Earnest Sewn to Build Off-Price Pop-Up

The words “cheap” and “premium denim” do not often run in the same sentence. However, the Earnest Sewn label will be experimenting with an off-price pop-up shop at its full-price boutique in Malibu, Calif.

The pop-up will be called Outpost and will do business at the Earnest Sewn boutique at the exclusive Malibu Country Mart retail center from April 1 through Labor Day weekend. It will offer Earnest Sewn pieces from past seasons as well as discontinued lines, including denim priced at $99. The 300-square-foot Outpost will also sell new shirts made from fabric used in other Earnest Sewn groups.

The Malibu Country Mart Earnest Sewn will be the only location in the premium-denim line’s five-store chain to offer off-price. Retail director Brandon Gladden said the off-price store will make Earnest Sewn a boutique alternative.

“We always pride ourselves on doing something different,” Gladden said.  “No one else at the [Malibu] Country Mart is doing this, and there is so much competition out there.”

Selling off-price fashions at branded boutiques’ premium-denim shops is practically unheard of, said Angelika Corrente, creative manager for Denimhead, a trend-forecasting service and division of trend-analysis and research firm WGSN. The Los Angeles–based Joe’s Jeans premium-denim label runs 17 outlet stores across the United States, and many premium brands offer their product on flash-sales sites, such as Gilt Groupe, but maintaining an off-price section at a full-price store is rare.

In 2008, Earnest Sewn ran an off-price pop-up shop at its boutique in the Hamptons, the fashionable beach community in New York. Although the Hamptons pop-up was judged a success, Gladden said, the experiment has not been repeated until now. If the Malibu pop-up is deemed a success, there is a possibility it will be continued.—A.A.