Japanese Streetwear Label Takes Melrose Location
Los Angeles’ Melrose Avenue gained added cachet as a designer district when Marc Jacobs and Paul Smith opened stores there more than one year ago. But the fashion thoroughfare might take a sharp turn into streetwear, however, when Japanese cult label Bathing Ape opens a store at 8001 Melrose Ave.
The streetwear label’s location will be a 3,300-square-foot space formerly occupied by fashion label Costume Nacional. A debut date was not confirmed, but it may open late this year, according to a New York–based representative of the label and Robb Bader, the real estate broker who handled the deal. Bader works for Sachse Real Estate of Beverly Hills.
Bathing Ape’s move to Los Angeles has been highly anticipated by California streetwear retailers and designers. One reason for the label’s U.S. popularity is its celebrity cachet. Hip-hop stars such as Pharrell Williams have prominently worn it at concerts and in videos.
It’s also very hard to get. The pastel garments, cartoonish designs and T-shirts with all-over prints are sold at few stores. For that matter, the label does not wholesale. Rather, it makes its clothes available at only the handful of Bathing Ape boutiques spread around the globe and a few U.S. retailers such as Union, which has a location on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles.
Its price points run in the neighborhood of $60–$120 for T-shirts, $350 for sneakers and more than $400 for jeans, according to Aaron Levant, president of Agenda, the Los Angeles–based showroom that specializes in streetwear. It also produces streetwear trade shows, also called Agenda, in San Diego and Tokyo.
Bathing Ape’s cachet of hip-hop celebrity and exclusivity has drawn attention to the streetwear category, Levant said. “They’ve made streetwear visible in the U.S. You can’t watch a rap video without seeing someone wearing Bathing Ape.”
Williams, the hip-hop star, also partnered with Bathing Ape to produce the fashion line Billionaire Boys Club and the footwear label Ice Cream. These debuted at the end of 2005; both are manufactured in Japan.
Bathing Ape executives did not respond to e-mail messages requesting interviews for this article, and details of the L.A. boutique’s deacute;cor have not been divulged. However, Bathing Ape stores in New York and London favor a minimalist look.
The label has given birth to a business empire in Japan. Bathing Ape founder DJ Nigo also runs a hair salon, cafeacute;, childrenswear line and a music label under the aegis of his clothing label.
Paul Frank on the Move
Paul Frank Industries, a Costa Mesa, Calif.–based label that built a global following for producing apparel and accessories embellished with cartoonish designs, will open a 2,200-square-foot boutique at 7964 Melrose Ave. in Los Angeles. A Paul Frank representative said the company would close its boutique at 8101 West Third St., less than a mile away, at the end of August. The Melrose Avenue store’s debut is scheduled for mid-August. Sachse Real Estate’s Bader also handled the Paul Frank deal.
—Andrew Asch
