When talk turns to clothing and accessory styles in Greenwich, Westport and Stamford, the whereabouts of Indonesia did not used to be part of the conversation. “Indo-where-ia, Thurston?”
A single store on Magee Avenue in Stamford is changing all that.
The small shop, Agabhumi, The Best of Bali, owned by Michael Kirshbaum and his wife Regina Maguire Kirshbaum, was established in the fall of 2002. The shop chooses and designs all its products from the island of Bali in Indonesia.
“We find that part of our objective is to get people in this area to stretch a little bit, and move a little bit out of that roll of sameness,” said Michael Kirshbaum. “People come in thinking ”˜I can”™t do that, I can”™t wear that, I”™ve never worn anything like that.”™ Well, try it on. Look at yourself in the mirror. And all of a sudden: oh wow! I want people walking out of here with things they never would have expected to, and coming back to tell us how many compliments they”™ve gotten, and often times it”™s the first time that woman has gotten that kind of attention.”
While vacationing in Bali with in September 2002, Michael and Regina were welcomed and entertained by the Oka family; a family whom Michael lived with in 1974 while on a trip around the world.
Through this visit, the couple began to talk about importing from Bali. Michael owned and operated a Stamford sewing business before the Agabhumi venture. Together they share 50 years of retail experience between them.
The Oka siblings are now Agabhumi”™s researchers, personal shoppers and direct contacts for the company. With their help and a comprehensive tour of Bali, Michael and Regina established the types of products they wanted in the store. The name “Agabhumi” means “ancient firmament.”
Agabhumi”™s backbone is its jewelry, handbags and belts, though the business quickly developed to cover nearly all angles of retail, with items as diverse as bowls made from cinnamon and coconuts.
Agabhumi offers the wares of five jewelry designers in Bali and one Philippines women”™s cooperative. For each type of item they have in the store, they have at least two designers in Bali that they are working with. In 2004, the couple opened a second Balinese-themed store on Barbados.
“We turned from simply buying products that are offered from Bali, to supplying our designers there with fashion information that comes in advance of the season and then dictating the color combinations that come through and the looks so that what can be produced has harmony between the artistry and touch of Bali and the modern style,” said Regina.
Regina often takes the top 10 color charts for a season and chooses the shades she likes and then gives these color combinations to her designers. The couple also takes one or two trips a year to Bali to walk the streets on their own and track down new styles and products.
Regina has the advantage of dictating to her designers the direction she wants their products to go and is able to stay abreast of trends by studying what comes out of Europe.
“Greenwich customers have Greenwich Avenue with a good deal of the major designers flanking the blocks and what that offers them is a very expensive price point of luxury goods which are available everywhere,” said Regina. “What we offer here is a very reasonable selection of luxury goods that are still fashionable and even fashion forward and available nowhere else. What we often find here is that we”™re offering color combinations and styles that don”™t come into this area until about four to six months after we offer them.”
In only five years the shop has received editorial coverage in such trend bibles as Marie Claire, InStyle Lucky, Glamour and Cosmopolitan magazines.
The couple has also designed a line of jewelry for the Bennett Cancer Center, as well as Cancer Care of Connecticut, to which 30 percent of sales proceeds are donated. There is also a “paw print” jewelry line benefiting animal shelters. And perhaps closest to the Kirshbaums”™ hearts: their Donate for the Circle of Life accessories. Michael had a liver transplant in June 2007. Regina designed a line of Jewelry specifically to donate 30 percent of the proceeds to the New York Presbyterian Hospital Institute for Organ Transplant Research at Columbia University.
The Kirshbaums are becoming a brand of their own, transcending age demographics. They have recently added a children”™s area and they say they have customers in their 90s.
“Women come in with their little girls and it”™s as if they”™re in a candy store,” said Regina. “We put product on the floor at a price that is fair, that reflects fair trade because we”™re sticklers for where our stuff gets produced, and it”™s a remarkable value to people in an area where things are outrageously overpriced. Prices elsewhere are already dictated for everybody and we have this luxury of being very different.”
They make their products functional by adding and making improvements to them. They like to add their own “smart designs,” to the products in hopes that they become a utilitarian design in the industry.
Regina points to the fashion of a clutch bag she designed. It has a pullout wristlet because she doesn”™t want to walk around with it in her hand all the time. “Functional and fabulous” is the way she describes their approach when showing off a “fanny pack” that she has restyled into something more distinguished than the lumpy tourist accessory generally associated with fanny packs.
“It”™s just a phenomenal world we get to live in dealing with these people,” said Regina. “We get to constantly rethink the wheel and are always looking for versatility in the wardrobe. Forget keeping our customers in touch with the curve, we”™re keeping them far ahead of the curve. I don”™t consider it a burden to figure these things out; these are puzzles that I relish like people relish crossword puzzles.”
To take in to account their Northeast location, with four distinct seasons rather than simply rainy season and dry season as in Bali, Agabhumi has brought in suedes, leathers and even knits and applied the Indonesian style to these materials.
The store has been on the Web for over a year with a site they are finally perfecting. The Kirshbaum”™s have noticed especially in the wake of Christmas that a lot of people shop them on the Web before they come in. They are realistic about their future in expanding business being on the Web. “The Balinese are ingenious at tapping into markets like the U.S.,” said Regina.
The staff is primarily Regina and Michael, though they do have one highly trusted employee, Doreen Bonito, who worked with Michael when he owned his sewing business. They claim to have stumbled across a solid manager for their Barbados operation, but admit finding trusted managers for expansion can be problematic.
The Kirshbaums, 15-year Stamford residents, say they have no interest in hounding their customers and making sales, but are rather interested in creating a relationship with them.
“We have this unique position of being the buyers, the merchandisers and the people who design the marketing plan,” said Regina.
Agabhumi also has a policy of not regularly going on sale. They feel that they place items at an actual and fair value initially, and therefore do not need to rely on the sale as a way to sell the majority of their products. They want their customers to trust their price points, though they will put items on sale that aren”™t moving fast enough.
