Saks Fifth Avenue — the New York-based fashion giant whose parent company entered into an agreement to buy Dallas icon Neiman Marcus — “would be wise” to use a new boutique the company recently opened in Fort Worth as a way to dip its toes in the North Texas market, said industry veteran Kate Sheldon.
Saks opened a Fifth Avenue Club at the Bowie House on Camp Bowie Boulevard in Fort Worth in late July. The hotel is owned by upscale resort chain Auberge Resorts. Saks’ Fifth Avenue clubs, unlike the chain’s retail stores, are smaller personal shopping suites that cater to individual customers by appointment basis.
The Bowie House location, specifically, will sit under 1,000 square feet, according to Auberge’s regional director of marketing, Ashley Nelson. Bowie and Saks will work together to “curate an ongoing roster of trunk shows, fine jewelry events, dinners and pop-ups” within the space, she added.
Representatives from Saks did not respond for comment.
Sheldon, a veteran of Neiman Marcus and CEO of luxury fashion consulting group The Fashioneering Lab, noted that North Texas has historically been a tough market for Saks to break into. The Fifth Avenue Club in Fort Worth is not a full store, but it could afford Saks the opportunity to learn more about the local customer base, Sheldon said. She was in part responsible for the products Neiman sold at stores for more than a decade, she said.
“I think that North Texans are very loyal to Neiman Marcus,” she said. “And in light of the impending merger, I think there’s a little more emotion around that now.”
Still, it may be hard to differentiate Saks’ offerings from Neiman’s, she added. Both companies already sell several of the same brands in their stories, she said, and there’s already “quite a lot of crossover” between the two organizations.
Marc Metrick, who is poised to become the CEO of Saks Global, the umbrella organization under which Neiman and Saks Fifth Avenue will fit under, previously told The Dallas Morning News he doesn’t think there’s much need for differentiating the brands from one another. Both stores combined will have enough data, he said, to tailor experiences at the individual customer level.
Saks already has clubs in Austin and in California. Over the next few months, the Bowie House location will announce dates for different events, Nelson said, including a potential date where the non-appointment guests can come experience the club. The Saks Club will also add to Bowie’s existing experiential offerings, including “picnics in the garden” and equestrian riding, among other things.
Saks likely didn’t intentionally time the opening of the Fort Worth Fifth Avenue Club with the company’s acquisition of Neiman Marcus, Sheldon said. But that doesn’t mean that Saks can’t use the Fort Worth club opening to its advantage.
“I think that it’s just one of those things; it was like the right hand was probably not talking to the left,” she said. “But as far as maximizing the opportunity, there’s value — they’ll get data, they’ll have learnings they, if they choose to, can put into positive strategies.”
Clarification 7/31/2024: This story was updated to reflect the fact that Saks’ parent group has entered into an agreement to buy Neiman Marcus, and that the transaction has not been completed.