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FREE OF NORDSTROM, FAÇONNABLE TAKES WING

By Rodger Brown

Shortly after Nordstrom announced in June that it would entertain bids for its Façonnable division, fashion blog Styledash posed the question: “Will Nordstrom shoppers notice if Façonnable disappears?” The responses summarized succinctly both the challenge and the opportunity facing Façonnable’s new owner, which bought the company in July.

“Boring! Yawn!!” wrote one blogger. “Is it bad that I’ve never heard of Façonnable and I shop at Nordstrom all the time?” wrote another. Even a defender of the French apparel company could offer only a tepid response, noting that while the clothes were “a bit conservative for me,” she did indeed love their cologne. When Nordstrom bought Façonnable in 2000, the department store giant was hoping for better, of course.

In 1950 a tailor in the French city of Nice opened a shop, which 11 years later he passed on to his son, who renamed the business Façonnable, from the French façonner, meaning to fashion or create. The company remains based in Nice today.

In 1989 Nordstrom had secured the exclusive rights to distribute the brand in the U.S., and, after buying the company outright in 2000, outlined ambitious plans to open as many as 20 Façonnable boutiques on these shores, in addition to building on Façonnable’s thriving business in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

Nordstrom opened four units before realizing it had enough of its own challenges trying to survive as a department store in a world of proliferating specialty shops. In July Nordstrom sold Façonnable to the Beirut, Lebanon-based M1 Group, a private company whose enterprises include telecommunications and real estate.

During its nearly seven years under Nordstrom, Façonnable maintained its own operations team and expanded to 37 boutiques in Europe, and sold wholesale to stores in Europe, Latin America and Asia, racking up about $220 million in annual sales, on average. But in the U.S., the brand was exclusively available at Nordstrom. With the department store parent unable or unwilling to let Façonnable increase its own store count in the U.S., the brand was stymied. “Nordstrom bought Façonnable to give it a branded business, a branded product that was European, high quality and not overpriced,” said Harry Bernard, the executive vice president and chief marketing officer at San Francisco-based retail consulting firm Colton Bernard. “They got rid of it because it had no place to grow.”

Now Façonnable finds itself with a deep-pocketed new owner that considers the brand to be just the first of many acquisitions it plans to make in luxury retail. “We intend to invest in it for the long term to break into new markets, new product lines,” said Azmi Mikati, M1 Group’s chief executive, in a press release when the deal was announced.

The first step in the march to global triumph will be an aggressive rollout of Façonnable stores in the U.S. next spring, says Façonnable CEO Mark Brashear. “It’s an exciting time for Façonnable,” said Brashear, who spent 17 years as an executive at Nordstrom before taking the helm at Façonnable five years ago. “Given our new shareholder and the brand’s strategic commitment to grow the U.S. retail market, the primary focus of that growth in the short-to-medium term will be through freestanding Façonnable boutiques.”

The existing U.S. boutiques are in Beverly Hills and Costa Mesa, Calif.; Miami; and New York City.

“There are many large, metropolitan areas that aren’t represented with Façonnable boutiques,” Brashear said from his office in Nice. “We are looking at those key urban areas where we see large potential. Those will include cities such as Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, among others.”

For the past year Brashear and his team have been working on a new boutique concept alongside New York City-based designer Jeffrey Hutchison, who has also done work for Barneys New York.

Brashear says the plans are to launch the stores, which will measure between 2,500 and 4,000 square feet, in Europe and the U.S. simultaneously. Though the priority is on the U.S. market, he says, the company is keeping growth elsewhere in the world in mind. “Internationally, our expansion plans are focused on entering into two key regional markets, which are London and Milan, with freestanding boutiques,” he said. “Those will be flagships, likely in the 4000-to-5,000-square-foot range of selling space, to fully showcase the breadth of our brand and our offer.”

Brashear says Façonnable will be expanding its line of branded accessories and eventually launching Façonnable Home, which would feature furniture and accessories for the home.

In Europe Façonnable first became fashionable when its custom tuxedos became a popular choice for 1960s glitterati attending the Cannes Film Festival. Its boutiques in such sexy destinations as Marseilles, Monte Carlo and Saint-Tropez only added to the brand’s cachet. Bernard says Façonnable’s interesting history offers the chain a number of opportunities to reposition itself. “They could go European classic, or they could go European preppy — it’s up to them to decide, but they’ve definitely got the potential.”

Brashear seems to be well aware of that potential, and as he prepares to launch the new look, he is careful to position the chain to avoid its being pigeonholed too early. “We think the consumers are going to respond well to our style, because it’s not purely fashion,” he said. “It’s really a lifestyle. It’s understated elegance, it’s sportswear chic. We’re not really trying to compete in the luxury segment.” He describes Façonnable instead as haut de gamme, a phrase whose closest equivalent in English is probably “affordable luxury.”

Combine modest price points with French styling, and the brand will resonate with customers in America, Brashear says. “Façonnable has a genuine authenticity,” he said. “It has a heritage here in the French Riviera which we treasure, and it is, in fact, one of our key points of difference in terms of our styling sensibility, taste and the lifestyle we strive to target for our customers.”