Construction has begun on the first floor of Bloomingdale`s at 900 N. Michigan Ave. for the A/X Armani Exchange shop slated to open in early March. The shop, one of 16 that will open across the country this spring, features men`s and women`s jeans and other casual clothes designed by Giorgio Armani. Some 80 percent of the apparel will retail for under $100.
The shop, which will imitate the A/X flagship store in New York`s SoHo, will occupy the space at the far west end of Bloomingdale`s, an area that previously housed fine jewelry and junior coats. (Fine jewelry has moved to another location adjacent to costume jewelry, while coats have been absorbed into the junior area; both departments remain on the first floor.)
According to Bloomingdale`s spokeswoman Jennifer Fontanals, the 2,000-square-foot store-within-a-store will be partially enclosed to give it the feeling of a separate shop. It will have a metal truss ceiling, angled tables (for easy access), and lots of open shelving, where merchandise will be stacked by color and style. Visualize a Gap site that`s spacious and airy with lots of room between displays-but in Armani neutral colors and refined woods- and that`s the mood.
Sort of.
A nuts-and-bolts signature
In the SoHo store, the floors are weathered wood; wood counters are bleached a soft gray; metals are ”rusticated”; dressing rooms have sliding doors made of metal mesh and vertical lights, hidden behind mirrors, that offer a subdued, flattering light.
Packaging is unique; T-shirts and smallish items are wrapped in a beige butcher paper (old-fashioned butcher wrap, not clear plastic wrap and Styrofoam) and sealed with a sticker showing a nut-and-bolt (the store`s logo). Larger purchases, such as jackets, go into a bag with handles made of clothesline rope. (The same type of rope is used to tie stacks of jeans, which are placed around pillars.
The design of the A/X shops was conceived by Armani in collaboration with Naomi Leff & Associates (the firm that designed Ralph Lauren`s Polo store in the Rhinelander mansion on New York`s Madison Avenue).
Best-sellers
In New York, sellouts and most popular items have included indigo jersey separates (tights, bodysuits), wide leg jeans, cotton poplin shirts, denim engineers` jackets (oversized, square-cut, with big patch pockets). Many menswear items have turned out to be unisex, as women have snapped up the relaxed, easy-fitting shirts, T-shirts and sweatshirts.
The Armani Jeans labeled collection has been in existence since 1981; it currently does $160 million in retail business worldwide. (Locally, clothes labled Armani Jeans have been available at the Giorgio Armani shop on Oak Street for the past three years. Men`s items there include denim shirts beginning at $75, khaki pleated trousers at $68 and jeans beginning at $80;
women`s Armani Jeans clothing, carried for two years, includes T-shirts at $58, cotton twill skirts at $75, plus jeans and accessories.)
What`s new about the A/X Armani Exchange is the retailing concept-a store devoted to casual clothes (only with the Armani Jeans label) at affordable prices (particularly compared to his other lines) in an easy-to-shop, casual area. The idea is based on the old P/X shops that carried varied merchandise at low prices.
Additionally, the line of clothes has been broadened extensively, including things like little black cotton knit dresses with spaghetti straps
($90) and even jewelry (a unisex brass I.D. bracelet at $51; printed cotton bangles, $30; denim and natural linen earrings, $26); in the New York store, earrings and other small jewelry is displayed in tiny birds` nests. Cute.
The opening date of the Bloomingdale`s A/X shop will be determined by construction progress. (Guests will be invited to the opening via unusual invitations; they`ll be asked to bring them to the new shop, where they`ll exchange them for an Armani surprise. Also cute.)
