Chan Luu Showroom
Chan Luu likes to do things her way. Take the way she writes her name. The jewelry designer altered the spelling of her surname from the conventional Vietnamese spelling and put it first before her given name in the traditional Vietnamese style. When she was preparing to launch her own ready-to-wear line, she opened her own showroom on The New Mart’s 11th floor in a space previously occupied by Parallel Lines, which had served as her sole representative on the West Coast.
“With the opening of a corporate showroom last year, she has spread her wings,” said Kris Lukas, Chan’s West Coast sales manager.
Since Chan opened the place in January 2004, she has expanded into belts, handbags, scarves and clothes. She has also begun carrying beaded pearl headbands, ponytail holders and other hair accessories made by her sister, Jane Tran (no relation to the writer), who also had been represented by Parallel Lines.
Although Chan retained her predecessor’s telephone number, she changed the name and look of the showroom. The venue strikes a balance between industrial and organic in its choice of furniture and wares. Blond wood tables add some warmth to the gray concrete floors. While walking under exposed pipes toward 6-foothigh windows, visitors pass vibrantly colored belts that can be tied loosely at the hips and jersey tank tops and tiered skirts that evoke a luxurious hippie lifestyle. One cannot resist reaching out and touching goods such as a green rosary-style necklace and a wooden-handled satchel crocheted by hand out of spaghetti cords made of vintage silk fabrics collected from Indian gypsies.
Wholesale prices run from $60 to $130 for bags, $76 to $118 for belts and $32 to $138 for apparel. Chan is best known for her jewelry, which she has been designing for 11 years. Wholesale prices for her pearl division range from $42 to $182. Tran’s hair accessories are priced from $5 to $45 wholesale. —Khanh T.L. Tran
