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BLOOMBERG (New York, New York) 23 December 05 Coach, Luxury Stores Jazz Up Bags With Help of Crocs and Gators
(Bloomberg): Elza Cardoso was watching a television show perform the miracle of a fashion makeover when something caught her attention: the woman's new crocodile jacket and boots.
``She looked beautiful,'' said Cardoso, a 40-year-old mother of two whose husband owns an auto-body shop in New Jersey. ``I said to my husband, `I don't want diamonds. I just want crocodile.'''
Cardoso isn't alone. Upscale retailers are offering their most expensive handbags in alligator, python, ostrich or crocodile this holiday season to satisfy the demand for luxury. Coach Inc. sells a $5,450 red alligator pocket satchel, its highest-priced product. Coach says the average handbag price at company-owned stores rose 9 percent last quarter.
``Everybody wants a little bit of glitz and glamour,'' said Nashira Wynn, an analyst at Philadelphia-based Delaware Management Co., whose $110 billion in assets include retail shares such as Coach. She recently received a burgundy crocodile purse as a gift. ``People will be very selective. Exotic skins are a way for the retail market to create something different.''
Fashion house Bottega Veneta, owned by No. 3 luxury-goods maker Gucci Group NV, used 25 crocodile hides to create a hand- woven $75,000 bag in its Cabat line. It's also selling a $12,800 crocodile bag with a new twist: The hide is treated to look and feel like suede. Bottega makes another bag from stingray skin.
Coach, the largest U.S. luxury leather-goods designer, has more items in exotic skins such as python and alligator at its top-performing stores this holiday season, spokeswoman Andrea Resnick said. The lineup includes a $198 python iPod case and $498 python gloves.
``It creates excitement in the stores,'' Coach's executive creative director, Reed Krakoff, said in an interview. ``It's a way for us to broaden our products and create a new segment of the market.''
Exotic-skin bags are among the company's more profitable items, Resnick said. The $5,450 alligator bag costs $1,900 if made with python, $600 in calfskin and $500 in suede.
The most expensive bag sold by teen retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co. is a $1,598 one made of python, said Lisa Capozzi, merchandise manager of accessories for the company's Ruehl chain. A matching python belt costs $168. Abercrombie opened its first accessories-only store under the Ruehl name in November, targeting 22- to 30-year-olds.
``If you are going to be in the business, you have to have exotics,'' Capozzi said. ``It's a hallmark for an affordable- luxury business. It adds credibility in terms of being in the serious handbag business.''
Next year, the chain plans to introduce its first ostrich and alligator items, she said.
Designer Ralph Lauren is selling a $10,000 alligator bag, his most expensive ever, in the Ricky line, said Nancy Murray, spokeswoman for Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. It's part of his first collection of top-tier handbags, rolled out in August and September. The alligator bag was made in a pewter hue for holiday sales.
The shares of New York-based Coach fell 22 cents to $33.75 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. New Albany, Ohio-based Abercrombie gained 62 cents to $64.38. Polo increased 85 cents to $55.73.
``We are seeing a tremendous increase not only in the interest, but the purchase of exotic skins,'' said Michele Ateyeh, president of New York-based Lambertson Truex Inc., which designs luxury handbags and accessories. It sells to retailers including Saks Inc., Neiman Marcus Group Inc. and Neiman's Bergdorf Goodman chain.
Exotics have increased to about 25 percent of the closely held firm's sales from 10 percent to 12 percent a couple of years ago, she said.
``Demand from fashion designers has gone up,'' said Christine Plott-Redd, sales and marketing director at Atlanta- based American Tanning & Leather Co., the largest U.S. tannery for alligator and crocodile skins. Its designer customers include Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors, Vera Wang, Chado Ralph Rucci and Proenza Schouler.
``We count on those people to drive demand,'' Plott-Redd said. She declined to provide specific figures.
Sales at luxury merchants' stores open at least a year are forecast to gain 4.5 percent in November and December from a year earlier, outpacing sales at discounters and mid-priced department stores, according to the New York-based International Council of Shopping Centers.
``Holiday opulence and special pieces tend to be what people look for,'' Abercrombie's Capozzi said.
Linda Rey, a 25-year-old graduate student from Brooklyn, made her first snakeskin purchase two years ago. Browsing at the Neiman Marcus store in the Mall at Short Hills, in Short Hills, New Jersey, she said she plans to get money from her father to buy a $3,995 Prada bag in python.
``It's pretty,'' she said. ``They match the shoes.''
Coach, Luxury Stores Jazz Up Bags With Help of Crocs and Gators

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Bryan, Atlanta GA

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