Retail Exploration

Last week, American Eagle announced the closure of Martin + Osa, its apparel brand for the 30+ set. I’m a late comer to M+O, never having lived terribly near their stores (which always seemed to be in posh malls, not in cities. In February, I happened to be in Century City and was delighted to have a chance to explore their sleek and expensively appointed store. Falling into the brand’s target (30s, gay, conservative dresser) I liked the clothes, but the product range imitated J Crew’s styling and the brand had no real identity. J Crew has the corner on the poet/artist/traveler/adventurer, but M+O had no clear direction.

When I was in New York week before last, I went on a shop-walk to several newish men’s apparel stores I had neglected to visit and an old favorite. All of these store are representative of a movement in retail to create incredibly personal shopping environments. Ralph Lauren has been doing this for years – communicating his brand through carefully curated store environments. Perhaps as an antidote to the scaled up brands of the late 1990s and early 2000s - or to complement these brands’ successful, but impersonal internet stores, all are aiming to cultivate a very intimate portrait of the brands and their identity.

John Bartlett’s West Village outpost sells sensible, modern apparel to gay men. He has some accessories that made me smile, like the matching pattern shirt/tie combo and the sherbet orange windbreaker. The store is accessorized with aggressively gay paraphernalia – like the massive Tom of Finland book.

J Crew’s Liquor Store has been on my radar since it opened two plus years ago, but off my usual path (I rarely go below Canal.) The staff is friendly and Andy Spade’s uber-personal store design is a love letter to the brand - chock full of well chosen artifacts from the life of an urban gentleman. It’s been said before and will be said again: Mickey Drexler is a genius.

Billy Reid’s Bond Street store is actually not the base of his operation. That distinction goes to the fashion capital of Florence, Alabama, which serves as muse for his inspired and very personal line of tailored clothes for the modern Southern Gentleman (not prepster.) Reid just won GQ’s best new men’s designer, his star is on the rise!

A stroll into Paul Smith’s lower 5^th Avenue store always makes me rue the day I donated clothes to the Goodwill… because they will always come back in style. Of course, who needs a magical wardrobe when Paul Smith exists to fill in the sartorial gaps. This store is brilliant…. my very favorite place to go for pocket squares and clever accessories.

In San Francisco, I had the opportunity speak with Erik Joule, head of Men’s Merchandising, Design and Licensing at Levi’s. We spoke at length about the effort at Levi’s (and Dockers) to reinvigorate the brand and innovate product development processes. His explained his vision for a purpose-driven brand – this isn’t exactly new, Benetton has long advocated through advertising, Patagonia has a longstanding commitment to the environment and American Apparel’s support for immigration reform and gay marriage have been widely noted. However, Levi’s brings a great deal of scale to this concept – none of these apparel companies rivals Levi’s in history or in volume. Joule is helping lead the organizational transformation at Levi’s and I’m very excited to see how the brand strategy shapes up. For a mass brand like Levi’s, it’ll be incredibly difficult to select a cause that aligns with the brand and resonates with consumers.