Naughty,Naughty

Have you noticed the Kookai billboards around town?

On the left side is a bevy of saucy young things with voluminous hairdos wearing a few ounces of spandex; on the right is the headline “Hide your boyfriends, here we come.”

The pouty-mouthed babes are the Kookaiettes, and they are as famous in Europe as the Laker Girls are in Los Angeles. They pose in magazine advertisements with audacious headlines: “Daddy doesn’t like it, but I don’t care” or “I’m prettier than the snob on the cover.”

This major attitude attack is for a line of French clothing called Kookai that was introduced in February in the United States. The clothes are arriving in Bullock’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Fred Segal, American Rag, Maddox, Pole and No! in Los Angeles, Topaz in Redondo Beach and Leon Max in Santa Monica.

Early fall selections include such trend-of-the-moment items as short pleated skirts, striped poor-boy sweaters and pink rubber raincoats.

In Europe, Kookai is the equivalent of The Gap. Its clothes are considered basics, most sell for less than $120 and draw a loyal junior customer. The chain’s 250-plus free-standing stores bring in more than $100 million a year, says Marc Ganouna, chairman of Kookai’s U.S. parent company, MGV.

In the United States, Kookai is targeting an older customer in the contemporary departments of established, upscale stores. “It is a way to brand the name,” says Andrew Janson, whose agency is behind the Kookaiette ad campaign.

“Another junior line in this market didn’t mean much,” he explains, “creating America’s naughty girls, that was a way of merchandising it well.”