Designs on affordability

Alicia Robinson

For those who like to wear up-to-the-minute styles but don’t want to

spend a mint, a new option has come to Costa Mesa.

Spain-based clothing company Zara has brought its moderately

priced fashions to South Coast Plaza, where it opened its 13th U.S.

store last week -- its first in Southern California.

“We’ve been very busy,” store manager Monica Vicioso said. “We

opened at 2 p.m. Wednesday, and it was amazing because the people

were waiting outside.”

Designer looks at affordable prices are Zara’s specialty. The

store offers a range of men’s clothes, from casual soccer-style

jerseys and button-up shirts in sherbet hues to more conservative

suits. But most of the store space is devoted to women’s clothes.

Current hot sellers are miniskirts and cropped pants as well as

anything in fuchsia or turquoise, Vicioso said. Prices at Zara range

from $9 T-shirts to a $229 coat.

“What people are looking for the most all over, and it’s the same

story here, is the Chanel-looking jackets,” she said. “We have them

and the price is unbelievable.”

The tweed jackets in pale colors sell for $99 at Zara, compared

with about $2,000 for a name-brand Chanel jacket.

The addition of Zara helps round out a wing of the mall catering

to younger shoppers. It’s a few stores down from Wet Seal and

Rampage, stores that also offer trendy, moderately priced clothes

geared for the customers who don’t have to think twice about tube

tops and low-rise jeans.

Already well established in Europe, Zara is embraced by a broad

clientele in the U.S., South Coast Plaza partner Anton Segerstrom

said.

“It’s a fresh point of view, and it’s new to the marketplace, so

we’re very excited about that,” he said. “They respond very quickly

to fashion, so they’re very current.”

Rather than customers wandering in from other shops, much of the

store’s traffic has been people who know what they want and

specifically come to Zara to get it, Vicioso said.

“Most of the clientele that have come over here since the opening

... they know Zara already [from Europe],” she said. “They’re looking

for designer clothes for cheap.... This is what Zara is about, and

they know it.”

Customers have been excited to discover the store is now in

Southern California, she said.

Shopper Katie Lovick is a case in point. She had just visited the

company’s New York City store, and her boyfriend browsed one of its

Italian locations, she said.

When they heard about the South Coast Plaza opening, she said,

they made the trek from Fullerton to check it out.

“Usually, in mall stores, everything’s so the same from store to

store,” Lovick said. “Here everything’s got a little different twist

to it, more European.”