Seven for All Mankind Announces New York Flagship

Seven For All Mankind LLC (Los Angeles) has announced it will open its first flagship store, in New York’s SoHo district.

According to Women’s Wear Daily, the high-priced denim label, which was acquired by VF Corp. (Greensboro, N.C.) last summer, revealed plans to open a 3000-square-foot store on West Broadway in late March, taking over a space previously occupied by Smith & Hawken. The store will be Seven’s fourth full-price unit — joining stores in Los Angeles, Dallas and Malibu, Calif. — and will also be its largest.

Aaron Battista, Seven’s vp of retail, told WWD he believes the building’s design and location position the brand in an area where art and commerce intersect. As such, the store will also include gallery space featuring a rotation of art projects. “We really pinpointed and wanted to be there because the brand has such a relationship to art and architecture,” said Battista. “We wanted it to be in a downtown environment.”

While the SoHo location will share a similar interior design aesthetic to Seven’s Robertson Avenue store in Los Angeles, Battista told WWD efforts have been made to emphasize existing characteristics of the space, including a staircase and plank flooring. White marble and polished chrome are used to give the store a lighter feel than the darker tones used in Los Angeles.

WWD said Seven For All Mankind is looking to open 100 stores over the next five years, with nine units opening this year and 20 in 2009. The next New York store will open in the Flatiron District and the company is searching for space on both the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side. “We’re looking at only going into A locations and high-street areas,” Battista told WWD. “It’s easier now that we have some stores under our belt.”