Casual luxury sells

Written by The Fresno Bee
08/18/08 08:35:28

The 20-something Pauline brothers have opened their third clothing venture in northwest Fresno.

The Laundry Room opened earlier this year in the Park Place shopping center at Palm and Nees avenues in Fresno.

The shop sells "casual luxury" clothes, including jeans, cocktail dresses and tops for men and women.

It's the next step for Joey Pauline, 25, and Jonah Pauline, 23, in their short history of fashion in Fresno.

In 2005, the brothers started work on a store called thespacebetween in the Piazza del Fiore shopping center at Champlain Drive and Perrin Avenue in Fresno. It opened instead across the street inside the Skully Bros. store. Then, they opened men's clothing store Libertine in the original Piazza del Fiore space in late 2006.

After 10 months they decided to expand to a larger space and offer women's clothing.

Their current shop is a mix of history and cutting-edge fashion. Old fruit crates were used in the decor, a former Fresno County library table holds merchandise and a display sits on an explosives room door from the Pinedale internment camp.

Nearby, high-end denim is for sale and a green polka dot top with deer printed on it sells for $120.

"They're affordable," said Jonah Pauline. "I don't know if people want to buy them every day."

Opening such a shop during an economic downturn when many are turning to discount retailers might be seen as risky, but the Paulines say they are getting plenty of business. Shoppers include young parents, young entrepreneurs and others who dress up for a night out, although the college-age crowd has dropped off, they said. Their location taps nearby affluent neighborhoods, they noted.

And the high-end denim industry also has changed, with designer jeans that once sold for $300 now selling in the low $200s, Joey Pauline said.

Fresno's own 5th Avenue

Rob Hancer's teenage dream of becoming a jeweler and a lifetime of working in jewelry stores has culminated in the opening of his own shop in Fresno.

He opened 5th Avenue Jewelers at the corner of Bullard and Palm avenues in May. The store was formerly Elegant Jewelers for 33 years until owner Jack Kismetian retired.

Hancer didn't buy the business, but remodeled the space and started his own shop there.

He grew up in Fresno, watching a family friend who was a jeweler bring pieces to show his father. At age 19, he moved to New York City where he lived with his aunt and uncle, a jewelry manufacturer, and worked with his uncle as an apprentice in the diamond and jewelry district.

Hancer returned to Fresno and worked at various jewelry shops, most recently working as a diamond wholesaler and jeweler by appointment.

Now 34, he is running 5th Avenue Jewelers, named after the location where he worked in New York.