I live in a part of New Jersey where if you travel 10/15 minutes in one direction you can get all the shopping you'd ever want done in NYC. But if taking a $2 bus ride (or if you're insane you can drive there and pay... what... $9 to get through the Lincoln Tunnel...) isn't your style you can always drive 15 minutes up Route 17. You'll come across strip malls, outlets, stand-alone stores and oh... three or four actual malls in a 20 minute radius. It's a bit... sick... actually.
Garden State Plaza can be found on this car ride and resembles very little of what I remember as a little girl. My dad used to work at the jewelry counter at Macy's and my mom worked (and still works) as a bookkeeper at Park Ave BMW/Acura (and all the other cars they sell there), which can be found around the corner... the mall is massive and I'm sure mall management is trying to keep up their name as one of the largest on the east coast... They recently added a gigantic AMC and a Cheesecake Factory Delux to the the mall which has opened a whole "new section" (wasn't there a "new" section only three years ago??).
I've been in need of new bras, but shopping in Syracuse gets me with sales tax (none on clothes in NJ) and a limited selection. I'm convinced Victoria's Secret is trying to compete with Fredricks of Hollywood seeing as everything they've got lately is slutty as hell and something about slutty bras day in and day out when I'm only planning on kicking around in a tee and jeans is strange. On top of this-- they're expensive and I'd rather spend money on... well.. paying my rent... and photo equipment.
That said, I stalked in and out of stores looking for an hour. There's certain things that are frustrating to shop for: bras, swim suits and jeans... but I've already written an
opinion column article about that. If they don't fit right you're not comfortable. Hence why some of my favorite jeans have holes all over the place- not b/c I spent money for the "damaged look", but b/c I wore them out of existance...
I'd just about given up... either they didn't fit right or the price tag wasn't worth it for some underwire, cotton and shape-padding. I had coupons for free undies at the new Aerie store... and after the "Menu" snippet I wrote in TCHJ's "Taboo" issue about VS giving away free undies... we all know I'll take advantage of it. So I scouted out the new section of the mall.
The company did a great job of interior and graphic design when it came to the store. I know however that the marketing for "Aerie" has taken a few years. Maybe two or three years ago American Eagle decided to start selling bras. They'd always sold underwear for men and women, but they tried really working on a playfully preppy line for young women. It got good reviews and they came to call it Aerie. I think it's clever. AE has an eagle logo and they play off a smaller bird logo, They keep the letters AE in the name and they pick a word that sounds like "airy" as in the whimsical line of undergarments they came up with and "aerie" that references nesting.
They did long commericials after Girlmore Girls and Veronica Mars last year: girls at slumber parties sitting in underwear and henlies talking about what Rory and Lorelai did on this week's episode.
And now they've come out with their own stores. Smart idea. Clever branding. Everything from the graphic design, fashion design (and textiles) and interior design really keeps the branding going.
Interior design: the place feels like a suburban girl's bedroom. The dressing rooms have sunlight bulbs installed so it feels like there's a window open with sunlight pouring in. The walls are white-washed wooden panels, there's little memo and bulletin boards with postcards hanging and the entire store has ribbons, lace and other whimsical textiles hanging. Mini overhead lamps with paisley and polka dots add to the design.
Graphic design: The vectors of the birds are-- well-- overdone by many companies, but it works here. Everything is really simplistic. There's color, but everything's a little washed out or the opacity has been taken down. Think blues, baby pink, eggplant purple, lots of yellow. The pictures are clean and fun (and thus sexy in that innocent, girl-next-door type of way) and the color wash on the photos lends to the suburban sun-lit room.
Textiles: little birds, owls, ribbons, polka dots, little bits of lace, buttons, embroidery here and there... the clothes are dainty, innocent, sexy and ridiculously comfortable to boot. Oh yea... and my wallet was happy with the price tags.
I walked out of the store about 1/2 hour later. It was hands down the easiest trip to a store to buy undergarments... ever. My only complaint is that if you're not a 34/36 B then you're a little out of luck going to the store. They have other sizes, but they really stocked up on these. I was happy considering my frustration with all the 32/34 Cs at VS (who the hell is a 32/34 C? That's like Barbie and about 1 percent of the universe).
Anyway- they get an A- in my book.
