Vince comes to town
Vince, a Los Angeles-based contemporary lifestyle brand, is coming to White Plains.
Early next month, a 1,400-square-foot retail store will open at The Westchester mall, which will encompass collections for men and women.
“By the end November we will have 12 stores,” said Bob Ross, senior vice president of retail at Vince. “We just opened in Short Hills, N.J., and Boston, Mass., in the weeks prior to opening in White Plains. We have our 13th store planned to open in April 2010. We are looking at other locations in the U.S.A., in or around metropolitan areas like Chicago. We also would like to go international with a store in London.
“Westchester is one of the most affluent communities in American and we have many existing customers in the area from our wholesale accounts and our demographic studies,” Foss said of the company”™s decision to expand into the county. “The concept will build upon the successes we have had in other store designs but each store has its own personality unique to the space we have to work with.”
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The current Vince product line includes: leatherwear, trousers, detailed tops and outerwear.
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This year, the company will be licensing swimwear, handbags, loungewear and shoes for the collection.
Vince was founded in 2002 and less than a year ago, the company launched the brand”™s e-commerce web site.
The majority of the company”™s revenue stream stems from the physical stores, Ross said.
Finding a balance between concept and price takes precedence when big box closeouts and foreclosures run rampant.
Numbers indicate the odds may still be against the industry as a whole.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported a decrease in U.S. retail and food services sales by 1.5 percent in September 2009 from the month before.
Sales were down 5.7 percent in September 2009 from September 2008.
Total sales for the July 2009 through September 2009 period dropped 6.6 percent from last year.
Retail trade sales in September were down 1.7 percent from August 2009 and 6.4 percent from last year.