Everafter, The Westside to Expand to West Coast
CALI COOL: Intermix cofounder Haro Keledjian and his wife and former Intermix fashion director Sari Sloane Keledjian continue to push on with the expansion of their latest retail concepts, The Westside and Everafter.
The company recently opened the California lifestyle concept shop The Westside on Madison Avenue, which is being followed up with The Westside and children’s boutique Everafter set to go to Brentwood next week at 256 26th Street. The openings mark the first time the two concepts will be on the West Coast.
“The reason for opening in Brentwood for us seemed like a very natural fit [and] very close to how TriBeCa feels in New York where it’s a bit more like a microcosm of the city,” Sloane Keledjian said. “It’s family oriented, high net worth. The lifestyle is where there’s a lot of outdoors. You’re walking around. You’re from school to lunch to work to dinner, but in a much more laid back way.”
The couple, which sold Intermix to Gap Inc. for $130 million in 2013, launched their two latest retail concepts late last year.
Since starting Everafter, they’ve found success in the tween market — an aspect of the business they’ve learned there’s strong appetite for and a valuable customer that has more freedom than younger shoppers to choose their own clothing and enough of a social calendar to drive the need for multiple outfits.
“There’s a void. There’s not much to compare to so we are definitely going after targeting and being more strategic about gaining that older [tween] customer before they’re sizing out and wearing these adult clothes,” Sloane Keledjian said.
The company launched e-commerce in November for Everafter and is considering it now for the Westside, she added.
The retailers are also being more thoughtful about the assortments at the regional level.
“It’s different than Intermix where we were national and we had so many stores,” she said. “We’re really catering to different climates, different cities and we know with Los Angeles, we’re definitely doing the buy more specific to the weather. We’ll definitely learn from there.”
With the opening of the two California stores, the business will total seven locations. The goal in the near term would be to hit 10 stores, although no other doors after Brentwood are currently planned.
“We’ve had a busy year,” she said, adding the store concepts could definitely make sense in places such as Beverly Hills or West Hollywood.
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