Reinvention - The Party Years

The irresistible opportunity in opening our first store was the fact that we didn't have any competition.  Bellevue was not viewed as a destination for luxury, designer shopping.  All the retail fashion players were in downtown Seattle, and we had just landed, very visibly, in the middle of it all.  The competition took note.  The other European men's fashion stores in Seattle were long established and carried all the important Italian brands, presenting them in an elegant, classic, restrained way, which appealed to their doctor, lawyer and CEO clientele, not unlike we did in Bellevue.  Doing business with any of these brands in Seattle would be blocked, even if we had distribution with the brand in our Bellevue store.  The conflicts would be challenging and who needed another store doing the same thing. We needed to PIVOT!

While still sticking to our shallow Italian fashion roots, we decided to let the Seattle competition have the "doctors and lawyers and such" and we would go after their younger, sexier brothers who were interested in going somewhere else besides the office. We would go after the brands the competition was too scared to touch, at least in Seattle.  We wanted to leave our Bellevue concept alone, because it wasn't " broke," so we launched a showy "apples and oranges" ad campaign to explain our daring new bipolar concept.

Now, I had to sell it to the Italians, and sell it I did.  I put on my charm, and my best costume, and flew to market preaching the gospel of fun designer fashion in Seattle.  Vendors seemed stunned, "wait..where is your store?" but anxious and excited to join the party. Finally a Seattle store they could sell their coolest, fastest offerings to. The designers loved to see me coming and teased me about only buying things that stretched or could be seen through. Eventually, all the brands would want an invite to the party. And PARTY we did.  With our 5000 square feet of entertainment space we introduced established brands, launched new ones, hosted artists, musicians and theater companies, always accompanied by live music, DJs or cabaret singers, and served with drinks, refreshments and smiles!  It was a fashion circus with David as the ringmaster. Everyone has a favorite David Lawrence story or memory.  Our annual Fashion Fights Aids show was the most coveted fashion ticket for many years.

In those early years we introduced amazing brands Seattle had only heard of, but never seen before:  Ferre, GFF, Verri, Hugo Boss, Donna Karan, Byblos, Burton Morris, Custo Barcelona, French Connection, Katherine Hamnett, Gene Meyer, John Bartlett, Matt Nye, Hugo by Hugo Boss, D&G, Dsquared2, Issey Miyake, Burberry, Paul Smith and of course, Versace.

Our pivot had paid off. We got everyone's attention, and the respect of the fashion community.

David of David Lawrence