For nearly 15 years, Amour Vert focused most of its business in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the company was founded by two entrepreneurs who believed that clothing needed to be more environmentally friendly.
But the women's fashion company, which describes itself as “French-inspired design, California-natural style,” is ready to conquer Southern California, with several stores set to open in the area next year. At the same time, Amour Vert is moving its headquarters from San Francisco to the heart of Los Angeles' fashion district, leasing space in The New Mart, a historic building that houses contemporary clothing showrooms and the biannual Designers and Agents trade show.
“It's a strategic realignment to maximize our opportunities,” said Dominique Mikolajczak, who was named CEO of the company last year after spending more than three years on the board. “Southern California is a fashion hub and Northern California is a technology hub.”
Amour Vert just opened its first Southern California location in Long Beach, in a relatively new open-air mall in the coastal city 30 miles south of LA. The mall, known as 2nd & PCH, is located on Pacific Coast Highway, with a massive Whole Foods Market as its anchor and several trendy shops, including Lululemon, Johnny Was and Free People.
This growing retail offering will soon be joined by stores in the Irvine Spectrum, a massive outdoor mall in Orange County, and in San Diego at the Westfield UTC shopping center. This summer, Amour Vert will open a store in Manhattan Village in the affluent Manhattan Beach neighborhood, where homes sell for at least $2 million.
Next year, the sustainable clothing and accessories label, most of which are priced under $300, will open a store in Westfield Topanga, adjacent to the affluent Calabasas and Hidden Hills neighborhoods where the Kardashians live.
At an Amour Vert store. Courtesy: Amour Vert
Before entering the Southern California market, Amour Vert had seven stores, all in Northern California, except for one store in Chicago. It seems logical that Southern California, just down the road, would be the next step in retail. However, moving the headquarters from San Francisco to LA is a dramatic move after years in Northern California, where residents have long supported environmentally friendly efforts to combat climate change.
This shift south is part of a restructuring and re-orientation of the company, which began with the creation of a cleaner logo and the redesign of stores with a more elegant look and neutral colors instead of wood-heavy elements. Additionally, fashion styles will feature finer details and higher-quality craftsmanship to enhance the look, made from recycled cashmere, linen, repurposed cotton waste, sustainable silk and upcycled fabrics.
By being based in LA, Amour Vert is closer to its fulfillment center, which is an hour east of downtown. Much of Amour Vert's clothing now arrives at the Port of Los Angeles, as apparel production has moved overseas from Northern California. Currently, about 80 percent of production is done in factories closer to fabric suppliers. For example, the recycled cashmere items added last year are made in China, and the linen styles introduced last summer are made in India. Other production locations include Portugal and Turkey.
Dominique Mikolajczak. Courtesy of Amour Vert.
With its offices in the New Mart, Amour Vert hopes to capture more wholesale opportunities as store buyers visit the building, which has more than 100 showrooms. And it will be closer to the country's largest garment manufacturing center, which employs more than 40,000 factory workers.
Amour Vert was founded by Christopher Frehsee and Linda Balti at a time when there weren't many sustainable fashion lines. Balti came up with the idea after reading that the fashion industry is one of the most polluting in the world, second only to the oil industry. Her first collection consisted of five pieces that combined her love of French fashion with the casual vibe of California, with a label whose name means “green love” in French.
The founders are no longer with the company. Currently, Amour Vert's lead investor is Greenwich, Connecticut-based Emil Capital Partners, which has tapped Mikolajczak to take the company to the next level. While the CEO is expanding the label's retail arm to Southern California, he is thinking about one day opening stores in other areas of the country. “Retail has made a huge comeback after the pandemic. I think people wanted to go out and experience things,” Mikolajczak said. “We continue to see this extremely strong retail trend, which encourages us to accelerate our expansion.”
