Miss Sixty offers ‘perfect’ fit

Paul Clinton

Strolling into South Coast Plaza’s Miss Sixty quickly brings back

retro mental images from “Barbarella” (Jane Fonda’s bubble space

ship), “The Brady Bunch” (the ‘70s vintage outfits) and even the

Italian minimalism of Antonioni’s “Blow Up.”

It’s a walk back in time, as well as a jaunt into the future,

store managers say, for chic women’s clothing.

Customers are greeted by a symmetrical, 12-foot tall stainless

steel door with a dozen conical portholes.

White globe lights hang from the ceiling. Tangerine-colored racks

dot the store’s landscape.

Four bulbous, screen-covered pods, known in Italian as

“camarinis,” are clustered at the back of the store as changing

rooms. Silhouettes of customers trying out Miss Sixty’s eclectic

clothing are thrown up against the pod.

“One of the main things is having that edge; not to bring it too

far, but making it hot and sexy,” said J.D. Diaz, Miss Sixty’s

general manager.

Miss Sixty, a subsidiary of Italian clothier Sixty Spa, calls

South Coast Plaza its only home on the West Coast. The only two other

stores are in New York.

In January, the specialty store won a design award at the

International Store Design Competition in New York City.

The clothing offered by Miss Sixty, which opened in September, is

as eclectic as the store itself.

Perhaps the hottest seller is the Dublin trousers, loose-fitting

stonewashed denim pants that sell for $169. The first shipment of the

pants were gone the first day they arrived, mostly to the 200

customers who added their names to a waiting list, Diaz said.

Short skirts, in denim, have also been popular. A pair can be had

for $99.

Over the past few months, military-styled clothing has come into

fashion, Diaz said. The fatigue cargo pants, selling for $189, have

been moving well, Diaz said.

The stores’ bread-and-butter item, Diaz said, are the seven

varieties of the Extra Low Tommy low-rise jeans, ranging from $139 to

$159.

The Segerstroms, who own South Coast Plaza, have enjoyed the

exclusivity of the store’s only West Coast location, said plaza

partner Anton Segerstrom.

“Short of going to New York, you have to come to South Coast Plaza

to go to Miss Sixty,” Segerstrom said. “It’s a perfect store for

South Coast Plaza.”