Los Angeles Designer Jonathan Simkhai Has Retail Expansion in Mind
Jonathan Simkhai’s business plan is to have 10 stores in his retail fleet by the end of next year to show off his collections of womenswear, menswear and accessories.
He is already getting closer to that goal. Last month, he opened a 700-square-foot outpost at Highland Park Village in Dallas after having a pop-up store there for a year. By October, there should be a Simkhai nameplate in the heart of Beverly Hills, taking over a location previously occupied by Scotch & Soda.
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Once the Beverly Hills location is open at 365 North Beverly Drive, there will be four stores in the company’s retail lineup, which includes a location in the SoHo district of New York City and another footprint in Southampton, New York.
There’s more to come from the Los Angeles designer, known for his sleek and sexy styles that amplify handcraft, who grew up in New York and studied at both Parsons and the Fashion Institute of Technology. He’s contemplating a second store in New York City, a second in California, most likely in Orange County, and scouting locations in Florida around Miami, Palm Beach and Naples.
Retail comes naturally to the designer. “I’m like a shop kid. I started working at a retail outlet when I was 10 years old. Later, when I was 14, I worked at a clothing store called Havana Jeans in Scarsdale, New York,” said Simkhai, who started in the stock room before graduating to going on buying trips.
Now Simkhai is using that experience to mold his own. He loves being on the shop floor, talking with the customers, putting outfits together and advising on how to wear a certain piece. “I have found so much satisfaction just watching the customer, talking about the inspiration for the collection and how I envision them wearing it,” he said.
Establishing his own retail chain is just part of Simkhai’s growth plan for his label started in 2010 in New York when he was 25. His early foray into fashion was helped when he became part of the CFDA Fashion Incubator program, which supports the next generation of fashion designers in New York City. That led him to be nominated for the International Woolmark Prize in 2014 and his first runway show in the fall of 2015, the same year he won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award, taking home $300,000.
By 2018, he had moved his corporate headquarters to West Hollywood, California, in a 5,500-square-foot space on La Cienega that currently doubles as a store in the front. But expansion plans and growth (he has 60 employees now) have made it necessary to move the store to Beverly Hills. Last year, the company registered $55 million in revenues.
Beyond his own stores, Simkhai sells to a number of wholesale accounts, including Saks, Bergdorf Goodman, Kirna Zabete, Moda Operandi, Net-a-porter, Harvey Nichols, Lane Crawford, Selfridges and Harrods. Dresses are still the strongest-selling category in the designer’s collections, whether that be evening or day dresses. One of the designer’s creations recently got the red-carpet treatment when actor Mindy Kaling wore a Simkhai evening gown to the Metropolitan Museum of Art gala in May.
The off-white ensemble had a horsehair cage forming an hourglass-shaped bodice over a floor-length skirt. The gown featured 6,000 to 7,000 mixed mother-of-pearl, silver crystal, sequin and bugle beads. Simkhai, who met Kaling through their mutual talent agency CAA, accompanied the actor to the gala.
Simkhai decided four years ago to inject a bit of California casual to his sophisticated lineup and added denim to his collection. It was a hard sell to his established wholesale accounts, he said, who pegged him more as a dress designer than a blue-jeans maker.
“We kept telling our retailers, ‘We’re doing denim now.’ And they were like, ‘We don’t really know you as a denim brand. We know you as a dress brand or a tops-and-dresses brand.’ I told them our denim is good because we are close to all the best wash houses and sewing facilities in Los Angeles,” he recounted
So Simkhai stocked it for his own stores “and denim is one of our bestselling items.”
In June, Simkhai took his first leap into menswear, retailing for $300 to $1,200, with pieces meant to stand the test of time, including a double-breasted tech twill wool-blend suit, a denim jacquard camp shirt, an updated trench coat, and a jacket and track pant in a poly twill blend.
“Menswear is definitely a very different thought process,” the designer admitted. “But I love being able to make something for myself, my brothers and my dad.”
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