February 14, 2006
Old photos of Old Orchard Shopping Center
Want to see how Old Orchard looked in the 1950s (pre-Westfield)? Thanks to a blog called Malls of America (catchy title), you can see retro photographs of various shopping centers from around the country.
The author has published two entries on Old Orchard. The first features a historical shot of Marshall Field's (soon to be Macy's -- blah). The second image depicts what I believe is now the intersection of The Park and The Garden looking north. The historical shot features a lot more trees!
Posted by Tannerman at 04:01 PM
October 13, 2005
Now Open: Sisley
Back in June the construction walls first went up for Sisley. Well, the store is now open down in The Garden. Enjoy!
Posted by Tannerman at 09:00 AM
June 29, 2005
Coming Soon: Sisley
According to their website (which is rather risqué), "Sisley features men and women's collections whose basic objective is to be always on the same wavelength as those who follow fashion and keep themselves abreast of the trendiest tendencies. The collections, in fact, include sporty and casual wear, formal and elegant dresses - therefore an all-round offering for every moment of the day and for various needs."
Um, OK. They are owned by the Benetton Group (you know, the United Colors of Benetton folks) and are "the Group's most trend-setting brand, at the forefront of fashion." As Old Orchard already has a United Colors of Benetton store (located on Pear Lane), Sisley makes sense as a new addition. Look for it soon down in The Garden.
Posted by Tannerman at 05:22 PM
Now Open: Lacoste
The Croc has ripped through those temporary barricades and opened! It's situated in a pretty cozy location in The Garden (next to the new Rogers & Hollands, maybe even in their old location), one of my more favorite "off the main path" parts of Old Orchard. Hopefully this tucked-away location will provide them enough food traffic to succeed.
Posted by Tannerman at 04:13 PM
May 06, 2005
New Location: PacSun
Not too long ago, the rather large Record Town/Sunday Matinee which was located in The Vineyard closed for good. It was located right next to Theaters 7-12. But hey, who still shops at record stores in the mall? There's nothing but overpriced goods to be found there, thus, they're closed.
The small Pacific Sunwear of California location that was previously found in The Garden has moved into the now-subdivided Record Town/Sunday Matinee storefront. Rebranded simply as PacSun, this is a larger store in a far more visible area.
Posted by Tannerman at 04:52 PM
May 03, 2005
Will Old Orchard get FAT?
Ah, you have to love Paul Pressler. He's currently the President and CEO of Gap, Inc. But before that, he spent 10 years running the Disney theme park empire into the ground. If that was his goal, he did a fine job. You see, he wasn't a creative guy. He was a business-oriented, retail guy, having gained favor at Disney via his successful reign with The Disney Store. Eventually, he left Disney due to various factors and started at Gap in September 2002.
What does this have to do with Old Orchard? Well, for one thing, the center already has a Banana Republic, in addition to combination Gap/Gap Body and Gap Kids/Baby Gap stores. Old Orchard also offers Talbots and J. Jill. Why mention those retail locations? Because Gap is launching a fourth store brand targeted directly at the same market... with Chicago being a testing ground for 4 new stores called Forth & Towne. The name refers to the company's fourth store brand (after Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy) and "Towne" is supposed to convey a sense of community.
Chicago a 4-store lab for Gap's Forth brand
Becky Yerak
May 3, 2005The Chicago market soon will be a retail laboratory for Gap Inc.
When the San Francisco-based merchant begins testing its Forth & Towne format in Chicago this fall, it'll try new approaches to see what works and what doesn't. Four Forth & Towne stores will open in yet-to-be-announced malls and shopping centers in the Chicago area. A fifth will open in New York.
"We'll experiment with different ideas across the five stores to understand what really resonates and then apply what we learn to future openings," Gap Chief Executive Officer Paul Pressler said in an April 21 conference call. "This includes testing the right combination of store experiences, styles, quality, fit and value."
Finding the winning formula for Gap's fourth retail concept is important because Forth & Towne seeks the affections of women who are 35 and older
That demographic is increasingly coveted by retailers because it's growing rapidly and earns the highest average income of any age group of women, Pressler said. Typical customers at the company's namesake chain are 18 to 34. It also owns Banana Republic and Old Navy. While younger women typically shop at specialty stores, older ones tend to default to traditional department stores. "They don't feel there's a viable alternative," Pressler said.
