Pacific Sunwear opens first valley urban wear outlet: fashion center d.e.m.o. store part of expansion.

A young men's and juniors urban wear concept from Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. called d.e.m.o., has opened its first San Fernando Valley store at General Growth's Northridge Fashion Center.

The store, selling a mix of fashion influences from skateboarding to hip-hop stars like Nelly and Jay-Z, is part of a major push for the concept that first launched eight years ago.

Pacific Sunwear, a $1.4 billion chain based in Anaheim, is opening about 100 new stores during fiscal 2006, most of them the original PacSun concept and d.e.m.o. shops which now number close to 200.

"We're looking at malls where we think we have a really multicultural customer base," said Lou Ann Bett, president of the d.e.m.o. division. "We're a national chain and we're always on the lookout for good malls."

Pacific Sunwear's origins as a suffer-influenced apparel chain has established the company's PacSun stores in the young adult market. With the addition of d.e.m.o., the company has expanded to reflect the growing, diversity of youthful fashion trends.

D.e.m.o. caters to 17 to 22 year olds in an arena that has been evolving since the first store opened, Bett explained.

Originally a young men's retailer, d.e.m.o.'s merchandise assortment is now nearly equally divided between young men's and juniors. But while boys were the earliest adaptors of the apparel, girls now make up the lion's share of customers.

In fiscal 2005, d.e.m.o's junior sales rose 15 percent on a comparable store basis while its menswear merchandise sales declined 10 percent.

"In the market out there at large, typically juniors is around 75 percent of the total," said Bett. "We're not there yet. That's why we see the major growth in juniors. On the young men's side, we had some internal issues."

Bert said many of those issues have been resolved going forward.

Similarly, the chain's assortment has been changing too, now incorporating a mix of urban, streetwear, skatewear and hip hop with brands like Baby Phat, Rocawear, Sean John, Ecko and Apple Bottoms.

In fiscal 2005, d.e.m.o. contributed about 13 percent to the company's revenues, up from 11 percent in 2003.

Westfield's Hew Look

Expanding a shopping mall these days is a little bit of a devil and the deep blue sea dilemma.

More stores means more sales opportunities, but by adding stores, the mall risks the chance that shoppers, pressed for time, will not want to navigate such a large space to find what they are looking for.

The folks at Westfield Group are addressing that problem in the renovation of Topanga mall in Canoga Park.

At a press tour of the $330 million plus project due to open in October, Westfield officials explained a concept called "precincting," which will place many of the stores in a particular category in close proximity so that, for instance, a shopper buying kids clothes, can go to one portion of the mall and find most of the shops that cater to kids side-by-side. The same goes for luxury brands, fashion brands, etc.

"It's all about the experience the customer has," said Carl Schloessman, Westfield's vice president for marketing in the Western region.

Which is not to say that Westfield isn't accounting for families that want to make a day of it at the center, which is adding 120 specialty stores

The remodeled center will also have a double-decker carousel, a Westfield Playtown and two family-oriented lounges with plasma screens and room for changing diapers.

Westfield's extensive remodel includes a new Nordstrom with 205,000 square feet of space, about 50,000 square feet more than the existing store, a two-level Target store with 160,000 square feet, a 120,000-square-foot Neiman Marcus, 140 new shops, a dining terrace modeled after the new Century City dining area with real china and cutlery; and restaurants ranging from The Farm of Beverly Hills to the popular Brentwood bistro Coral Tree Caf6, right down to Panda Express.

BY SHELLY GARCIA Senior Reporter