California Apparel News

On the retail front, Dillard’s department stores are practically an unknown quantity in California, with only three outlets in far-flung outposts that are more suburban than urban.

But when it comes to California fashion and labels, Dillard’s isn’t shy about stocking its stores with contemporary and juniors brands born on the West Coast. A lot of that has to do with Annemarie Dillard, whose Los Angeles office is the retailer’s only in-house trend office outside the company’s headquarters in Little Rock, Ark.

From her 12th-floor space in the California Market Center, the heir to the Dillard’s store name scouts for brands and designers who can give the Arkansas retailer and its more than 300 stores across the country an edge up in the highly competitive retail world.

“The beauty of California is there are a lot of creative people who are always coming up with new ideas, and that is very exciting,” said Dillard, who is the granddaughter of Dillard’s founder William Dillard and the daughter of the company’s president, Alex Dillard. Her identical twin sister, Alexandra, is the divisional merchandise manager of private brands at the company’s St. Petersburg, Fla., office.

“Another thing about California designers is they really identify with our customers a little better,” she noted. “In the South and the Midwest, where we have a lot of stores, our customers like exciting, bright colors. I think California really does a good job of supplying us with lines that resonate with our customers.”

Several Los Angeles lines have a growing presence in Dillard’s stores. BCBGMaxAzria has a popular dress line and other items sold in the contemporary section of the retail chain. “We have BCBG shops within shops in more than 100 doors, and we partner with them on several lines,” said Dillard, who used to work as an associate buyer at BCBG after graduating from college.

Not Your Daughter’s Jeans, Joe’s Jeans, Lucky Brand Jeans and William Rast are four denim labels carried by the store. And several other labels born in Los Angeles have migrated to the chain’s stores.

On a recent morning, Dillard, given to wearing high heels to make her slim, 5-foot-4-inch frame taller, was in a CMC showroom eying the latest collection by Willow & Clay carried at Dillard’s. It is a contemporary line designed by Complete Clothing Co. in Vernon, Calif. Its sister line, Matty M—a grouping of tops, dresses, skirts and outerwear—is popular with customers who crave more career dressing yet hip fashion. “Matty M is one of our most successful lines,” Dillard said, running her fingers over a pleated silk skirt that comes in a variety of vibrant colors.

Then Dillard strode over to the Willow & Clay side of the showroom and tried on a faux fur she knew would do well at the stores. She also admired a knit maxidress with a vibrant zigzag design. “It’s a fabulous collection for the price points,” she said, noting that most of the items retail for $68 to $118.

John Meyer, co-owner of Complete Clothing, said he and his staff work closely with Annemarie on the two labels.

“First and foremost, Annemarie completely understands the contemporary business, and, as such, we spend time previewing both the Matty M and Willow & Clay lines before each season. Her comments are relevant, not just for Dillard’s but for most of our other customers,” he noted. “Over the last year, Annemarie has been absolutely instrumental in helping us more than double our business profitably, which is not an easy task in this difficult retail environment.”Retailing bonesDillard has been working in the company’s trend office for nearly five years, not too long after graduating in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.

Even though her degree is in business, Dillard was born and bred with retailing in her genes and has always been a fashionista. “I love reading [fashion] magazines just as much as The Wall Street Journal,” said Dillard, whose title at Dillard’s is director of contemporary sportswear. However, that is just one of her jobs.

She also is in charge of finding local partners and manufacturers to help produce some of the chain’s wide selection of private labels, such as Chelsea and Violet, Daniel Cremieux, GB and Gianni Bini. Dillard’s has expanded private-label offerings to about 22.7 percent of its merchandise, up from nearly 16 percent 10 years ago, said Julie Bull, Dillard’s director of investment relations.

“We’ve had a lot of success with [private-label-producing] vendors here, especially with the Korean market in the San Pedro [Street] area,” Dillard said. “They can do things quickly. They can turn things around in four to six weeks.”

Dillard’s third job is to produce a trend blog and videos called “The Fashion Files,” which appear on the company’s website and on Facebook. The videos, launched late last year, often feature Annemarie and her twin sister talking about their favorite trends. It’s a way to connect to customers.

In a recent video, the camera bounced back and forth between each twin. They discussed how stripes, dots, lace or maxidresses were all the rage. If it seemed as if it were the same person narrating the trend forecast, it’s because the twins truly are identical.

But their fashion tastes take different routes. In a “Behind the Fashion Files” video, Alexandra revealed she is a little more conservative than her sister, Annemarie, who tends to wear taller high heels and more vibrant prints and colors. Alexandra is truly a woman who loves subdued colors and dresses.

Alexandra displayed her fashion instincts two years ago when she married TV anchor Craig Lucie, and their wedding in Little Rock bore a certain Dillard stamp. Vince Camuto, whose shoe line and private-label merchandise is carried by the retailer, created two pairs of white wedding shoes for the bride. One pair had her maiden name embroidered on the inside, and a second pair, which she slipped on after the ceremony, had her married name embroidered inside.On trendIn the past few years, Dillard’s has fought to become more trend-driven with an eye on holding down prices. Yes, they do carry more high-end labels such as Theory, Trina Turk and Twelfth Street by Cynthia Vincent, but the Dillard’s client is often shopping for fashion-forward items that won’t break the bank. That is another reason for creating more budget-conscious private labels.

It has helped pull the retail chain, founded in 1938, from nearly a decade of yearly slipping same-store sales to more-positive ground. The company’s net income was up 162 percent to $179.5 million for the fiscal year ended Jan. 29, compared with $68.5 million in 2010. For the fiscal year ended in January 2009, Dillard’s lost $241 million.

“Last year was the first year we saw comp growth for the entire year,” said retail analyst Kenneth Stumphauzer of Stearns, Agee & Leach. “What contributed to their underperformance is that they kept a lot of underperforming stores open longer than they should have. Another thing is that they had a lot of brands that were duplicated at other department stores like Macy’s. Dillard’s has always prided itself on being a full-price store, like Nordstrom. When you have the exact same thing in the mall and Macy’s has a one-day sale every three weeks, you’ll lose market share.”

Dillard’s is hoping to grow its e-commerce business. Late last year, the retail chain announced it was opening an 852,000-square-foot fulfillment center for its website business in Maumelle, Ark., renovating a warehouse once used by Target Corp. as a distribution center. Stumphauzer noted that Dillard’s has improved the flow of inventory to its stores so that deliveries are spaced out better throughout the season. This keeps inventory fresh and avoids markdowns. “If you pay attention to the promotional cadence of Dillard’s, they don’t take a markdown until 2 to 2frac12; months into the season.”

Since 2008, the company has closed 30 stores and has no store openings planned this year, said Bull, the director of investor relations. That means that Dillard’s, with 294 department stores and 14 clearance centers in 29 states, will not be adding stores in California beyond its Stockton, El Centro and Palmdale locations. But California style will always be on Dillard’s mind.