CandyStore Adds Its Own Brand of Sweetness to the Web
When first stumbling upon CandyStore Collective’s Web site (www.candystorecollective.com), one has the choice to “Shop This Way” or “Shop That Way.”
“Shop This Way” takes you on a whimsical ride through a party where “invisible forces won’t spoil the fun.” Using Flash-induced imagery, the fashions on the partygoers seemingly move on their own. “Shop That Way” brings you to the e-commerce store of the CandyStore Collective, based in San Francisco’s hip Mission District.
What started in December 2004 as Hot!, a temporary pop-up store for unique gift wares, transformed into the CandyStore Collective bricks-and-mortar store in June 2005 and now as its burgeoning e-tail site, which launched in December 2007.
Partners Jennifer Jones and Jenny Klowden opened Hot! following Jones’ trip to a gift show in France. After bringing the wares home to friends, Jones was inspired to share the wealth with everyone. Vintage buyer Klowden came on to help manage the store.
Despite the time it took to launch, an e-commerce site was always in the cards. “We wanted to reach more people, but we also wanted the experience to be similar to exploring the store. A sense of discovery is important to a good shopping experience,” Jones wrote in an e-mail. Jones is also the design director for Pottery Barn Teen.
While the site may reach a broader audience than the bricks-and-mortar store, Jones and Klowden want to stay focused on selling products that are beautiful and unique to them. “We don’t buy based on labels or what’s in magazines,” Klowden said. “We buy what we like and what’s exciting and new.”
Klowden describes CandyStore Collective as a modern-day general store, offering a mix of men’s and women’s contemporary fashions, home deacute;cor and stationery.
CandyStore carries a variety of pieces such as a long hoodie dress by Seattle-based Prairie Underground, retail priced at $198; New York-based Saja dresses and tops, retailing between $200 and $300; and high-waist jeans by Los Angeles-based Deener, retail priced at $176. The site also carries Podoll shirts, WESC denim and more for men.
Bay Area designers may not be the CandyStore’s main focus, but the site can be a place to cultivate local talent, according to Klowden. The site features local designers, such as Black Label San Francisco dresses, Annmarie jewelry and Nisa SF cardigans.
“We are always looking for up-and-coming indie designers,” Jones noted. “Once labels get too big or too widely distributed, we lose touch with the designer and their process. There is so much wonderful design happening around the world, there is no reason not to keep things fresh.”
The “Collective” part of the CandyStore is truly just that. Jones acts as the creative director and businessperson; Klowden handles the day-to-day store operations and employees; and Jones’ mother, Marilyn Jones, helps with getting content up on the site.
Jennifer Jones and Klowden hope to enhance the site further with a blog and a vignette section to group products into complete outfits, as well as by adding downloadable music. They also plan to change the “Shop This Way” area of the site with new fashion layouts. —Connie Cho
