H&M set for flagship store to open in downtown L.A.
Shop will be the first on the West Coast to feature a full range of the retailer’s offerings.
H&M is set to open its f lagship store at the Figat7th shopping complex Thursday, marking the Swedish fast fashion giant’s first entry into downtown Los Angeles.
The roughly 32,000square-foot store is the first of its kind on the West Coast in that it features nearly the full range of H&M’s offerings, mixing apparel for men, women and children in the same space as shoes, accessories and sportswear.
The store also will carry more upscale products — suits, cashmere sweaters, pima cotton basics — than those in the sub-$100 tier for which H&M is known. New garments will arrive every day.
“We think we can cater to the local audience — that upscale L.A. customer,” said Daniel Kulle, president of H&M North America.
With the opening, the chain will have 310 stores nationwide. This summer, H&M will open a location at Fashion Square Mall in Sherman Oaks.
“We are here to penetrate the American market,” Kulle said. “We have a longterm view of everything we’re doing.”
But the company is looking to expand beyond its standard mall-based stores. Kulle said H&M is exploring smaller store formats as well as potentially opening branches in upscale shopping areas.
In the fall, H&M will open a store on North Beverly Drive featuring items from its separate brand COS. Along with another COS store opening around the same time in New York’s Soho district, it will be the brand’s first entry into the U.S. after the launch of more than 90 stores in Eu- rope.
COS locations, which each have about 4,720 square feet of sales space, usually sell clothing of higher quality and higher prices than standard H&M stores, Kulle said. The brand’s wares will be available in the U.S. online over the summer.
Another H&M brand — Other Stories — will open a New York store this fall, offering a variety of products for women. Other H&M extension brands include denim label Cheap Monday and apparel names Monki and Weekday — all of which exist only in Europe.
Though H&M has no plans to go into furniture sales, it offers a home goods line of blankets and domestic doodads online and at stores in New Orleans and Washington, D.C. The company plans to put the collection into stores in Boston and Manhattan soon.