South Coast Plaza to Add Calvin Klein Store to Mall : Retailing: The store is expected to open in October. The shopping center, which already has a Liz Claiborne boutique, considers this a designer-wear coup.

South Coast Plaza will add another big-name designer to its roster of stores when fashion giant Calvin Klein opens a store in the mall later this year, mall officials said Thursday.

The store will open in October in a 4,500-square-foot space that formerly housed a David Orgell crystal and china shop, said mall Marketing Director Maura K. Eggan. The David Orgell store has moved from the mall.

She said New York-based Calvin Klein Inc. has only three stores in the nation, in Palm Beach, Fla., Chestnut Hill, Mass., and Dallas. But his men’s and women’s line of apparel is sold in department stores in South Coast Plaza and throughout the nation.

Designers sometimes open boutiques in the same malls where their products are sold in department stores. Both the designers and department store representatives say the boutiques tend to boost overall sales rather than detract from department store sales.

Signing up Calvin Klein is considered a coup for South Coast Plaza because “he is one of the better-known designers,” Eggan said.

The Calvin Klein store is only the latest in a series of designer apparel stores to open at the Costa Mesa mall.

In March, South Coast Plaza signed Liz Claiborne Inc. as a tenant as part of a program to upgrade the mall with more Rodeo Drive-type retailers. The store will open in August.

Even before the new store opens, Liz Claiborne officials have said South Coast Plaza registers the highest sales of Claiborne products of any mall in the nation.

South Coast Plaza has been undergoing its most extensive renovation in 23 years. The mall has been adding more Rodeo Drive-type stores, a reflection of the affluence that has made Orange County popular with upscale retailers.