California Apparel News

Eletra Casadei’s new retail store serves as a laboratory of ideas and a chance to connect with her customers.

In September, the designer quietly opened her first retail store, called Eletra Casadei, in Pacific Palisades, Calif., after years in the wholesale business. Her current collection, under the name Casadei by Eletra Casadei, launched in 2003.

Located on Via de La Paz Street, off Pacific Palisades’ main drag, Swarthmore Street, the boutique carries “everything from tees and sweaters and leggings to a gown for a black-tie affair,” Casadei said.

The designer gutted the 800-square-foot space, which has white walls, a wall of new windows, new lighting and a polished concrete floor with a broken-tile inlay created by Casadei that leads the customers around the airy space. The store’s wroughtiron rolling racks allow Casadei to easily remerchandise the store. The racks match the wrought-iron tables and benches that serve as display racks for sweaters and accessories. All the apparel in the store is Casadei’s. The few accessories in the store, primarily handbags, belts and jewelry, are by other manufacturers, including Besso, Laura Rosnovsky, Susie Rohae and Europa Designs.

The store caters to a local crowd that typically leaves town to shop in nearby Santa Monica, Calif., said Casadei. The boutique’s customers include mothers and daughters, who cherry-pick the line according to their personal style. For example, a calflength skirt with a handkerchief hem might work well for the mother, while her daughter might choose the mini version of the skirt. The store also draws professional women, whom the designer describes as “dressed in uniform.”

Casadei and her four-person staff work closely with these customers to help them shop the line of easy-to-mix separates.

“They like what they see, but they don’t know how to put it together,” she said. “It’s like I’m running a merchandising school here.”

The boutique is not in the center of the city’s retail strip, but Via de La Paz is a frequent thoroughfare with a school at one end and a handful of longtime retail establishments, including a lingerie store next door to the Eletra Casadei boutique. Other new retailers on the street include a children’s clothing store and a high-end cooking-supply store and cooking school.

Still, Casadei said, “You have to know this is here to come here.”

These days, the designer divides her time between her factory in downtown Los Angeles and the store, which is located a few blocks from her home.

“The store has been an inspiration for me because it has brought me in contact with my customers and to be able to take that forward because I know what they want,” Casadei said. “I can take my experience here and bring it back downtown.”

The Casadei collection is carried in specialty boutiques, including Scruples in Dallas and BBI Classic and Tootsies in Houston. In the Los Angeles area, the line is carried in Ilee in Brentwood, Rebel in Westwood, and Emphasis in Sunset Plaza.

For more information about the line, call the Rep et Trois showroom at (213) 627-5400. For information about the Eletra Casadei boutique, call (310) 573- 0214. —Alison A. Nieder