Revolve Ramps Up Retail Presence As Festival Season Nears

The company launched its Revolve Festival Shop and quietly debuted its second permanent store at The Grove.
Revolve Group launched its Festival Shop edit online as it made moves for a more permanent stay at The Grove Los Angeles.
Looks from the Revolve Festival Shop. PHOTOS COURTESY OF REVOLVE GROUP INC.

Revolve Group is getting ahead of festival season as it slowly shapes its brick-and-mortar ambitions. 

The company on Monday debuted its Revolve Festival Shop curation online for the upcoming festival season—a Black Friday-equivalent for the digital fashion retailer that came of age with the support of Millennials and, now, Gen Z shoppers. 

Revolve Festival Shop is edited with Western, cottage core and bohemian-inspired looks from brands such as L’Agence, Rowan, Monse, Rag & Bone, Cult Gaia, Zimermann and Isabel Marant.  

The online curation comes amid a quieter move by Revolve, which also owns the luxury online retailer FWRD and a stable of in-house brands, as it plants a permanent flag at Rick Caruso’s The Grove shopping center in Los Angeles. The two-story, 8,450-square-foot store, which neighbors Vince, originally opened in November and was set to stay open through Jan. 4 as a holiday pop-up shop. 

However, Revolve went out with news of its physical retail move to industry trade Business of Fashion on Tuesday that its Los Angeles store is now its second permanent door after Aspen. The official announcement to the markets followed the report.

“Expanding our physical presence is a natural evolution of our retail strategy,” co-founder and co-CEO Michael Mente said in a statement on the newest store.

The company said it expects to temporarily close the space for renovations and will reopen in the Fall.

The Grove is in line with the same pattern as Aspen, with Revolve first testing the door temporarily before making the move to a longer-term lease.  

Revolve Group has signed a multi-year lease for its Revolve & FWRD Aspen store
The Revolve & FWRD Aspen store. PHOTO COURTESY OF REVOLVE GROUP INC.

Physical Retail Test, Again

While Business of Fashion called the store a test of Revolve’s “offline muscle,” physical retail isn’t new for the company. 

Aspen and Los Angeles mark another go at brick-and-mortar for Revolve, which has been shy to call a full physical retail expansion over the years. 

The Revolve Social Club on Melrose Avenue in 2016 was its first foray, offering a clubhouse-like setting for events and shopping days. However, it was not a full-time store and not always open to the public. Instead, it was meant to diverge from the typical store with a feeling of exclusivity in its members-only concept and décor meant to inspire Instagram posts.  The club closed and then reopened in 2022. 

The Grove Revolve Shop and Aspen will test the retailer’s ability to merchandise and engage with customers in real life. 

Revolve Shop is stocked with the retailer’s best-selling brands, some items from FWRD and pieces from the FWRD Renew vintage handbag curation.

The company, which had a recent market cap of nearly $2 billion, is set to report its fourth-quarter and full-year results Tuesday after the market closes.

Vernon Proper: fashion without the fluff. Business news and analysis.

Subscribe

Vernon Proper: Fashion without the fluff. Stay updated on West Coast business news and analysis with our weekly newsletter.

Be First to Comment

What do you think? Let's start a conversation.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.