LOS ANGELES — If there was ever a time in retail to tout expertise, now would be it, given all the noise across the Internet and in real life. Traffic — with two boutiques — seems to have that exercise down.
“Customers come to us because they still want to enjoy unique shopping,” said Michael Moldovan, who operates the boutique with his wife Sara Moldovan. “They enjoy visually stimulating and tactile experiences. They want to touch. They want to feel the experience of putting the clothes on compared to the Internet or online business. We cater to them. We take good care of them and we’re always looking for the best, eye-catching pieces and the most innovative collections to bring to this store.”
The upscale Los Angeles boutique, with a sister location at the Joule Hotel Dallas, just unveiled a redone and expanded store at the Beverly Center. The 6,000-square-foot space, designed by Tom Dixon’s Design Research Studio, will house the men’s and women’s collections from labels such as Alexander McQueen, Ann Demeulemeester, Grlfrnd, Junya Watanabe Man, Rick Owens, Yohji Yamamoto and Off-White.
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Men’s and women’s had previously operated in separate spaces at the Taubman Centers Inc.-owned mall, which is undergoing a $500 million makeover.
Glazed windows, concrete flooring, stainless-steel entrances, Tom Dixon pendant lighting, a mirrored ceiling and dressing rooms outfitted with recycled suede are some elements of the store’s design.
The refreshed and reformatted Beverly Center store is a big move for the retailer, which has been at the mall since 1984, after relocating from its original spot on Hollywood Boulevard, opened in 1977. Traffic’s stay at the Beverly Center is the longest run of any tenant currently there — staying the course as anchors such as Bullock’s and The Broadway moved out and made way for Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s Inc.
“I knew that the future was going to be there in 1984,” Moldovan said of the decision to move to the mall. “We moved there and we moved into a 1,200-square-foot store that was really the first kind of a store in town with cement floors, whitewashed walls. It was a real thing in Los Angeles and we had a lot of collections that we brought from Europe that we were the first in bringing.”
Los Angeles’ retail landscape at that time was also very different from what it is today, Moldovan pointed out.
“When we opened in 1984 [at the Beverly Center], L.A. was really virgin territory,” he said. “There was no Barneys, no Saks. There was nothing here. Then everybody else came and now there’s a lot of other people here. A lot of brands that have opened up. The department stores are following the boutiques now when, in 1984, they were on their own. So those are big changes. There’s a lot of competition, but we strive to find new lines, new collections that make us different from everybody.”
As for any major growth beyond the Beverly Center, the company is considering branching out into e-commerce. It has a web site, which serves an informational purpose.
The store in Dallas, which is now in its fifth year, continues to do well, Moldovan said. The company is always open to more doors, but there are no plans for additional openings, he confirmed.
“We’re doing very well,” Moldovan said. “In fact, because of the renovation of the Beverly Center, we thought that our business would go down dramatically, but it has not, and that’s a gift. We’re looking forward to doing much, much better.”