Male Bonding - Women's luxury labels go after men

[polishmike]

Interesting article in the line of recent discussion of women's designers going homme.

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Male Bonding

Women's luxury labels go after men;

diamonds at Harry Winston, Lilly Pulitzer ties

By RAY A. SMITH

December 15, 2007; Page W4

While Christmas shopping recently, Stuart R. Gelles stopped in a Louis Vuitton store in New York in search of a handbag for his wife. Instead, he found himself lingering in the men's department, where he bought a $1,330 briefcase-style bag for himself.

"I never thought I would be looking for something for myself," says the 50-year-old professional-development coach, who was surprised to see so many men's items. He says he's returning to the store to buy a gift for his wife.

That's precisely how Vuitton, which recently has expanded its men's accessories, wants men to react this holiday season. Many luxury brands, known for their focus on women, are hoping to spur sales by luring male shoppers with new stores and product lines.

Jeweler Harry Winston is carrying a new collection of men's jewelry, created by menswear designer Thom Browne, that includes $29,500 diamond-studded cuff links and $21,000 money clips. The preppy Lilly Pulitzer label, which relaunched its menswear line this year after a 24-year hiatus, is selling $295 cashmere V-neck men's sweaters. And French luxury house Lanvin sells silk pajama shirts and silk scarves to supplement its more classic line of suits.

New stores for men also are opening: Dolce & Gabbana opened its second in the U.S. in New York earlier this month, and Salvatore Ferragamo says it plans to open its first in the U.S. next year. Hermès and Tiffany recently opened new stores in New York's Wall Street district with an emphasis on menswear and accessories. The Hermès store is the label's first to feature a separate salon devoted to selling made-to-measure men's clothing.

The labels say one of their ultimate goals is to get men to shop more like women -- making more impulse purchases and being open to items they didn't intend to buy when they walked into the store. Many men nowadays know what they're looking for when they step into a store and are unlikely to pick up anything extra.

This fall, Kim Garvin Ferrier dragged her husband Todd to a Lilly Pulitzer store in search of clothes. She left empty-handed. But Mr. Ferrier, a 35-year-old paper-products manufacturer, snatched up a sweater, a sport jacket and a tie for himself.

"By the time I got out, I had spent a grand on myself," he says. He adds that he initially balked at the sweater because of its $500 price tag, but his wife persuaded him to splurge.

The labels say it makes business sense to target men now. In the 12 months ended Oct. 31, U.S. sales of men's apparel rose 2.6% to $56.3 billion -- faster than the 1.9% growth to $103.5 billion in the women's apparel market, according to market researcher NPD Group.

Men are also doing more of their own clothing shopping. Last year, 75% of men bought most of their own clothes, compared with 52% in 1995, according to Marshal Cohen, NPD's chief industry analyst.

It could be tough to persuade men to shell out big bucks for brand names, however. "Women are much more fashion-conscious and much more brand-conscious," says Richard Jaffe, a retail analyst with Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. "Men see less value in buying brands."

Browsing through a Dior boutique in Paris recently, Mark Semonian, a 39-year-old investor who divides his time between New York and Cape Town, South Africa, took a pass on the slim suits, skinny ties and biker jackets in Dior's men's department. "It wasn't my look," he says. "It looked like something you would pay a lot of money for that would go out of a style in a year."

Though some brands are including more affordable items, like Tiffany's new $195 steel mesh bracelet and Just Cavalli's new $146 sterling silver and steel cuff links, many others are attaching stratospheric price tags. Louis Vuitton has $2,020 alligator-skin belts, and Lanvin's silk pajama shirts cost $1,175.

Bottega Veneta, which began expanding its men's selection two years ago, says its strongest selling item for men this season is its $3,480 tote bag, made of wrinkled nappa leather. Officials at Harry Winston say the company has sold more than half of the cuff link range that was launched in October.

Barneys New York, meanwhile, says $700 Lanvin high-top sneakers made of patent leather, satin and suede have been strong sellers in some stores this season, according to Melissa Gallagher, divisional merchandise manager for men's footwear at the luxury retailer.

Some of the labels are revamping their store designs to appeal to men. Starting with its Beijing store, Louis Vuitton is creating "masculine spaces" in its new stores that can be seen from the entrance, complete with armchairs, laptops (for customer use) and giant television screens that broadcast financial news, says Pietro Beccari, world-wide vice president of marketing.

