He Opens Second Room Service Furniture Store in Costa Mesa
The fashion industry knows John Bernard as the guy who created such youth apparel brands as 26Red, Sugar and Suburban, but now the OC entrepreneur has established a new line of business.
About six months ago, Bernard opened a furniture store in Los Angeles called Room Service, and this month he opened a second, smaller store at The Lab in Costa Mesa. The stores target 20- to 50-something customers who have a kitschy sense of style.
Shaheen Sadeghi, developer of The Lab, said he had been looking for a new furniture store after former tenant D & #233;cor Deluxe moved to Los Angeles.
“Room Service has a very modern presentation and it’s current to what’s going on now with its ’70s Palm Springs style,” Sadeghi said.
Think Austin Powers meets John Lautner. An egg-shaped, orange and white stereo chair draws passersby into the two-level store filled with specialty pieces designed by Bernard. There are also designer pieces by companies such as Sea Scape, Aeria and Nelson. This is not a vintage store selling used items, but rather a showcase of new designers’ products inspired by the past and future.
“Everything else I do is related to apparel, but my love is architecture,” said Bernard, who collects architectural books as a hobby. “All the products I carry down here in the Lab store, I don’t see any of them down here in OC. They are youthful and young, neat styles that cater to hip, young people.”
Sitting on an olive green sofa in his new OC store wearing a pair of purple sunglasses and jeans, Bernard seems more soccer dad than founder of several trendy fashion brands and a hip furniture store.
But the 37-year-old has done just that, building a business with $25 million in yearly sales for his company, Spot International in Irvine. His new endeavors, which include the furniture business and apparel label Exothermic 15, are projected to add sales of roughly $6 million this year.
Tapping into his love of architecture and furniture, coupled with his eye for fashion, Bernard first opened a 3,000-square-foot space on 3rd Street in Los Angeles in December. Customers shop to jazz music and are served wine and Room Service bottled water by salespeople dressed in orange-and-white uniforms. The store already has attracted the attention of some of Hollywood’s elite, including stars such as Sandra Bullock, Cameron Diaz and Patricia Arquette. Sales are projected to be roughly $800,000 in its first year and $1.2 million in its second year.
The furniture store features low-to-the-floor modern sofas, cocktail tables, dining room furniture, bedroom furniture and accessories for the home such as vases, candles and lamps. Bernard describes the furniture style as minimalistic.
“I’m really into low furniture,” Bernard said. “I believe when people are closer to the ground it makes for a better ambiance. I’m designing a dining table now where people sit on the ground on cushions.”
Prices range from about $1,200 to $3,000 for sofas, $350 to $1,000 for dining tables and $500 to $850 for coffee tables made out of dark rosewood and walnut. There are also products such as coffee table books on architecture, handbags, blown-glass vases by New York designer Jonathan Adler, bath products, stationery and even a couple of scooters.
The store in Costa Mesa is a 650-square-foot version of the Los Angeles location, with a focus on carrying some select furniture items as well as smaller household items. Sales are expected to be roughly $250,000 in its first year, Bernard said.
His plans are to open a chain of 10 stores in major cities such as San Francisco, Portland, Ore., Seattle, New York and Chicago within five years.
Meanwhile, Bernard continues to grow his apparel business. In September, he launched Exothermic with two Chinese partners. Sales are expected to reach $5 million for the brand in its first year.
Bernard graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in urban and regional planning, but his friendship with fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, an old high school and college buddy, inspired him to enter the apparel business.
“I saw what he was doing and how he was doing it and was inspired and influenced by what he was doing and interested in pursing something in that direction,” Bernard said.
But it was Bernard’s father who gave him the best advice: “My dad always told me there’s no better boss than being your own boss,” Bernard said. n
