FASHION : Tapping Into an Appetite for Hip Apparel, the Chain Offers Designer Knockoffs and Moderate Price Tags in a Pseudo-French Setting : Express Lane to Success
In the early 1980s, Limited Express, the hip little sister of The Limited retail chain, pioneered a new experience in mall shopping: an in-your-face frenzy for kids trying to live up to the Cyndi Lauper song, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.”
Neon dance clothes screamed at shoppers halfway across the mall. Non-stop rock soundtracks--then considered an innovation in chain stores--seduced MTV addicts from Indianapolis to Marina del Rey. The stores cleaned up by selling cute versions of nasty punk styles (no razor blades, but lots of 99-cent rubber bangle bracelets).
Now the 12-year-old company has all but abandoned its frantic, funky roots. In 1986 the Columbus, Ohio-based chain adopted a pseudo-French persona and the Limited Express is now simply Express, or Compagnie Internationale Express . Faux crystal chandeliers and replicas of the Arc de Triomphe are scattered among body-hugging spandex styles and floral print frocks. Many Express stores now look like a Robert Palmer video shot at the Court of Versailles.
The pretty punk adornments have been replaced with dignified, sand-washed silk separates and elegant, handkerchief linen suits (jackets typically cost $79; pants, $49; skirts, $39). In the last two years, the chain has concentrated on adding more work clothes to its mix.
The result?
Shoppers have flocked in by the millions. In 1991, Express racked up about $1 billion in sales after only 11 years in business, a feat that took The Limited 25 years to accomplish. And while other recession-plagued merchants were filing for bankruptcies or closing stores last year, Express opened or expanded 100 branches.
The formula?
Fashion that appeals to women who have outgrown neon but refuse to dress like matrons, knockoffs of European styles, good service and price tags that are usually $50 or less.
“At Express, customers can get the same merchandise or similar merchandise that they can get at department stores, and it’s generally at a better price,” said retail analyst Ira Kalish, an economist with Management Horizons in Columbus.
The edge?
Industry analysts point to Michael Weiss, the bouncy 51-year-old Express president who took over 11 years ago. “He is The Limited Inc.’s best merchant. He’s got so much energy it could propel him into orbit,” said Richard Baum, a New York City analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. “He’s got a very good fashion sense. He’s got a lot of charisma and attracts good people around him.”
Express was launched in 1980 by The Limited Inc. as a division offering trendier fashions to younger customers at lower prices than those at The Limited stores. During Weiss’ tenure, the number of Express stores has grown to more than 600.
“I can’t think of any specialty apparel retailer that has profit margins as high as those of Express,” said Baum. “One would have to look at The Gap as the most relevant competitor in terms of growth and profitability, but you’d have to say that Express is more profitable than The Gap.”
(The Gap, however, has about twice the number of stores as Express and does about twice the volume. Although its stock recently posted a significant drop, The Gap has been been considered a “darling” of both analysts and shoppers for the last few years.)
During a recent visit to Express stores in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Weiss discussed why his company has scored big in the midst of a severe economic downturn.
“What we sell is not all that expensive. It doesn’t require loans, payment books. It’s the kind of thing that makes you feel better immediately,” he said while touring the Express store in the Beverly Center, one of the company’s largest branches.
As he bopped about, snapping his fingers to the French pop tunes playing at high volume, Weiss wore a conservative Italian suit and a pair of zany, eyeglasses by designer Alain Mikli.
Mirroring the style of the man at the top, Express accessories (cutting-edge jewelry, scarves, belts and other items) add much of the pizazz to the basics stocked each season. Tank tops, leggings, bodysuits, sweaters, sweat shirts, big tops, pants and jackets are typically offered in a range of warm and cool colors as well as neutrals.
At the moment, the stores are selling “millions” of their most successful item ever: $29 oversize, ribbed cotton-knit tops. Mannequins suggest the style should be worn over chic, thigh-clenching bike shorts, but since the tops look good on almost all figures, you’re just as likely to spot them on aging boomers (who pair them with long, elastic-waist skirts) as their daughters (who wear them over leggings and pile on the heavy-metal jewelry).
The chain has no design team. Instead, it relies on a group of buyers, merchandisers and product developers to decide on styles and tailor them to Express customers.
Weiss and his team frequently travel throughout the world, scouting for upcoming trends. Case in point: long, rayon, print dresses now in the stores were inspired by antique-store gowns that Weiss and his team spotted a couple of years ago on young women in Los Angeles.
The eyelet and gingham styles featured this spring in Express were first noticed in St. Tropez last year, the same hot spot that launched sand-washed silk and cotton/spandex tank tops.
“One of the advantages Express has over its competitors is speed--the ability to spot a trend and get it on the floor within six weeks after they’ve seen it,” said analyst Kalish. “That is an important competitive advantage, although all the major chains are in the process of developing that ability.
But Express doesn’t want to be too trendy.
Weiss explained that his customers are into fashion, but not in a pioneering way: “We shoot for the middle level, not the highest level of fashion . . . . A few trendies don’t interest us . . . .
“We’re not interested in something you will see four or five people wearing on each coast . . . I don’t think you’d ever see an Express customer in terms of ‘Who’s that dress wearing that lady?’ ”
Over the years, Weiss said, Express has listened carefully to feedback--and flak--from shoppers. When the store started to sell silk garments, customers complained that seams split and colors faded. Manufacturing methods were improved and silk continues to be a strong seller.
Express also pays close attention to returns, and, like its sister divisions at The Limited Inc., it’s known for a liberal return policy. Weiss insisted that he welcomes the rejects: “Not only are they the signal that something’s wrong, but it means they’re going to give me another chance.”
Occasionally, the Express game plan for bringing fashion to the masses--inexpensively and quickly--backfires.
Earlier this year, New York jewelry designer Robert Lee Morris sued Express for allegedly copying the design of his “deco needle” earring. “They are blatantly copying. One of my earrings has been reproduced exactly,” said the designer who’s known for clean, sculptural styles.
“I sell that earring for $220 in gold-plated brass. At the top of the earring on the back was my copyright notice with my name. They sawed that off and reproduced the earring, slightly truncated. They’re selling them for $14 a pair.”
Weiss admitted Express is guilty of copying the design, but said he was not aware of it until the suit was filed: “We we shouldn’t be doing that. This business has always been one of ‘being inspired by’ people. But it’s a thin line and . . . we should never be in a position like that.”
He indicated the Morris suit probably would be settled out of court, as Express has done “four or five times” before.
In 1991, for example, Express settled out of court with The Body Shop, the English toiletries and cosmetics chain. Body Shop founder Anita Roddick contended that stores in the Express’ Bath & Body Works division came too close to the style of her stores. As a result, Bath & Body Works agreed to limit the use of the color green and modern styling (Body Shop signatures).
And the Express signature? Don’t expect it to stay the same for too long. Express is experimenting with a computer-based system for forecasting fashion trends.
In the meantime, though, the company will make its picks the old-fashioned way, with analysis, intuition and fashion savvy. In fact, as Weiss and his associates flew from L.A. to visit a new Express store in Las Vegas, he made it clear he knows how to have fun playing with uncertainty.
“I want to lose $200 and stop,” he announced, anticipating a visit to the gambling tables. “I don’t want to win. If I ever won, it might give me the illusion that I had control. I know there’s no control.”
