Have a Hankering to Hula?
DEAR HOT: Maybe I’ve seen too many Jimmy Buffet videos, but I’ve decided to spiff up my winter blahs with a wardrobe of Hawaiian shirts.
Where’s the best selection (used, of course)?
DEAR HOT SHOPPER: Forget about Margaritaville. There are plenty of choices in Los Angeles, starting at Aardvark’s Odd Ark (85 Market St., Venice; 7579 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles; 21434 Sherman Way, Canoga Park).
Managers at these vintage clothing shops say they get Hawaiian shirts in “by the truckload” and prices range from $2 to $600, depending on age, condition and style.
I was shocked--and delighted--to find the Hawaiian shirt pictured in perfect shape for only $6 at the Venice outlet.
If you want serious Hawaiiana, though, pop over to Maui and visit the Mango Club (2463 S. Kihei Road, Kihei, Maui, Hawaii 96753).
That’s where Jack Nicholson, Michael Douglas, Columbia Pictures’ Chairman Mark Canton and other Hollywood heavyweights have rounded up Hawaiian shirts worthy of the pickiest collectors.
Owner Diane Swanson Oosterveen reverently displays her collection of prized shirts in an area of her boutique known as “the closet.” They sell for $40 to $2,500.
She’ll even work over the phone with collectors who know their stuff: (808) 879-6898.
WHAT’S UP DOC? HOLIDAY SALES!--While retailers across the nation have been whining about lackluster holiday sales, the execs at Warner Bros.’ Studio Stores have been celebrating. The four shops they opened last fall, specializing in apparel such as $350 Bugs Bunny leather jackets, “exceeded our most optimistic expectations,” says Dan Romanelli, president of Warner Bros. Consumer Products. Indeed, the Studio Stores’ holiday sales per square foot ran a whopping “50% above mall averages.”
Sylvester the Cat’s “sufferin’ succotash!” response comes to mind, but Larry Beerman, general manager of the Beverly Center, confirms the 50% figure is “definitely factual. There’s not a shred of hype in it.” (Besides Beverly Center, Warner Bros. has stores in Schaumburg, Illinois’ Woodfield Mall; Fairfax, Virginia’s Fair Oaks Mall and Danbury, Connecticut’s Danbury Fair Mall).
Warners’ holiday report is particularly amazing considering that Turner Home Entertainment recently announced it will close its two local Hanna-Barbera shops (in the Westside Pavilion and Del Amo Fashion Square) because of inadequate sales.
The shops are scheduled to exit, stage left, on Jan. 25. But the more profitable Hanna-Barbera store at Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla., will remain open.
Meantime, the Walt Disney Co. is planning to expand its chain of 123 stores by adding about a dozen more shops in Europe and 25 in the United States this year.
Warner Bros. likewise figures that’s not all, folks. It says Bugs, Daffy, Porky and the rest of the Looney Tunes gang are good for an additional 10 to 15 shops in ’92.
