One-Stop Shop for Beauty and Fashion
Cyrus Sorat promises celebrity-style pampering for every woman—or, at least, for the ones who can afford the one-stop shopping for beauty and fashion at his first retail venture, SX.
Sorat—who is a partner in the Internet company Fuzebox Media of Huntington Beach, Calif., and maintains an interest in pharmaceutical and real estate businesses—spent $700,000 to build the 3,800-square-foot beauty and fashion emporium at the Park Place shopping center, across the street from the headquarters of St. John Knits, in Irvine, Calif. He said he hopes it will be the first of more than 10 SX stores he plans to build in the United States by the end of 2005.
Sorat celebrated the grand opening of the store on July 10. A cigar-chomping Dennis Rodman and the newly single “The Bachelor” contestant Jessica Bowlin were among the Korbel champagne–sipping fashionistas who traipsed down the store’s pink-and-gray aisles beneath plasma screens playing concert footage from Madonna’s “Drowned World Tour.”
Half the store will be dedicated to high-end contemporary casual fashion. The other half of the 3,800-square-foot space will be reserved for beauty.
The back of the store will house two rooms for facials, one room for hair extensions and one room for Botox treatments. A dermatologist will be available for appointments every week, and two makeup artists will be on duty during store hours. Store manager and apparel buyer Anooshka Zakarian plans on the fashions being just as fabulous as the beauty offerings but also suitable for the local crowd.
“Orange County is more relaxed than Los Angeles,” said Zakarian, a California Design College graduate who grew up in Glendale, Calif. She’s also the former co-owner of the Karizma boutique in Corona Del Mar, Calif. “Many of my customers are moms. They want flip-flops and jeans, but they’re stylish moms.”
Price points range from $50 for a basic T-shirt by designers such as Rebecca Beeson to $700 for a French tweed coat by Los Angeles–based Twelfth Street by Cynthia Vincent.
Zakarian said she initially intended to keep the retail mix casual, but she decided to offer suits and formal coats when she encountered a demand for them. SX eventually will debut a private-label fashion line that will showcase the works of up-and-coming designers.
Richard Giss, a partner in Deloitte & Touche’s consumer business practice, said SX will probably have unique opportunities to cross-sell beauty products to people shopping for clothes and vice versa.
“Retailers are always looking to secure a unique niche for their line,” Giss said of SX’s mix of fashion and beauty. “The idea can be great, but it must find acceptance, and the only person who can determine that is the customer.” —A.A.
