Combine boutique clothing lines, local artisans, a café, a hair salon, celebrities, throngs of tourists and a lot of love, and what do you have? A Fred Segal store.
At a RECon session titled "Delivering on the Experiential Retailing Experience: What Works and Why," Fred Segal President John Frierson wowed the audience with tales of the esoteric 57-year-old cultural icon's past and its plans to expand internationally and to create an e-commerce site.
The concept's founder, tailor Fred Segal, opened his first store in 1961 to sell jeans. His designs attracted a celebrity crowd that included such disparate figures as Elvis Presley and the Dalai Lama, and the shop before long became a place where the hipsters of that day would hang out. "Fred started selling jeans for $19 when they were selling everywhere else for $3," said Frierson. Segal soon diversified his product offering, creating several stores-within-stores, including what was probably the very first denim bar. He made the store a community place, Frierson said.
John Frierson, president of Fred Segal, kept his RECon listeners at rapt attention with tales of the esoteric cultural icon's past
The new Fred Segal global flagship store in West Hollywood features a wine store, a boutique boxing studio, shops for eyewear and for organic beauty products and other sorts of merchandise enclaves, as well as spaces for creative local brands and even some national ones. This 14,000-square-foot store, on Sunset Boulevard, opened last September.
The original store is still on Melrose Boulevard. Frierson recalled that this store had a sign reading, "Be Who We Are" — to emphasize its creative partnership with the community. "The idea of inclusiveness is popular now, but we were doing it over 40 years ago," he said. "We let people do their thing in our platform and they do it with us." Today the flagship's in-store sign reads, "Look, see, feel, love all."
Known for its offbeat promotions, upscale price points and ever-changing product lines, Fred Segal is considered a tourist "must see," aficionados say. Stores let shopkeepers design their own lines. "It's not about dictating to them, it's about what the community will do with Fred Segal," Frierson said. The retailer is in the process of expanding internationally for the first time and will be adding at least two stores in Asia to the two boutiques already there. The company will also open stores at three other yet-to-be-named locations this year. And the chain is soon enter the e-commerce universe, Frierson added.
The new flagship was host to an album-launch party for singer and fashion designer Gwen Stefani late last year and gave away custom Christmas cards with photos of Stefani and store guests. Some 7 million people viewed this event online, said Frierson.
The company opened a Los Angeles pop-up shop called "Rock 'n Roll Holy Land," in partnership with MasterCard, and has carved up a rock-and-roll tour bus into seven parts and reassembled it inside. The retailer also launched its own private label, called Fred Segal Original — a line of women's and men's clothing and accessories.
Frierson said he does not like to think of Fred Segal as a retailer. "Instead, it's strong piece of intellectual property," he said. Most major merchants are not thinking creatively, he argued. "When I look at most retailers out there, I don't think they are working too hard," Frierson said. "They need to give people that want to be with them a reason to keep coming back; having a sale twice a year isn't doing that."
By Steve McLinden
Contributor, Commerce + Communities Today
