STUSSY - IT AIN'T WHERE YA FROM 3 OF 3

STUSSY - IT AIN'T WHERE YA FROM PART 3 OF 3

Emulating other top-notched apparel designers, Shawn Stussy, using his own capital, opened a handful of signature boutiques, taking on sales representatives as partners in joint ventures outside of Stussy Inc. The first shop, 900 square feet in size, was established in the trendy SoHo section of Manhattan in November 1991. It was an immediate downtown hit, its success surpassing the designer's expectations. In the spring of 2002, Stussy opened his second boutique, a 200-square-foot shop located in the unlikely venue of Laguna Beach, chosen because it was close to where he and his girlfriend and partner in the venture, Paula Henry, had just purchased a house. Several weeks later, a Tokyo boutique opened, followed by the October 1992 debut of a 800-square-foot shop located on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles.

Stussy, Inc. also made news in 1992 when its first licensee, Stussy Australia, began to produce a junior clothing line for women called Stussy Sista Gear. (The only other Stussy license was granted to Eyeking Co. in New York for eyewear.) The idea for the women's line came from Australian designers Felicity Rulikowski and Bernadette Wier, who worked in conjunction with Shawn Stussy to develop an initial 25-piece collec- tion that featured body-hugging apparel with a retro 1970s flair. As with the menswear, the line had limited distribution both internationally and in the United States, where the clothing was only available in the Stussy boutiques, starting in the spring of 1993. The Stussy Sista idea proved successful, and in October 1998 the company registered the Stussy Sista trademark.