New trend in teenage fashion calls for different marketing approach Christmas lights hang from the thatched roof that covers the small porch. Two teenage girls curl up on oversized armchairs with magazines. A surfboard, the words “peace” and “love” scribbled across its surface, leans against the wall behind them. It is a beach scene you might see in any seaside community. Except this scene is in Westfield’s Shoppingtown Topanga, and there is no surf for miles. The porch is the entrance to Hollister Co., a new retail concept opened by Abercrombie & Fitch Inc. in early December. The Topanga mall store, the only Hollister Co. unit to open in California, is one of four outlets in the pilot program. Others are in Ohio, Atlanta and New Jersey. If successful, Abercrombie & Fitch could roll out 500 such stores. “Hollister Co. is the bridge between the abercrombie (chain) and the Abercrombie & Fitch stores,” said Hampton Carney, spokesman for the company. “The lifestyle of the high school student is different from the college student.” Hollister Co. is designed to fit between the company’s two other chains, Abercrombie & Fitch for college students and abercrombie for kids aged 7 to 14. The stores’ selection of sportswear is better suited to skateboarding than cruising coffee houses, and its prices are significantly lower than the Abercrombie & Fitch line. The company chose the beach-house ambiance hoping to entice kids to hang out. Others see a deeper meaning in the surfer metaphor. The name is a reference to the Hollister Ranch, a well-known surfing area near Santa Barbara.”Young people look back at those days as the golden age of youth,” said Gerald Celente, publisher of The Trends Journal, a publication of The Trends Research Institute, a consulting group in Rhinebeck, N.Y. The in-between generation The in-between generation Since transforming its image from the 100-year-old Victorian shop that outfitted Teddy Roosevelt for his trips to Africa and sold guns to Ernest Hemingway, the company has grown to a $1-billion-plus business with 325 Abercrombie & Fitch stores and another 71 abercrombie units for kids. Abercrombie & Fitch caters to college-aged shoppers with hip sportswear that draws on the store’s rugged, outdoors roots. Hollister Co. is designed to offer a similar fashion appeal with pricing and other details better suited to younger shoppers. And early indications, at least, suggest the store has hit the right note with teens. “It’s sooo Abercrombie,” said Harmony Costa, a teenage shopper perusing the racks who was unaware of the store’s link to Abercrombie & Fitch. “(But) Abercrombie is more preppy and it’s a little more expensive.” On a recent evening, Abercrombie & Fitch was selling lamb’s wool sweaters for $39 and cotton pants for $44.50. Meanwhile, Hollister Co., just across the way in the Topanga mall, was retailing a different lamb’s wool sweater style for $29 and jeans for $34.50. Along with the lower prices, the mood of the stores is also geared to younger consumers who often don’t want the assistance of sales help and would rather meander through the displays unnoticed. Rather than walking the aisles and offering assistance, salespeople who are not stocking or tidying displays can be found seated on the oversized armchairs placed around the store or on the porch. Some read magazines, but they’re often interrupted by friends who have been hanging out at the mall and stop in to say hello. “We wanted to create an environment where the customer feels at home in the store, and it almost becomes difficult to discern who is the customer and who is the salesperson,” said Carney. “That’s the whole idea behind (the chairs).” Alana Fields wasn’t even certain the porch was a store entrance when she approached on a recent visit to the mall and saw the salespeople seated on the chairs outside. “It was kind of interesting,” she said. “It’s like, chill.” In what would likely be music to the company’s ears, the 22-year-old thought the store was “cute,” and similar to Abercrombie & Fitch, but too young for her tastes. “All of it looks too small for me,” she said. Pundits point out that the hip hop fashion that has prevailed among younger consumers is on the wane, and the next wave appears to take its lead from skateboarding, snowboarding and surfing. While the surfer lifestyle popularized by the Beach Boys a couple of decades ago belongs to the baby boom generation, Generation Y has latched on to the newer versions popularized by extreme sports. “Today, it’s more surfboarding and snowboarding,” said Bob Walberg, chief equity analyst for Briefing.com, a financial analysis company. “You see more and more the popularity of these sports increasing, and the fashion is a tremendous growth market in fashion right now.”
