Those at St. John Knits International Inc.’s fashion show at the Orange County Perform-ing Arts Center saw more than just classic designs and experiments in texture.
They saw a stalwart brand working to keep to its tradition of upscale tailored suits and yet attract younger wearers.
Striking that balance has proved elusive for the Irvine-based clothing maker in recent years as it has made several runs at creating a youthful line to broaden beyond sales to the St. John faithful,well-heeled women in their 40s, 50s and beyond.
St. John’s latest effort is a more casual resort line, which is set to be in stores in October under its own yellow label.
Glenn McMahon, chief executive, said he hopes to draw in new customers who don’t wear tailored suits on a daily basis.
“The customer is always a step ahead,” McMahon said. “Her style is probably a little more casual than dressed up these days.”
The clothes evoke a feeling of St. Tropez yacht life with jean-cut pants in stretch material, blousy tops and short shorts. They use less of St. John’s signature Santana fabric,a tightly knit rayon material that Marie Gray created when she and her husband Robert started the company in 1962.
The clothes are priced at less than $500, or for 30% less than traditional St. John suits.
Change in Strategy
The line is a subtle strategy switch for the company, which has been aggressively pursuing younger women for much of this decade.
In 2004, then-head Richard Cohen made a big push for younger buyers by selling tighter clothes and promoting Angelina Jolie as the lead model for the brand. Cohen left the company after the headlong push backfired and 2005 sales fell 5% to $379 million.
McMahon tried a different approach last year with the launch of a separate line for women in their 20s, 30s and 40s called SoCa.
McMahon said at the time that the company didn’t want to “water down” the St. John line with a new division so it separated the youthful prints into their own brand.
Timing couldn’t have been worse, according to McMahon.
“We launched SoCa in October and the world as we know it crashed,” he said. “It was just not a good time to launch a whole new label.”
So McMahon has done an about-face, diversifying the traditional St. John style and pushing lifestyle lines within the overall brand.
“We have great brand equity with St. John. Now we just get to promote the whole label with different lifestyles,” he said.
The decision was pushed by the demands of St. John’s customers, who responded well to the youthful edge of the SoCa line, McMahon said.
“We thought SoCa would only attract new customers, but our core customers really liked it,” he said.
In fact, McMahon said that the new yellow label line was inspired by founder Marie Gray’s own wardrobe. Gray was brought back on as a consultant when the company hit the rough patch a few years ago.
She had little to do with the day-to-day creation of the yellow label or spring line. But her original designs could be seen throughout the spring collection as lead designer George Sharp, who signed on to the company last year, revived the classic cuts of the company’s trademark upscale knit suits and paired them with silky blouses and a liberal amount of sparkly accents.
The fashion show crowd of primarily St. John devotees and department store buyers from their 30s to 70s responded well to the blend of tradition and innovation by cheering loudly for three-piece pantsuits in black and white trench coats and a one-shoulder Grecian-inspired dress.
The cross-generational designs played with texture and color, highlighting backs on shirts and dresses and high front slits.
The color palette strayed into the kindergartener’s crayon box with punched-up pastels in corals, blues and greens accented by blinged-out buttons and belt buckles. Even the darker clothes in rich browns and classic blacks were largely accented with metallics.
The line has a little bit of everything.
“We wanted to hit a broad target of consumers,” McMahon said.
Like all clothing makers and retailers, St. John is fighting the worst retail environment in recent memory.
“We have some great days and some bad days, but our core customers have stayed,” McMahon said.
Factory
The slower sales likely are weighing on the company as it evaluates what to do with its 169,555-square-foot Irvine factory at Jam-boree Road and Michelson Drive. In late 2006, the company sold the building to Houston-based developer Hines Interests LP and since has been leasing the space.
The city has approved Hines’ plan for building offices at the site, which would require the demolition of the factory. Many of St. John’s 1,800 local workers are there, although the company has several buildings in Orange County.
McMahon said they haven’t made a decision about what to do with the office, but it is committed to staying in Southern California.