Forth & Towne prices will fall somewhere between Gap and Banana Republic. The test stores range in size from 8,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet. That's bigger than other specialty retailers wooing that demographic.
For example, Janeville stores, launched last year by Gymboree Corp. for women in their mid-30s and older, are 3,000 square feet. The typical store of Chico's FAS Inc., whose clothes are known for their forgiving fit, is 2,600 square feet.
Stocking a wider array of sizes will be a Forth & Towne hallmark. "We want to make sure we offer a broad size range" so we can serve shoppers with different needs, Pressler said.
The fitting rooms will be in the center of the store, surrounded by "neighborhoods" of merchandise. Gap executives, echoing recent comments by Federated Department Stores Inc. CEO Terry Lundgren, are waxing poetic about how a decent dressing room helps convert store traffic into sales.
Gap expects to have about 30 Forth & Towne stores through 2007.
The chain is being developed by Gap veterans and new talent based in New York. "They're functioning like a start-up," Pressler said.
Chicago was picked as a test market because it's centrally located and has a "great demographic" of women 35 and older, a Gap spokeswoman said.
Source: Chicago Tribune
No word has been made yet regarding which shopping centers in the Chicago area will get the 4 test stores. Also odd is the spelling of the name "Forth & Towne". As mentioned by Snarkmarket.com, they misspelled both "fourth" and "town". Go figure. And over at SnarkHunting.com, it's illustrated how Gap was smart to use the ampersand in the new store name rather than spelling out the word, as the initals for the chain would then reflect Forth And Towne. Would that really describe the 35+ women's market?
We here at the Observer will keep you posted on future developments!
Posted by Tannerman at 01:55 PM
April 28, 2005
The Croc comes to Old Orchard
Do you remember back in the 1980s how it was so "in" to wear a shirt with that goofy crocodile logo on it? Well, that stuff was made by a company called Izod.
Interestingly, the Izod brand was split in 1995 and sold to Phillips-Van Heusen, becoming crocodile-free. The brand that retained the "croc" was Lacoste, a French apparel company based in Paris.
Their namesake is Jean René Lacoste, a famous French tennis player, businessman, and innovator. He was nicknamed "the crocodile" by fans (ah, there's where that came from!). According to Wikipedia, he is now mostly known as being the namesake of the Lacoste tennis shirt, which he invented in 1929.
I mention all of this because Old Orchard is going to be opening a Lacoste store in Spring 2005, according to their construction walls located in The Garden section. The Chicago Tribune recently published this story about the upcoming opening:
Lacoste's crocodile scares up new shops
Becky Yerak
Published April 19, 2005Lacoste, the crocodile-logo polo shirts that were practically issued to people coming of age in the 1980s, is opening its second Illinois store next month in Westfield Old Orchard in Skokie.
After falling out of favor in the grungy 1990s, Lacoste is back, thanks to a resurgence of retro, preppy dressing. It's now a $1 billion brand globally, and U.S. sales rose 125 percent in 2004 and are expected to rise 60 percent in 2005. In 2001, Lacoste hired its first creative director and in 2003 had its first runway show.
The French luxury sportswearmaker has 28 stores and plans for five more in 2005, including Skokie, Las Vegas and New York's Soho neighborhood. Its other local store is in Chicago's Water Tower Place.
...Don't confuse Lacoste with Izod. The two names had been interchangeable, but Izod now represents a croc-less, lower-end polo brand sold in such retailers as J.C. Penney Co. In contrast, Lacoste polo shirts start at $70 at retailers such as Marshall Field's. New for this season are women's Lacoste swimsuits starting at $125.
Lacoste is part of a wave of new tenants at Old Orchard as 10-year leases expire. Other tenants include Sephora, Sigrid Olsen, Landau and Sisley. Among those departing: Lady Foot Locker, Sweet Factory, GNC and Christopher & Banks.
Source: Chicago Tribune
Posted by Tannerman at 11:22 AM