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Melanie Flood Mellie J showroom taps chic European lines
After spending years as a stage actress in her 20s, Melanie Flood had a hunch that fashion would be her second act. But it wasn't until the Bay Area native left New York and traveled across Europe that she realized her new role would be much more behind the scenes.
"I would always come home on holidays wearing something I had purchased abroad from a small village in the South of France or a shop in Copenhagen, and my girlfriends would say, 'That's so cute! Where can I buy it?' " says Flood, who recently returned to San Francisco after living in Dublin and working in the European and British fashion industries for four years.
"I'd always have to tell them the disappointing news that you couldn't get it here,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]. That's where my whole premise came from of bringing over designs that were new to the States."
This month,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the exuberant 35-year-old opened Mellie J, a fashion showroom in the Outer Mission that introduces European and Scandinavian womenswear designers to the West Coast.
"There's so much overlap with what retailers carry in the States, mainly because they aren't being offered things here," Flood says. "Especially for buyers who don't work for huge corporations that can send them overseas to Paris, Barcelona or Berlin - I wanted to give them a place to source interesting new labels,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and not just whatever the big commercial showrooms deemed as trendy."
Through her professional connections working as a Dublin, Ireland, brand and showroom manager, as well as a stint as head stylist for Ireland's store in Dublin, Flood recruited five diverse womenswear labels to Mellie J: Swedish brand Valerie; Eluise of Copenhagen; Tofu and Yasue Carter, both of London; and Laga of Spain. Next season,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], she plans to add two brands from Ireland and Turkey.
The collections range widely in aesthetic, from the muted color palette and ethereal silhouettes of Eluise to the bold, vintage-like prints and sharp tailoring of Laga. All are stocked in better department stores and boutiques across Europe, Asia and the Middle East and exhibit at the major buying fairs in Europe. Retail prices for most pieces range between $100 to about $800, Flood says.
Open by appointmentBecause Mellie J is a showroom, it's open only by appointment to industry buyers looking to place wholesale orders that then are sold to customers through retail stores. However, Flood plans to host biannual sample sales for the public in early November and April, after the fall-winter and spring-summer buying seasons end.
While most showrooms are concentrated in New York and Los Angeles' garment districts, Flood decided to headquarter her business in San Francisco, which she says is less competitive than other fashion centers and has more of a European vibe. The Nob Hill resident is familiar with the market, having worked for three years as a store manager at Heidi Says on Fillmore Street.
"I was looking for something with a really vintage, Old World feel," says Flood of the showroom,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], which she designed with the help of her mother. Tofu,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], for example, which is sold in London's hyper-trendy Topshop,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], has quirky, whimsical details that include oversize bows, large polka-dot prints and unusual proportions.
"Sometimes when I was acting, I was more concerned about what I was wearing than who I was playing," says Flood. "I was always really into the costumes."
New fashion resourceLocal buyers such as , owner of La Boutique: l'Art et la Mode in Jackson Square, say they welcome the new fashion resource to the city. While she typically does most of her own buying for La Boutique in Europe, Harari says it would be convenient to buy locally, avoiding costly shipping, customs and other logistical challenges associated with bringing merchandise into the country.
"I have not heard of any of the brands she is carrying, which is a good thing," says Harari, a former merchandising and marketing manager for H Paris stores. "It means she's finding things that are new and original. . The market in San Francisco isn't that big, and what makes a store unique here is the exclusivity of the brands."
,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], manager for the Co-op department at Barneys New York in San Francisco,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], says a showroom opening in San Francisco would be attractive to the local market, where customers are always searching for the "next cool find,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]," whether it's a one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry or an artisanal chocolate.
Demand for green"I could see us carrying a couple of her lines - ones that look very ,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], very ," says Feldman, who works with Barneys buyers in New York to make decisions about collections in the downtown San Francisco store. "If she wanted to elevate her selection to that next level,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], she should consider adding a green focus, or labels that are all organic,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], which is a huge trend in the city."
For now, Flood plans to tailor her offerings to San Francisco buyers by working with some of the designers to create custom pieces and choose fabrics that work for San Francisco's changeable weather and casual lifestyle. It's that extra step of backstage involvement with a label that she finds most satisfying.
As for the idea of opening a boutique that's open year-round to the public?
"I've been all over the world, and San Francisco is still my favorite city," Flood says. "So yes,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], I've considered opening a boutique here,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], but I want to see how the showroom concept goes first. I do have a domain name already, so I've definitely thought about it."相关的主题文章：

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