Connected's Recipe for Not Giving Away the Shop
Steeve Bohbot at Connected Boutique
Running a street-level showroom can mean some big headaches. Like wayward fashion people wondering into the showroom and not taking ’Sorry, wholesale only’ as an answer.
This was Steeve Bohbot’s problem. The main entrance of his Connected International Sales showroom in downtown L.A. faces the street parade shuffling past the Cooper Design Space building. After a few years of pissing off people who wanted to pick up fashions from his contemporary and streetwear clients, Bohbot opted for something of a Solomonic compromise.
He cut more than 600 square feet of his 5,800-square-foot showroom and made it into the Connected Boutique. People can drop by the boutique space and buy deadstock and last-season's fashions from his clients, which include Moods of Norway, Maui Sons, Joyrich and Kid Dangerous. The merchandise is offered at wholesale prices seven days a week and during some evenings.
The boutique serves people cruising the showroom buildings of the Fashion Intersection, revelers partying during the monthly Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk festivals and downtown L.A.’s burgeoning population of loft dwellers. According to Cooper Design Space leasing director Mona Sangkala, Bohbot is the only Cooper tenant to produce a boutique in his showroom. “The others don’t have that street presence like he does,” Sangkala said. Also, Connected is zoned for retail because the showroom space once housed a footwear boutique.
Business has been steady since he opened the boutique in mid-April, and there have been some surprises. “We have people coming out of nowhere and spending $1,500,” Bohbot said.
However, sales always stop short when the L.A. Fashion Market goes into full gear. Only at that time do Connected Boutique's shoppers hear that familiar phrase “Sorry, wholesale only,” Bohbot said.
