Bloomingdale’s ready to make big splash at Westfield Valley Fair
Three floors of luxury shopping is the centerpiece of mall’s $1.1 billion expansion
It’s Tuesday morning, about 48 hours before the new Bloomingdale’s at Westfield Valley Fair officially opens to the public, but the upscale department store is buzzing with activity.
Blouses and dresses are being fitted onto mannequins, acres of lipstick and other cosmetics are being lined up in displays, and the creases are being steamed out of sheets and pillowcases for the bedding displays on the third floor. Hundreds of people are walking over the store’s signature black-and-white checkerboard tile floor, which will no doubt be shined to a high gloss again before the first customer walks in the door Thursday.
Welcome to the final moments of Valley Fair B.B. — Before Bloomingdale’s.
The three-level, 150,000-square-foot store is the centerpiece of the shopping center’s $1.1 billion expansion, and it needs to satisfy both Valley Fair’s legions of shoppers and Bloomingdale’s loyalists — or, Loyallists, as its rewards program members are known — who may wonder if the Bay Area needed a third Bloomie’s after San
Francisco and Stanford Shopping Center.
“The two most important things to me are (customers) leave having really enjoyed the experience — that we surprised them and delighted them along the way — and that they tell their friends,” said Mark Sullivan, general manager of Bloomingdale’s Valley Fair.
“I want them to feel leaving they’ve had an excep
tional in-store, high-end luxury experience.”
Oh, there’s no missing the “high-end luxury” part.
The ground floor is devoted to the four Fs — footwear, fragrances, fashion accessories and fine jewelry. The shoe displays read like a fashion-show lineup with brands like Ferragamo, Dior, Jimmy Choo and Gucci. But there’s also a lot of space devoted to running shoes, and you’ll find more activewear than you might normally find at a Bloomingdale’s.
That’s all about research into the demographics in Silicon Valley, where people generally are more active than elsewhere, have the weather to be outdoors more often and, let’s face it, like to look good whether they’re at the gym or on hiking trails.
“We know there is a shopper that lives outdoors, that lives in the gym and eats very healthy, and that’s accentuated in this store compared to other Bloomingdale’s,” Sullivan said.
A central set of escalators carries shoppers up to the second floor — readyto-wear women’s and children’s clothing and accessories, as well as a serious selection of gowns and dresses perfect for prom.
Again, brands like Rebecca Taylor, Tory Burch and Rag & Bone pop out, along with exclusive Bloomingdale’s brands Aqua and Lini.
Things get manly as you head up to the third level, which is divided between men’s clothing and accessories and an extensive home department that includes a demonstration kitchen and a gorgeous but delicate display from crystal-maker Baccarat.
A truly impressive spectrum of towels in every possible shade lines a wall. “If you can’t find a towel in the color you want, it may not exist,” Sullivan said.
And there’s the Carousel, a rotating, guest-curated pop-up shop available at only five other
Bloomingdale’s.
“World Bazaar,” the current one running in March and April, is curated by Karla Martinez, editor-inchief of Vogue Mexico and Latin America, and it features clothing items and accessories that have a cultural flavor to them. Previous Carousel curators have included an actress from Disney’s “The Lion King” on Broadway and pro surfer Quincy Davis.
The spacious, well-lit design of the store isn’t strictly by the numbers, either. There are giant California poppies here and there, and the words “San Jose” pop up as a design element throughout. And it’ll have even more of a Bay Area feel later this month with the opening of AnQi, an Asian fusion restaurant from Chef Helene An.
Bloomingdale’s will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday morning before it opens to the public at 10 a.m., but there’s a “county fair”-themed grand-opening preview party Wednesday night in partnership with the 49ers
Foundation.
Other opening week events will benefit the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, Save the Redwoods League, Family Giving Tree, JDRF and the Child Mind Institute.
A swanky “cake truck” from high-end bakery Lady M and outfitted by Baccarat will be at Wednesday night’s event and will stick around through March 8 for shoppers to enjoy. (For a list of all the opening week events, go to bloomingdales.com/valleyfair.)
This may seem like a lot of fuss over the opening of a department store, but Bloomingdale’s remains a cultural phenomenon, from its iconic paper “Little Brown Bag” to its mentions on shows like HBO’s “Sex and the City.”
In today’s retail environment, there aren’t too many brick-and-mortar stores that can still make as big a splash as Bloomie’s.