Nordstrom Hires Influential Boutique Owner to Head Designer Merchandising
Plucking a cutting-edge tastemaker from the other coast, Seattle-based Nordstrom Inc. said Monday that it had hired Jeffrey Kalinsky -- a pioneer of the boutique-as-art-gallery aesthetic -- as director of designer merchandising.
The union with the 43-year-old Kalinsky, whose Jeffrey stores in Manhattan and Atlanta function as guideposts for East Coast fashionistas, could put Nordstrom on equal footing with the top purveyors of what’s in vogue, such as Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. Although Nordstrom carries many high-end lines, such as Escada and Armani, Kalinsky could give the department store what designer Simon Doonan gave Barneys New York: flair.
“If this were a horse race, they’re now neck-and-neck with the front-runners,” said David Wolfe, creative director of retail consulting firm Doneger Group in New York. “It’s a fashion marriage made in heaven.”
The partnership, which also gives Nordstrom a majority interest in the two Jeffrey specialty stores, seemed sure to enliven the debate over whether breezier, faster-changing West Coast styles would ever get the respect accorded Manhattan’s Seventh Avenue.
“It’s kind of Nordstrom saying they believe that the epicenter of fashion expertise is in New York,” Wolfe said.
Not so, protested Pete Nordstrom, president of the company’s full-line stores. “We think Jeffrey Kalinsky is an amazing talent, and we want to work with [him]. That’s what this says,” he said in an interview, downplaying the East-versus-West rivalry. “I mean he’s from Charleston, South Carolina.”
Pete Nordstrom said bringing Kalinsky on board would help the chain select clothes, shoes and accessories with a “more coherent vision.” In addition, Kalinsky’s relationships with shoe vendors could further improve Nordstrom’s footwear offerings, already one of the strongest in the industry.
Nordstrom said he first approached Kalinsky about a year ago after making repeated trips to the Jeffrey store and being impressed with what he saw. Kalinsky was always busy with customers when Nordstrom telephoned him. That was “music to our ears,” said Nordstrom, whose company has built its reputation on customer service.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. In a Nordstrom news release, Kalinsky’s stores, which in addition to the Atlanta specialty store also include an Atlanta shoe boutique, were said to have had sales of about $35 million last year.
Like the Nordstrom brothers, Kalinsky began his retail career selling shoes at his father’s store. In 1999, he opened Jeffrey New York in Manhattan’s meatpacking district, prompting other chichi retailers to follow suit.
Kalinsky’s boldness paid off. He “opened this incredible, high-fashion store in a neighborhood where nobody in their right mind would have gone to before this, unless you were a butcher, of course,” said Wolfe, the fashion consultant. “You see limousines parked next to meat trucks. But that’s what makes it so chic.”
Ilse Metchek, director of the California Fashion Assn., said if Federated Department Stores Inc.’s purchase of May Department Stores Co. led Nordstrom to expand on the East Coast, Kalinsky could help select items suited to shoppers there.
Asked what Kalinsky’s hiring means to the fashion world’s pecking order, however, Metchek demurred.
“The West Coast does not care where the epicenter of fashion is,” she said. “Only New Yorkers care.”
