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Feature Article, November 2005 All In The Mix
Fashion retailer Intermix is successfully expanding with a unique merchandising strategy that combines designer clothing with fashion basics and accessories.
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Intermix's store on Madison Avenue in New York City.
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After 12 years in the women's fashion business, brothers Khajak and Haro Keledjian have just about perfected their concept and created a powerful growth vehicle, called Intermix. With 10 boutiques in the United States and three more in Japan, the company's total sales are up 75 percent over 2004, with five new locations since December 2004. It's a significant achievement for Khajak Keledjian, who had no retail experience when he started the company. But with a natural fashion instinct and a good eye, he put together a unique merchandising concept, catering to customers who are driven by the look rather than by price points or brand names. Intermix blends high and low price points, established names and developing designers, trendy pieces and luxurious staples. The store carries both established and developing designers, including Chloé, Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana, Stella McCartney, Matthew Williamson, Diane Von Furstenberg, KORS by Michael Kors, and Seven for all Mankind. The merchandise mix also features luxury accessories by Chloé, Balenciaga, Mulberry and Sonia Rykiel.
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Intermix's location at Florida's Bal Harbour Shops.
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“That's why it's called Intermix,” says Keledjian. “We mix within. We don't have any direct competition because nobody else is able to do what we do. Usually most other retailers are composed of one or two locations, or they are more luxury focused so they don't have that element of mixing casual jeans and t-shirts with more luxury category brands.” The brothers also had a knack for choosing great locations, targeting areas where there was a void. In 1993, they opened the first Intermix boutique on lower Fifth Avenue in New York's Flatiron District. Today, the company has five boutiques in New York City, a shop in Washington D.C., two prime locations in South Florida, a shop located on Boston's upscale Newbury Street and a boutique in Southampton.
Intermix can be found on more street corners than in shopping centers, but in those fashion-forward cities that don't have the right street locations, the company is looking for the best, high-end centers. The store is currently located in the Bal Harbour Shops in Miami Beach and has signed a lease with Phipps Plaza in Atlanta for a November opening. “Our strategy is more geared toward street locations; however, there are certain areas where those don't exist,” notes Keledjian. “Like in Atlanta, there is no high-end shopping avenue, so when it comes to those areas, we try to approach the centers.”
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An exterior rendering of Intermix's Soho location.
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Now that Intermix is a formidable force in the retail market, the brothers plan to grow the company by four stores a year, one per quarter. The retailer just opened a location in New York's Soho neighborhood last month, a shop in Georgetown last spring and one in Southampton last summer. Future locations are in the works. “We're working our way from east to west — looking in major cities like Washington and Chicago, but nothing has been finalized yet,” Keledjian says.
The average Intermix store runs between 3,000 and 4,000 square feet, and new stores are being designed by L.E.F.T. Design, a New York City-based design firm.
“L.E.F.T. is a very forward-thinking company,” says Keledjian. “The basis of our new store layout is a woman's body shape, so everything is very fluid, soft and curvy — no hard edges.”
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A rendering of Intermix's latest location in New York's Soho.
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The new design also incorporates customized fixturing and lighting that is unique and unexpected. Every store features a different layout according to the local market. For example, the Southampton store has a beachy, village feel as opposed to the Fifth Avenue location, which is very urban. The shop in Soho is modern and cool, yet feminine at the same time.
Though Intermix is the fastest growing specialty multi-mix brand, pulling in an average $2,000 in sales per square foot, the company is still going to wait for that perfect location.
“We're very careful about choosing locations because we're not expanding, we're growing, and there's a big difference,” notes Keledjian. “The location has to have a unique way of adding value to the brand.”
— Susan H. Fishman
©2005 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.
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