plaza’s Nordstrom wing, sells only sportswear.

“Our customer is a successful man,” Ober said. “Not the real young, funky type of customer. This man wears our clothes to his work everyday, and he wears our sportswear at night to make an individual statement about himself.”

Sales Background

If Ober sounds like a salesman, it’s because that is his background.

A native of Pittsburgh, Ober came west in the early 1960s because “I’d heard a lot about how it was the land of opportunity.”

Opportunity knocked when Ober landed his first job in California as a salesman at the Harris & Frank store in downtown Los Angeles. He became assistant store manager before moving on to a management position at the old Mullin & Bluett men’s and women’s specialty chain.

By 1970, Ober had been recruited by May Co., where he eventually became men’s clothing buyer for all 23 Southern California stores. It was while working at the May Co. that he decided to team up with Barnett, then a sportswear buyer.

“Starting a menswear business was a goal that we both had. . . . We felt we had the background and merchandising experience to be successful.”

Ober and Barnett approached South Coast Plaza developer Henry Segerstrom in 1975 about leasing space at the mall.

“I told him if I ever wanted to start a business, this is the place to do it. . . . The customer that we want comes to the center, and I can’t think of a better-trafficked center,” Ober said.

Segerstrom approved the lease and the partners’ instincts proved to be right.

The first two stores did so well, in fact, that the partners in the last 10 years have opened a second Larry Douglas store at the Mission Viejo Mall and Alex Sebastian stores in the Glendale Galleria and the Westside Pavilion.

Ober spends his typical 50-hour workweek operating the six stores, the company’s warehouse and the head office of Larry Douglas Ltd., the Anaheim-based parent company that employs 50. Barnett does the buying along with the company’s merchandise manager.

In his spare time, Ober likes to sing jazz “and some Sinatra,” non-professionally. And like Sinatra, he likes to do things his way.

“We’ll just continue to try to be the best we can be,” he said.

Larry Ober at a Glance

POSITION: President of Larry Douglas Ltd.

AGE: 50.

RESIDENCE: Mission Viejo.

FAMILY: Wife, Georgia. Daughter, Lana, 19. Son, Trent, 16.

EDUCATION: Duquesne University and University of Arizona.

BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY: “To be people-oriented. Both from our employee base and our customer base, we consider our people the most important asset we have. We try hard to emphasize this and to instill it in our employees . . . so that they have the same attitude with people who come into our store.”

GOAL: “To try to continue to be the best we can be.”