Boutique Takes Designer Back to School
Carlo Gholami has spent years as a designer of contemporary young menswear, but in his new life as a retailer he has undertaken a unique way of understanding his customer.
He studies them at his recently opened 2,000-square-foot store at 7375 Melrose Ave., which also offers womenswear.
His best opportunity to learn is every Sunday. That is when he hangs out and asks his clients what they like about the clothes. “I learned that the consumer is intelligent,” Gholami said. “They know how they want to look.”
Gholami started his own clothing company, Couture, The Clothing Co., in 1993 to design clothes first for men and then for women. A boutique with the same name opened in June 2005. Another boutique could open in Las Vegas by the end of 2006, the Iranian-born designer-turned-retailer said.
Meanwhile, Gholami is listening to his clients give him advice about what he should design.
Clients often tell him where they would like the buttons or pockets to be placed. He always listens. But Gholami wants his customers to listen to him too. “We’re trying to get men out of the IBM look and have some fun with their clothes,” he said.
Fun means a lot of color and details in the clothing. Gholami sources his fabric from Turkey, Asia and from European companies such as Devaux SA of Marseilles, France.
Even though his label is assembled in the United States, his shirts and pants have a fitted, European look. He introduced a denim division of his couture line last year.
The couture customer is generally between the ages of 20 and 50 and has a sense of style.
Gholami learned much of his style and design in Europe. He spent his youth in Italy and attended the Fashion Institute of Bologna, where he studied clothing design. Upon arriving in California, he studied with the fashion design program at Santa Monica College, near his new boutique. —Andrew Asch
