Ruehl 925
New store at Woodfield: Ruehl 925. It bills itself as business casual style meets Greenwich Village attitude. The way I understand it is that it's a new concept store owned by Abercrombie and Fitch. This is the first Ruehl 925 to hit the Midwest. Catherine and I checked it out while we were shopping because it caught our eye. Instead of the usual storefront, it's a bungalow sort of facade with salespeople outside holding flowers and welcoming people. Inside, it's divided up into rooms like a house. Think of J.Crew meets Hollister/Abercrombie meets Banana meets Kenneth Cole. Yeah, that kind of nice. It's subtle lighting and none of that pulsing rock you get when you go to the teeny-bopper stores.
It's a bit more expensive than Abercrombie's main store; it's also a lot more mature. That means no baby tees. It's also the only Ruehl 925 in the Midwest so far.
This is Abercrombie's time to expand. Like Gap, they are stretching their brand name to different markets. They're adding this market to their current 727 Abercrombie stores, 171 Abercrombie Kids stores, and 197 Hollister stores. Seems to me that they're doing their branding in a more mature fashion also...none of that controversy that happened with their Abercrombie magazines and suggestive/racial t-shirts. I didn't even know that Abercrombie was Ruehl 925's parent company until I did some background research. We'll see how Ruehl 925 performs.
In other news, if you haven't heard by now, Gap is also extending their brand name into a new niche store for people in their middle ages. Their new concept store will be called "Forth and Towne" and the main market will be in Chicago with only one other store in NY, I believe. I think this might be a flop actually...it doesn't sound very trendy. Sounds matronly, actually. With all the questionable clothing at Gap nowadays, I think Gap needs to take a look at itself and go back to the old days when it was just all classic clothing that served all age groups. That was their brand, and I never really understood why they went away from it.
It's a bit more expensive than Abercrombie's main store; it's also a lot more mature. That means no baby tees. It's also the only Ruehl 925 in the Midwest so far.
This is Abercrombie's time to expand. Like Gap, they are stretching their brand name to different markets. They're adding this market to their current 727 Abercrombie stores, 171 Abercrombie Kids stores, and 197 Hollister stores. Seems to me that they're doing their branding in a more mature fashion also...none of that controversy that happened with their Abercrombie magazines and suggestive/racial t-shirts. I didn't even know that Abercrombie was Ruehl 925's parent company until I did some background research. We'll see how Ruehl 925 performs.
In other news, if you haven't heard by now, Gap is also extending their brand name into a new niche store for people in their middle ages. Their new concept store will be called "Forth and Towne" and the main market will be in Chicago with only one other store in NY, I believe. I think this might be a flop actually...it doesn't sound very trendy. Sounds matronly, actually. With all the questionable clothing at Gap nowadays, I think Gap needs to take a look at itself and go back to the old days when it was just all classic clothing that served all age groups. That was their brand, and I never really understood why they went away from it.
Labels: abercrombie, banana republic, concept store, forth and towne, gap, hollister, jcrew, kenneth cole, ruehl 925, woodfield
posted by Cherie at 02:27
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home