Westfield Century City, an outdoor shopping mall in Los Angeles, has launched a permanent 1,200-square-foot space dedicated to short-term pop-up stores. Luxury fashion house Hermès is the first brand to set up shop in the location, with a laundromat experience called the “Hermèsmatic Pop-Up.”
The Hermès pop-up will remain open until Nov. 19; it is one of a series of pop-ups the fashion house has operated throughout the U.S. and Europe since 2016.
The laundromat-style spot is designed to appeal to Hermès scarf collectors seeking to “reinvent” their wear. Customers can bring in their own Hermès scarves, or purchase a scarf on site, to be dip-dyed in luxe branded washing and drying machines for no charge, in a choice of three colors: fuchsia, denim blue or violet.
Advertisement
There is a wait time of 48 hours to pick up the uniquely dip-dyed scarves, but there’s also a collection of dip-dyed scarves ready to take home, if shoppers want to purchase on the spot.
C Magazine Takes Second Spot
After Hèrmes exits the space, C Magazine will open its first brick-and-mortar store on Nov. 27, “State of Mind Curated by C Magazine.” The magazine’s editorial team curated the look and feel of the pop-up store, which will remain open until Jan. 2, 2018.
The pop-up will include an assortment of apparel and accessories from more than 100 California-based designers and artisan brands. The shop will run in conjunction with an e-Commerce site that stocks products to highlight California’s design talent. The space also will include a virtual reality experience and a pop-up for a celebrity product line.
Throughout the store’s five-week run, the C Magazine team will host several events, kicking off with an opening night party celebrating all of the featured designers, and continuing with weekly panel discussions hosted by its editors as well as special appearances, book signings and trunk shows.
Pop-Ups Reflect Experiential Theme
Westfield designed the Century City pop-up space to fit into the mall’s overall theme, which is to serve as a place of discovery for shoppers. In building out short-term concepts within the space, shoppers can visit new experiences every time they return.
The mall operator tried the pop-up model in its Westfield Topanga plaza outside Los Angeles, hosting the Kylie Cosmetics pop-up in December 2016. The two-week pop-up saw more than 20,000 shoppers and generated as many as four billion media impressions, giving credence to the idea that it may be beneficial to deploy the store model in other shopping complexes.
