NEW YORK — For decades, shoppers have traveled to Bloomingdale's big midtown store, seeking the trendiest fashions. Now the retailer is going in search of the trendiest shoppers, opening a store in downtown SoHo where many young hipsters can be found.
The new six-level store, which opened Saturday and has one-fifth of the selling space of the 59th Street flagship Bloomingdale's, will focus on young men's and women's fashions and accessories.
"There is definitely a downtown beat versus an uptown beat," said Michael Gould, chairman and CEO of Bloomingdale's, a division of Federated Department Stores Inc.
Gould said the midtown store, which generates annual sales of just under $500 million, rarely gets traffic from 14th Street and below, where many young, well-heeled New Yorkers live.
Opening a second store in a high-fashion neighborhood also reflects Bloomingdale's ongoing efforts to re-establish itself as a trendsetting retailer. While Bloomie's defined high fashion retailing in the 1970s and '80s with its exclusive merchandise, by the late 1990s it had started to resemble too many other department stores, deeply discounting its clothes and selling many of the same styles as its competitors.
Over the past two years Bloomingdale's has focused more on exclusive upscale merchandise, and that has lifted sales, Gould said.
The idea of a downtown Bloomie's appeals to shoppers like Faye Rogaski, 29, who said she does most of her shopping in small shops in SoHo mainly for convenience and because she likes the fashion there. She rarely ventures to Bloomingdale's midtown store, but she figures she'll do all of her shopping at the new branch because it has a more flexible return policy than smaller stores.
"I think it is great that Bloomingdale's is adapting to the clientele," she said. "Bloomingdale's is one of those tried and true department stores that I trust."
Gould said the downtown store looks more like a specialty clothing store than a department store, and unlike its other branches will not carry furniture or wedding dresses. It will carry some home furnishings.
The store, which marries details of an old cast iron SoHo factory with more modern materials like Bloomingdale's signature black and marble checkerboard floors, has a more eclectic feel than the midtown store. There are floor to ceiling windows — a very different atmosphere from the windowless selling floors of most department stores.
The new store offers merchandise at a wide range of prices. There are $158 fringed plaid mini skirts from Marc by Marc Jacobs, $295 two-ounce jars of Creme de la Mer, and $1,335 Chloe sporty handbags, but there are also more affordable items like swimsuits from Miss Sixty for $89.
And the merchandise won't be a carbon copy of the midtown offerings — the fifth floor in SoHo will highlight up-and-coming designers, including names like Derek Lam who are not carried at Bloomingdale's. There are also a number of cosmetic brands such as Prada, Creme de la Mer and Jo Malone not currently carried at the other stores.
Customers will also be able to get a head start on must-haves for fall. Fashion company Theory created styles exclusively for the new Bloomingdale's; they're showcased in its windows.
Fashion observers have their own opinions about how successful the new store can be.
David Wolfe, creative director of New York-based Doneger Group, a merchandise buying office, says, "all they are doing is getting up to the fashion speed that they lost."
"Just by having the right labels isn't going to do it," he said. He noted there are a lot more stores "in the playing field," he said.
But Candace Corlette, a principal at WSL Strategic Ltd., a retail consultancy, says she thinks it will "contribute to a new personality of Bloomingdale's."
"It will do a lot to make Bloomingdale's magical again," she said.