"Men want to enter a store and immediately understand where they belong," says Mr. Beccari. "He doesn't like to look for things. He wants to make a choice rapidly, not take half an hour."

In the retail business, the area just to the right of a store entrance is prime real estate because most shoppers, regardless of their gender, turn right when they walk in a store, says Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group, a consumer-behavior research and strategic-marketing firm in Charleston, S.C. Following this logic, Harry Winston says it is prominently displaying its new men's jewelry collection in that spot. Tiffany's expanded men's jewelry line can be found just to the right of the entrance to its new Wall Street store.

Placing men's goods in this prime location is especially important for stores trying to appeal to men because they tend to be more purposeful shoppers than women, says Mr. Beemer.

Hermès is changing the way it groups men's products in its stores, putting all of the items together rather than separating some by category. So men's watches on display, for instance, would no longer be mixed with women's watches.

The brands still face some high hurdles. Ed Repansky, who works in advertising in Baltimore, says he isn't interested in checking out the men's selection at Louis Vuitton. He associates the label "with a girl wanting a Louis Vuitton bag."

Link

[Fabulaz]

Lavin!!!!

Lavin!!!

[cuddlysheep]

robokop dat.

[eastcoastrider27]

$13k for a bag you put shaving cream and deodorant in...

Yeah, that makes sense.

[headcoat]

$13k for a bag you put shaving cream and deodorant in...

Yeah, that makes sense.

700 dollars for satin Converse...

[onemancult]

those shoes are not like converse at all.

this article is telling me nothing new, although im sure the kiton and brioni suit

crowd is perhaps taken a little by surprise to read that there is more to high end menswear than business suits.

[der Liebhaber]

"Men are also doing more of their own clothing shopping. Last year, 75% of men bought most of their own clothes, compared with 52% in 1995"

My momz stopped shoppin' fo me long timez ago! Dang!! Happy to hear 23% more guys crawled out from under their rocks and found there's a whole world out there of fab shit to blow your wad on (I mean spend your hard earned cash on ...lol

[constant struggle]

LAVIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SILK PAJAMAZ WHO IS KOPPING

someone better

[red]

this is the wsj article i was talking about in the lanvin thread.

[dismalfuture]

that tiffany bracelet is kinda fresh... I might cop in 20 years....

The article kind of touched upon it, but it's the 40 year old guys who are 20 years past Dior Homme membership age who can stroll into boutiques and robocop, and not the bitchy teenagers who covet the look, those kids all end up on superfuture asking ridiculous sizing questions thousands of times over and over again and ask where to find $5000 leather jackets for $300.

That said, one of my favorite pasttimes while shopping in Asia has been to walk into a given shop, stand by while a typical 5'6 barrel-chested, balding, wiry glasses wearing microsoft-y type Asian guy will be standing trying to make a 46 jacket made for guys a foot taller fit on their frame while their 10 out of 10 million dollar wife/gf stands next to them egging them on, and then waltz in and casually try on the same thing, style on them, robocop, and then give a nice smirk of satisfaction to the ladyfriend as I sashay out. That is satisfaction that is to be appreciated in the moment.

edit- (no JCMstyles)

[Liberation1945]

shiiiit that cavalli fit is pretty fucking nice(minus the boots)...

[Toenailz`]

Browsing through a Dior boutique in Paris recently, Mark Semonian, a 39-year-old investor who divides his time between New York and Cape Town, South Africa, took a pass on the slim suits, skinny ties and biker jackets in Dior's men's department. "It wasn't my look," he says. "It looked like something you would pay a lot of money for that would go out of a style in a year."

Somehow this little excerpt enrages me in ways that may never be fully comprehended by man.

[notesee]

Interesting read. I have to say that I don't make many impulse purchases when I'm at a store. If they don't have what I came there for, or it's not in my size, then I'm not picking up anything.

Usually it's when I see something online that I have the problem.

[josephr]

Somehow this little excerpt enrages me in ways that may never be fully comprehended by man.

do you disagree that it will be out of style in a year?

[Advantage]

Somebody Cop dat $12k Dolce Gabbana Croc Pencil Case!

[Tiranis]

do you disagree that it will be out of style in a year?

Technically everything's out of style in half a year... so a year is actually pretty good.

[MikeN]

I'd rather rock the Hermes Birkin bag than that Hermes "Steve" bad aimed at men.