South Coast Plaza Collars Prestige of Chanel Inc.

Chanel, perhaps the best-known couture label in the world, is coming to Orange County.

Chanel Inc., the American company of the legendary Parisian design house, signed an agreement Tuesday to open a South Coast Plaza store in early fall, 1990, a Chanel executive said.

The boutique--which has been in Chanel’s plans for three years--is the latest signal that developer Henry Segerstrom is turning his very successful mall into a sort of Rodeo Drive South. Other premier designers who share the same retail roof at South Coast are Gucci, Cartier, Louis Vuitton U.S.A. Inc., Saint Laurent rive gauche and Polo/Ralph Lauren.

The store--which will be Chanel’s 10th in the United States--brings to Orange County such Chanel signatures as the design house’s collarless suits with braid and strands of pearls, the quilted bag with leather and gold handles, and two-tone shoes with black toes and gold rim.

While Chanel fragrances and cosmetics are available at stores in Orange County, the apparel is not. “We’ve had many requests, but we purposely held off on any wholesale distribution anywhere else because we knew eventually we would be there,” Arie L. Kopelman, Chanel Inc. president and chief executive, said.

In an interview, Kopelman said the final agreement to come to Orange County was signed Tuesday when Segerstrom was in New York, where Chanel Inc. is headquartered.

Kopelman estimated that “reasonable” sales in Orange County will exceed $2,000 per square foot--an astronomical figure, considering that the average for all U.S. retailers is $200 to $300 and top-notch specialty stores can do roughly $600 or more.

The store will feature a complete line of ready-to-wear apparel plus cosmetics, fragrances, watches and accessories--including jackets (starting at about $1,500), blouses ($500 and up), and evening wear ($4,000-$12,000), as well as bags ($450) and belts ($400-plus).

More of the merchandise will be at the lower-priced range, with some items at the upper end, Kopelman said. “We’ll have more items available at price points where we can do business,” he said.

The store takes its fashion spirit--and name--from Coco Chanel, the Parisian designer who died in 1971 at age 88. She introduced jersey fabric to the rich, pioneered man-tailoring for women and virtually “invented” the pleated skirt, the fur-lined coat and the cardigan suit. Today, Chanel is synonymous with contemporary elegance.

South Coast Plaza’s Chanel will be located opposite Tiffany & Co. in the Nordstrom wing, taking over an area now occupied by three upscale retailers--Bally of Switzerland, Charles Jourdan and Rosenthal-Truitt. Those stores will move elsewhere in the Costa Mesa shopping center. Chanel will occupy 6,200 square feet (including offices, dressing rooms and storage space), with 4,500 square feet of selling space.

The South Coast store will be only the second Chanel boutique located in a mall. The other mall store is at the plush Alamoana shopping center in Honolulu.

“It’s hard to maintain a unique identity in a mall location,” Kopelman said. “There are just so many other stores that you have as neighbors--you don’t want to be lined up one after another.”

In Costa Mesa, however, Segerstrom could offer an attractive site near Nordstrom, Tiffany and other upscale retailers.

The South Coast Plaza store will be the third in California--joining others on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and in downtown San Francisco.