Guess Jeans has officially come home.
The Los Angeles denim company opened its first-ever U.S. store for its Guess Jeans division on Thursday, located on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood. It represents a physical footprint domestically and comes after the label’s laid much of its initial groundwork in overseas markets.
The 3,000-square-foot store at 8700 Melrose Avenue, across from the Pacific Design Center, sits on an entire block and spans two levels of men’s and women’s apparel and accessories.
Nicolai Marciano, Guess chief new business development officer, called the opening “deeply personal.”
Marciano, the son of Guess co-founder Paul Marciano, has spearheaded the creation and development of Guess Jeans, along with several other marketing and events initiatives that have sought to place the company in front of younger consumers.
To that point, part of the store opening’s celebration includes pop-up experiences on Saturday involving local streetwear brands such as Born x Raised and Babylon.
Moving forward the store will serve as the backdrop for various events.
Nicolai called the store representative of the “next generation of ideas, collaborations and storytelling.”
The West Hollywood door follows the opening of the Guess Jeans Tokyo store last year. Amsterdam marked the brand’s first brick-and-mortar location, which bowed in May 2024. After that came Berlin.
The company is calling its newest door a concept shop, which it aptly named Homecoming.
Business Potential
Guess Jeans has been positioned in the market as a sustainably focused brand that skews more toward what the company hopes to be the next generation of its customer base.
Last year, Guess CEO Carlos Alberini told analysts he thought the brand could grow into an over $100 million business.
Distribution partnerships overseas have helped.
The company also worked to diversify its assortment early on to include more fashion pieces in response to retailer feedback.
The company is now also backed by Authentic Brands Group’s powerful brand management engine. Authentic, just a few days prior to the store opening, confirmed the official closing of Guess’ go-private deal in what could play out to be more category expansion via licensing deals for the company. Aside from its namesake labels, Guess Inc. also owns Rag & Bone.
As a result of the deal, New York-based Authentic took a 51 percent stake in the company’s intellectual property. Meanwhile, the rest of the IP and the operating company, is owned by a consortium of Guess management that includes Paul and co-founder Maurice Marciano, Nicolai and Alberini. The management group wholly owns the operating company.
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