Those Looking for Unique Buys Might Have Giorgio on Their Minds
Most people associate Giorgio with perfume wrapped in the company’s signature yellow-and-white stripes.
While there’s plenty of fragrance to be found at the Giorgio Beverly Hills boutique in South Coast Plaza, the store also offers an eclectic mix of one-of-a-kind apparel and accessories.
“We’ve tried to cut through the clutter and handpick merchandise that makes the store special,” says Sabra Lande, president of retail stores and licensing for Giorgio Beverly Hills in Santa Monica.
Unlike stores for Calvin Klein or Ralph Lauren, the Giorgio boutique stays away from clothing collections and does not carry a full line of ready-to-wear. Instead, it tends to offer individual pieces--a sequined baseball cap, a brocade vest, a silver and Lucite cuff bracelet--that are often the work of a solitary designer or craftsman.
“It’s items, not collections,” Lande says. “You can definitely put an outfit together, but usually it’s one special new thing you buy to perk yourself up and add to an outfit you already own.”
Lloyd hunts all over for these unusual, hand-crafted pieces.
She once tracked down a pair of rhinestone earrings she’d seen in a magazine to an Indian craftsman working out of his small apartment in New York City.
“The people we cultivate are not everywhere to be found,” she says.
The store recently launched a promotion for Huntington Beach resident Al Beres, who makes fine handcrafted leather belts with silver buckles.
Virtually every garment has the name of its maker and a little history behind it.
Diane Vetromile of Brewster, Mass., designs denim vests and jackets with their yokes paved in colorful buttons. Vetromile sends the buttons to the Florida rest home where her parents live, and the elderly residents hand-paint each one.
Suzan Silver, a New York designer who created the costumes for the stage musical “The Phantom of the Opera,” makes vests out of rich brocade adorned with sequined and beaded appliques.
Louise Green from Sussex, England, makes old-fashioned straw hats adorned with vintage lace and flowers.
Buyers for Giorgio choose merchandise they think will especially appeal to the Orange County shopper. Clothes and accessories found at the local boutique aren’t necessarily carried at the boutiques in New York City or even in Beverly Hills.
“It’s still the Giorgio point of view, but subtle nuances occur,” says Pam Lloyd, director of merchandising for Giorgio Beverly Hills. “Is color more important in California? Yes. Is New York more black and white? Yes.”
She and Lande spend time studying their Orange County customers.
“I love to people-watch,” Lande says. “You learn a lot that way.
“People here have wonderful style. They put together items in ways we haven’t thought of.”
She recalls seeing a woman in the parking lot of South Coast Plaza wearing a smartly put-together pants outfit and she promptly alerted Lloyd.
“Go look, that’s the lady we have in mind. That’s planned fashion.”
Lloyd was initially surprised to see how local women would dress up even to shop at the mall.
“If it’s shorts, they’re silk shorts. If it’s a T-shirt, it’s a silk T-shirt,” Lloyd says. Not surprisingly, this spring the boutique is carrying silk shorts in faded periwinkle blue.
Because Giorgio originated in Southern California, the buyers knew that Orange County residents had no need for heavy fabrics as they do on the East Coast and that they favor bright colors year-round.
“We know that winter here is a state of mind,” Lande says. “We try to escape early fall and miss all those dark colors and go straight into holiday. Then it’s onto the bright colors.”
Spring is a favorite season for Giorgio.
The boutique, which opened in December, has been tailored to Orange County in its decor as well as merchandise. Local artisans hand-painted floral murals on the walls reminiscent of Italian frescoes. Wrought-iron etageres with twisting vines and leaves were created to house the boxes of Giorgio and Red fragrance lines. To complete the garden effect, pots of flowers are situated throughout the boutique, and birds twitter over the stereo system.
Although this is the first Giorgio boutique to be in a mall, the company made sure its store occupied a sunny spot on the upper level of South Coast Plaza so Giorgio’s yellow-and-white striped awning would not look out of place.
The cost of Giorgio’s one-of-a-kind merchandise varies. Shoppers can find a sequined baseball cap for $56, a ‘50s-style hand-crocheted bag of white mercerized cotton for $135, a bowler adorned with vintage silk flowers by Louise Green for $220, Suzan Silver’s brocade vests for $350 or a button-covered denim jacket by Diane Vetromile for $400.
There’s also the signature line of Giorgio hats, T-shirts and sweat shirts, an important draw for tourists who can buy anything from a $28 T-shirt to a $300 white sweat shirt with the Giorgio logo done in crystals.
“The different, out-of-the-ordinary, unexpected will always be in the store,” Lloyd says.
