Vilebrequin, a French boys’ and men’s swimwear shop, opens at the end of the year at Fashion Island with not a Speedo in sight.
“People think French and Speedos,” said Thierry Prissert, chief executive of Vilebrequin. “We don’t do Speedos.”
Vilebrequin sells luxury swim trunks.
“We’re the Rolls-Royce, the Bentley of swimwear,” Prissert said.
The trunks cost upward of $100.
Mothers,women make up most of its customers,like the matching father and son trunks, he said.
It’s the patterns that set the trunks apart. Both men’s and boys’ suits come in cheery colors, covered with happy things such as hot air balloons, koala bears, jellyfish and & #233;clairs,on separate trunks, of course.
The company started out in the 1970s in St. Tropez. It doesn’t disclose sales.
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The store is set to open an 850-square-foot store at Fashion Island in time for the holidays. It will open near Kate Spade and Anthropologie.
Prissert said he considered South Coast Plaza as well but it was too mall-like and didn’t have the right spots available within the mall.
“For me, we like to be in a shopping center,” he said.
Though South Coast Plaza bills itself as exactly that, Prissert said he prefers the outdoor malls.
Orange County was a natural because of the wealthy clientele and the beach. The Newport Beach store will be the company’s 16th in the U.S. and its fourth store on the West Coast. It also has stores on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and at the Forum Shops at Caesars in Las Vegas.
Vilebrequin is expanding in the U.S, he said. Last year, it opened four stores. This year it will open three, including one in Palm Desert. It plans 12 stores in the next three years.
The company’s swim trunks also sell at upscale retailers such as Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue.
Two-In-One
Framingham, Mass.-based TJX Cos., which runs the largest discount retailers in the U.S., is opening a “dual-branded” superstore.
T.J. Maxx/HomeGoods is opening May 24 at The District at Tustin Legacy at Jamboree Road and Barranca Parkway.
The 55,000-square-foot superstore sells off-price designer and brand names of home decor, clothing, shoes and accessories. The store is set to employ 110 full- and part-time workers. The Tustin store will be the 17th HomeGoods store in Southern California, and the 32nd T.J. Maxx.
At the Car Wash
Danny’s Family Hand Wash held its grand opening last week at The Market Place in Tustin, donating half of the day’s proceeds to the Tustin Public Schools Foundation. The store is part of a $90 million expansion this year. Danny’s is opening nine stores, all in Arizona except for the Tustin location.
Danny’s Family Cos. is a Scottsdale-based group owned by Danny Hendon. Danny’s has 14 Danny’s Family Hand Wash stores and operates Barcelona restaurant in Scottsdale.
Benz Sales
Fletcher Jones Motorcars polished the Benzes and rolled them out in the first quarter.
The Newport Beach-based dealership posted $148 million in sales and sold 25% more autos in the first quarter compared to the same quarter last year. It sold 2,039 vehicles,1,489 new and 550 used. Fletcher is seeing more of its sales coming from outside of the county.
Last year, Fletcher had sales of $637 million.
Despite first-quarter sales, March was a bad month for local Mercedes-Benz dealers, said Tom Cregg, marketing director of Mercedes-Benz of Anaheim.
Gleaning information from Mercedes-Benz USA numbers, House of Imports was down 22% in March, Cregg said. Mercedes-Benz of Laguna Niguel was down 14%, Fletcher Jones was down nearly 8% and the Anaheim dealer was flat.
Sluggish home sales seem to have caught up with the car business, he said. Cash buyers are staying in their cars longer and fewer leases are maturing now. That should boost used car sales, he said. Cregg expects things to pick up this summer.
More Fletcher
In other Fletcher Jones news, the dealership sponsored the Newport Beach Spirit run, which turned out 7,000 athletes and spectators. The event raised nearly $80,000 for local public elementary schools. Fletcher has been sponsoring the event since 1994. Fletcher also sponsored the recent Newport to Cabo San Lucas yacht race, hosted by the Newport Harbor Yacht Club.
Proceeds from the race and sponsorship fees benefited Child Abuse Prevention Center in Orange. A yacht called “Stark Raving Mad III” owned by Jim Mullen was the winner of the 800-plus mile race. Peligros, owned by Long Beach Yacht Club member Mike Campbell, came in second.
