United Colors of Benetton is holding a four-week, streetwear-inspired pop-up event in Los Angeles this October, the brand’s first stateside retail operation in four years after closing its last U.S. store in 2015.
The Italian fashion company, a brand within the Benetton Group, recently launched a revamped U.S. e-commerce platform. Based on its success, the group’s executive chairman Luciano Benetton expressed an interest in returning to the U.S., going so far as to say that the brand would be reconsidering opening new stores in the country “on a more permanent basis” due to strong online sales.
The pop-up will be held in the Santa Monica Place shopping center from Oct. 25-Nov. 24 and was conceived as a way to showcase the brand’s “new approach to streetwear-inspired design” and its commitment to sustainable fashion under designer Jean Charles de Castelbajac.
The Benetton Heritage Collection, one of the collections on display at the pop-up, includes samples from an exclusive line showcased at the 2019 Milan Fall Fashion show.
The collection is heavily influenced by “experimental textiles and ecological materials inspired by the sea” but that won’t be the most innovative aspect of the United Colors of Benetton’s return to the U.S. The brand will also be experimenting with the concept of retail at the event, declining to keep any inventory on location and, instead, simply offering shoppers a chance to use the space as an extension of the brand’s e-commerce operations.
“With the exception of the clothing on display, the Santa Monica Pop-Up will operate without any inventory,” Andrea Rossetto, United Colors of Benetton’s U.S. representative, said. “Customers will be able to try on and interact with the clothing, but then all purchases will be made through the in-store online portal and shipped directly to the customers’ home.”
The United Colors of Benetton called the pop-up a “physical monument to the brand’s colorful energy and creative DNA,” qualities conveyed through the vibrant array of primary-colored apparel assembled in the collection. The brand added that the month-long event will also include a wider selection that is more representative of its “broad e-commerce offering.”
Recently, the United Colors of Benetton also said it would support sustainable production by pledging to transition its cotton sourcing completely to Better Cotton Initiative (BCI)-approved farmers by 2025.