St. John Knits International Inc. is making a second run at younger women.
In doing so, the Irvine-based women’s clothier is trying to pull off what proved painfully elusive a few years back,appealing to women in their 20s, 30s and early 40s without alienating the company’s faithful old guard.
A headlong 2005 push for younger women backfired in lost sales, which have yet to fully recover. St. John has a target of $400 million in 2009 sales.
The company is taking a more measured approach this time around.
It’s launched a line of clothes, handbags, shoes and accessories for younger women under a different label, SoCa.
The line is a break from the traditional knit suits that are synonymous with the St. John name.
The collection, which takes inspiration from California’s lifestyle and culture, is a casual take on the St. John style that has long appealed to politicians, professionals and affluent women in their 40s, 50s, 60s and older.
“We have a large customer base, but there are a lot of women who would never wear St. John that we need to talk to,” Chief Executive Glenn McMahon said. “With SoCa, we’re seeing opportunities with women in their 20s through 50s and beyond.”
McMahon is quick to point out that St. John isn’t deserting its longtime wearers and its bread and butter knit suits.
SoCa will remain a separate brand, he said.
“We thought we would have better success by approaching it as a separate design idea instead of trying to water down St. John,” McMahon said. “Where St. John is often polished and suited, we wanted SoCa to be casual. It’s not a diffusion of St. John’s classic style. It’s a collection on its own.”
|
|
McMahon: “It’s a big departure for us” |
More Cautious
McMahon is taking an undeniably more cautious approach to young women’s fashion than his predecessor did.
Richard Cohen, the former head of the U.S. arm of Italy’s Ermenegildo Zegna Holditalia SPA who came to St. John in 2004, led a dizzying push for younger wearers by making clothes tighter and tapping Angelina Jolie as its main model.
Cohen abruptly left a year later after longtime wearers balked and 2005 sales fell 5% to $379 million.
Broadening St. John’s reach to young shoppers without alienating core shoppers is seen as a way of driving sales.
SoCa is anticipated to generate $150 million to $300 million in added revenue during the next three to five years, McMahon said.
The clothing line is the only St. John collection to boast mostly woven materials instead of the company’s signature Santana fabric,a tightly knit rayon material that Marie Gray created when she and her husband Robert Gray started St. John in 1962.
“It’s a big departure for us,” McMahon said. “Our legacy is in knit. But we recognize that more and more women wear woven fabrics and we wanted to make sure that we address their lifestyles.”
SoCa’s pants, shirts, dresses and jackets come in bold colors and prints. Think white slacks paired with a bright red blazer or a sexy, knee-length animal print dress.
South Coast Store
The line, which is sold at a 2,500-square-foot flagship SoCa store at Costa Mesa’s South Coast Plaza and upscale department stores such as Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s, costs about 30% less than St. John’s other clothes.
A SoCa jacket sells for $600 or more. A St. John knit suit jacket can go for $1,000 to $2,500.
St. John, which is majority owned by New York’s Vestar Capital Partners Inc., invested a lot of time and thought into launching SoCa, McMahon said.
The company used focus groups to learn about what women wanted when it came to style, how women viewed St. John and what it would have to do in order to convert new customers to the line.
St. John is using the Internet to lure younger consumers to SoCa through banner advertisements, blogs and other forms of virtual marketing, McMahon said.
The company plans to keep its traditional marketing focus with its St. John brand by continuing to place advertisements in fashion magazines, he said.
SoCa faces a lot of competition from other designers that also are vying for attention.
New York’s Tory Burch LLC, which also sells to Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s and other upscale department stores, is SoCa’s closest competitor.
Tough Market
Like other apparel makers, St. John faces the challenge of generating sales while most consumers are scaling back spending.
“It’s tough out there,” McMahon said. “Even if the consumer has money, she’s being a lot more careful with how she’s spending it.”
St. John plans to get through the difficult time by offering what it believes are luxury goods with a timeless look and long-term value, McMahon said. SoCa and St. John’s other clothes are meant to be worn for years and paired with articles of clothing from other seasons.
The company plans to push its SoCa line, open more stores here and abroad and renovate existing stores this year and next.
St. John, which counts some 28 stores, is opening more boutiques in Houston, Florida and London before the year ends.
A new store design is being rolled out and will continue into next year, McMahon said.
