FASHION : The Personal Touch : Sami Dinar Works Overtime to Keep His Customers Happy
It’s difficult to separate Sami Dinar from his Beverly Hills store. He seldom leaves the building.
It is nearly 8:30 p.m. and the store has been closed for hours. Yet Dinar, stylishly dressed in a suit by the Italian designers Dolce & Gabbana and still handsomely groomed after a long day, is in his tiny, 1,500-square-foot space on Brighton Way. He has just finished working with a regular after-hours customer.
The consummate workaholic, Dinar also sends customers personalized birthday cards and monthly announcements of new inventory, and distributes nearly 2,000 videos of the European collections--”just so our customers can be up to date on fashion trends.”
He says it pays off. Most appointments lead to more than one sale, even though prices are steep. Suits range from $645 to $1,200; shirts are $70 to $250; neckwear is about $75.
Attention to service, as well as an eye for cutting-edge Italian sportswear by such makers as Krizia Uomo, Canali, Reds and Gian Marco Venturi, earned Dinar the prestigious Uomo Moda award this fall. The prize is given out each year by the Italian Trade Commission to four outstanding North American retailers. Other 1991 winners were Ralph Davies of San Francisco, Harry Rosen in Canada and Saks Fifth Avenue of New York.
Dinar opened his store in 1987, and as a newcomer helped Rick Dees and Arsenio Hall select wardrobes for their late-night talk shows. Although his show failed, Dees received plaudits for his brightly colored blazers, and Hall was named to a best-dressed list by the Tailors Council of America.
“It was my way of bringing fashion into people’s living rooms,” Dinar says, noting that other TV ventures are in the planning stages.
These successes reflect four years of marketing and merchandising efforts by the Turkish-born, Israel-bred Dinar, who admits a passion for basketball and flying lessons but rarely leaves his store long enough to enjoy either. The pool table in his shop is used to display merchandise, not to play.
Clearly, Dinar is serious when he says work is his life. “I spend my free time with my customers, who often invite me to their homes and parties. It’s a very personal kind of business.”
The store, with its dark interior of tan walls and granite countertops, is overdue for an update. A make-over will probably occur when Dinar moves into the new, 5,000-square-foot space for which he is now negotiating.
While his location may change, Dinar is determined to keep his advice the same.
“The key is balance between the outrageous and the more classic,” he tells customers. “It can be a check pant with a check jacket and a check tie, but it has to be the right three checks.”
