L.A. Is a Magnet for Designers

They come for the celebrities. They come for the Asian and European market. And sometimes they just come for the weather. Whatever the reason, the Los Angeles area has become a hub for fashion designers opening free-standing stores.

In the last year, big-name designers like Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, as well as more specialized designers such as Cynthia Rowley, Jil Sander, Todd Oldham and Kate Spade have opened shops here.

Kenneth Cole, best known for shoes and clever ad campaigns, has had a store on Sunset Plaza for seven years. Recently, he’s opened two more, one in Century City and the other on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica.

“He likes to visit--that would probably be his first excuse,” admits Kristin Hoppmann, Kenneth Cole spokeswoman. And he likes the exposure to all things L.A.

“As much as we’d like to think all the fashion trends come out of New York, the people starting the trends are in L.A.,” Hoppmann says.

A free-standing store allows stylists for celebrities to walk in and get swift service. As a result, Cole shod “Suddenly Susan” stars Brooke Shields and Kathy Griffin.

Cole still maintains his headquarters in New York, where, along with San Francisco, he does a “huge business.” But Hoppmann says Asian tourists who visit the Sunset shop give him recognition in the Asian market. That name recognition also translates locally to more department store sales, she says. A shopper is more likely to try on a Kenneth Cole shoe at Macy’s if he knows about the store on Sunset.

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Coralie Langston-Jones sees Los Angeles as the “city of the millennium.” The publicist represents sister shoe stores Freelance on Robertson Boulevard and Pom d’Api in Beverly Hills. Freelance shoes are also sold at Barneys New York. “It’s symbolic to have a location in Los Angeles and to have your clientele having Hollywood names,” she says.

And there is a more obvious reason.

“To be able to put Beverly Hills on the shopping bag . . . that obviously means something,” she says. “It’s a measure of having established yourself in an area.”

When it came time to open a West Coast Freelance, which has shops in major cities around the world, two cities were discussed: San Francisco and Los Angeles.

“L.A.’s much more fashion forward,” says Langston-Jones. And, she readily admits, a Freelance store allows stylists to easily shop for movies, TV shows and celebrities.

Langston-Jones, who moved from London five years ago, says the end of the Southern California recession has meant booming business for retailers.

“Just the amount of money that’s in L.A.,” she says, combined with a need to dress up in the entertainment industry mean big business for the fashion industry.

Hollywood has long been famous for the California casualness of the suit and T-shirt of the ‘80s, but styles are changing. “Casual elegance”--exemplified by a long silk sheath or cashmere trousers--is taking over. The entertainment industry is starting to dress up.

Langston-Jones tells about a party she recently attended in the Hollywood Hills.

“The only people who hadn’t dressed up were supermodels,” she says.

“I watch South Coast Plaza just like I watch the Third Street Promenade just like I watch Madison Avenue,” says Tom Julian, a trend analyst for the New York advertising agency Fallon McElligott.

Having a Beverly Hills or Los Angeles address, says Julian, “is almost a built-in marketing opportunity.” This coast offers not only access to Hollywood, but also national and international exposure from tourists.

“For Tommy [Hilfiger], it made strategic sense because you see his lifelines to music and fashion,” Julian says.

Hilfiger opened his first free-standing store in Beverly Hills in November. The designer wanted to open a flagship store either there or in New York when space on Rodeo Drive became available, says Alexandra McElwaine, director of publicity for the Beverly Hills store.

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Rodeo Drive is a major tourist destination, and that helps business.

“In July and August, all the Europeans come,” she says. In January and June come visitors from Asia.

“Tourism is a very important part of our business,” McElwaine says. So important that the store works with local hotels and tour guides to make sure it’s on the map for visitors.

The Beverly Hills store has exclusive lines, so when visitors go home they are more likely to stay in touch with salespeople to order clothes.

“Retail is so competitive that you really want to not only work successfully with residents of Beverly Hills,” she says.

The Beverly Hills store has allowed Hilfiger, known for his casual clothes, a chance to promote his new black-tie line by suiting (and tux-ing) celebrities such as “ER’s” Noah Wylie and Eriq La Salle.

Some designers are content with smaller, niche markets. To Canadian designer Dean Hutchinson, the Asian market isn’t important. Neither is access to Hollywood. His clothes, described as an elegant cross between Giorgio Armani and Jil Sander, are only found in two shops--one in San Francisco, the other on Robertson Boulevard. Both shops offer him an intimacy with his clientele. In short, he gets to know what his customers want.

“The type of client I deal with is a worldly woman, and she fits in everywhere she goes,” Hutchinson says. And though she may be “not quite so buttoned-up here,” she would dress the same way if she lived in New York, London or Chicago, he says.

Hutchinson is almost offended by the notion that the Southern California market can’t support intelligent clothing. Look at entertainment executives, he says.

“Armani probably owns most of them, and he isn’t very trendy,” he says.

This spring, Hutchinson’s bestselling piece was a $565 pair of casual wool pants.

“The beauty about this city is that it is so diverse. That’s why I enjoy the energy that exists here,” Hutchinson says.

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Magnus Walker and Karen Caid, life and business partners, cater to a clientele that is a polar opposite of Hutchinson’s “casual chic.”

“Serious customers tend to be rock ‘n’ rollers,” Walker says.

He and Caid have manufactured club clothes in downtown Los Angeles since 1994. Their Serious clothes sell in more than 300 boutiques across the country. In 1997, they opened the Serious Store on Melrose. Walker says the store has offered a much-needed creative outlet as well as direct contact with their customers.

“If you never leave downtown, you become secluded and sheltered,” Walker says.

And the retail store allows the two to have some fun using fabrics that are too expensive or scarce for mass manufacturing.

“It’s a real good outlet for us to get our creative vibe across,” Walker says. The owners, both from England, go to New York several times a year for business but prefer Southern California. “L.A. seems super convenient to manufacturers,” Walker says. “A lot of contractors are here, a lot of fabric is here. And it’s all located within a five-mile radius.”