Ready for Their Clothes Up

Fashion-obsessed ’tweens now have a youth-friendly “atelier” in Beverly Hills where they can channel their inner Donna Karan.

Fashionology LA is the brainchild of Los Angeles power moms Elizabeth Wiatt and Jaime Tisch. Wiatt, an environmental activist and former fashion editor, and Tisch, the philanthropist wife of film and TV producer Steve Tisch, wanted to develop an interactive retail experience around the idea of sewing clothing with their young daughters.

Their concept targets the lucrative 8- to 12-year-old girl demographic, which industry reports suggest has collective purchasing power in the neighborhood of $20 billion annually.

Visitors to Fashionology LA might find a gaggle of young girlfriends attending a birthday party or a budding fashionista accompanied by her mom. Girls select from among pre-made fashion basics like cotton tees, fleece hoodies, dresses and capris, and then customize them with heat-transfer images, rhinestones, crystal gems, pins and chains.

Debuting mere steps away from Jimmy Choo and Spago, Fashionology LA resembles many a trendy kids’ apparel store, from the contemporary-styled merchandise fixtures and sleek Alvar Aalto-designed stools to the stylized mannequins in active poses.

Design of the bright and colorful space (think California surf shop meets hip ’tween bedroom) was spearheaded by Roman Alonso of Commune, a Los Angeles-based consortium of interior designers with deep roots in upscale apparel retail. Commune, in turn, tapped into the local artist community by enlisting Margo Victor to design Fashionology’s supergraphics.

And imagery abounds. Photographs plastered on oversized bulletin boards echo a fashion designer’s inspirational storyboarding techniques. Then there’s the empowering text: “Dream It! Make It! Wear It!” is a nod to 1960s Los Angeles activist Sister Corita Kent. Fashion icons from Coco Chanel to Madonna are represented through inspirational/aspirational quotes.

Focus on interactivity
But what truly sets Fashionology LA apart from its off-the-rack, mall-based competitors is the element of interactivity. There are touch-screens and communal work stations where the tween-agers can work together. Then there’s the 70-inch flat screen monitor flickering with images of the girls modeling their newly made clothes.

Wiatt and Tisch selected Big Buddha Baba, a Los Angeles-based experience design company better known in theme park and museum worlds, to create a brand voice, the interactive design pads where it all starts, graphics, software, animated media, the Fashionology photo stage and the company’s website.

Big Buddha Baba’s project portfolio includes Paul Allen’s Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle and the re-imagined Spaceship Earth at Epcot in Orlando.

The idea for Fashionology LA, according to Big Buddha Baba founder Barb Groth, was to apply location-based technology to retail without getting “too far away from the heart and soul of Wiatt’s and Tisch’s original concept, which was to design a fun, interactive and social experience.”

The result is a seamless experience that averages 30 minutes for a single item of apparel, though many girls opt to make several garments. Customers select a plain garment at the Design Pad touch-screen station. There, Fashionology’s animated rainbow-striped heart icon helps the girls choose among five fashion “moods” rather than trends. Planned to change seasonally, the store opened with looks labeled Juka, Peace, Malibu, Pop Princess and Rock ‘n Roll.

Side-by-side creativity
From there, the girls create a printed Design Plan and move to the uBar Station, where they can choose gems and embellishments — and where moms have a chance to see the cost of those selections. Prices start at about $20 and run north of $100, depending upon the type and quantity of add-ons.

After the garments have been designed, the Fashionology icon displays the price and asks, “Are you cool with that?” Girls then proceed to the Make It! station, a communal table where they create their new looks side by side. Along the way, they can seek help from design assistants called Fashionologists.

Once their creations are complete, the girls model their new threads on the Fashionology Stage, where a photographer takes a snapshot to capture the moment. That image is broadcast in the store and, with permission, is e-mailed home to be shared again and again.

The company has launched an e-commerce site, and Wiatt says Fashionology LA plans to expand “in a smart and thoughtful way.”