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Surf’s Heartland No Longer No-Go Zone for Designer Styles: Kin Opening in Huntington Beach

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Darrel Adams

For decades, Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach, Calif., have been known as the Rodeo Drive of Surf.

For those looking for the latest looks in wetsuits, boardshorts, bikinis and skateboard sneakers, the block’s surf emporiums, Huntington Surf & Sport and Jack’s Surf Shop, developed global reputations for offering the best styles from the market’s most popular brands.

It’s heaven for surf and action-sports fans. But this bustling pedestrian area across the street from the Huntington Beach Pier has been a no-go zone for anyone looking for any other kind of style, according to Nicole Hanriot. She’s the founder and designer of Beach Riot, an Orange County contemporary beach brand. “I usually get bikinis in Huntington Beach. If I want something high end, I usually go to South Coast Plaza,” Hanriot said, referring to the nearby luxury mall.

Into this place nicknamed Surf City, Darrel Adams has raised a standard for designer looks. On April 15 he is scheduled to open the first Orange County location for his West Hollywood, Calif.–headquartered boutique retailer, Kin. The merchandise mix will include Pierre Balmain, Jonathan Simkhai, Misha Collection, Zhivago, Rag & Bone, Annex, Skingraft, Matiere, Pyer Moss, Kollar, Thomas Wylde and Plein Sud. Price points will typically start at $250 and go up.

Adams grew up in Huntington Beach. He knew that the town had style and was reasonably affluent. Homes sell for $600,000 and up. Still, Adams’ female friends couldn’t think of a place where they would go and wear high heels in Surf City, he said. To offer something high end in Huntington would be an opportunity. It might have been an opportunity unmet if it wasn’t for a new development called Pacific City.

Pacific City paved the way for Adams’ decision. It opened a few blocks south of the intersection of Main and Pacific Coast Highway in November, said Linda Berman, chief marketing officer for DJM Capital Partners, with offices in Santa Barbara, Calif., and San Jose, Calif. It developed Pacific City and Bella Terra, a mall located on the other side of Huntington Beach.

Berman said that Pacific City would be influenced by the city’s surf lifestyle. But if the retail center wanted to make a splash, it would have to appeal to a much greater audience. “We were going to be a completely different kind of experience,” she said.

Kin will currently be the only high-end, designer boutique at Pacific City. Other boutiques will focus on styles with leisurely silhouettes. Current tenants are Tommy Bahama, high-end Australian swimwear brand Seafolly and Irene’s Story, a Huntington Beach–headquartered independent retailer. Joining the property soon will be Tankfarm & Co., a Seal Beach, Calif., vertical retailer that manufactures a Tankfarm & Co. line. It also sells styles from third-party brands such as Red Wings boots, Deux Ex Machina, Howe and Katin.

Pacific City also is the address for a two-story H&M. Other tenants will be Equinox, a high-end fitness-spa chain. The development also will focus on unique restaurants such as Lemonade, a popular Los Angeles–headquartered fast-casual restaurant. There’s a unique South of the Border–style restaurant called Ola Mexican Kitchen. Coming up is a chef-driven concept called Blue Gold.

Kin’s Pacific City merchandise mix will make concessions to the beach culture, Adams said. “We will offer more sunglasses, more beachwear, he said. “But our core brands will be the same. We want people to feel like they are in a Kin no matter what city they are in.”

While Kin sells designer, it also has developed a unique, high-low merchandise mix by selling streetwear. Adams said his core customer is a 35-year-old woman with a taste for edgy, designer looks. But his clientele ranges from high schoolers to their grandmothers.

The 2,600-square-foot Kin was designed by Adams’ construction company, Darrel T Adams Design & Build, which also built the West Hollywood Kin and its second location in Los Angeles’ Bel-Air neighborhood.

The Pacific City Kin will offer men’s and women’s clothing in the front room of the boutique. The back room has a view of the ocean, and one of the categories it will focus on will be shoes. Flooring will be a polished concrete, ceilings will be black, and walls will bear a cedar-wood color.