Photo courtesy of Azione PR
Elyce Arons had never been to Birmingham. When she spoke to 280 Living, she was at work on the creative floor at her office in New York City overlooking Bryant Park.
Arons is the co-founder and current CEO of Frances Valentine, a modern-American fashion and lifestyle brand founded in 2016 by Arons and her friends Kate and Andy Spade.
“We do trunk shows, usually seasonally in the fall and spring in Franklin, Tennessee; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Richmond, Virginia,” Arons said. “At every single one of them, there was somebody telling me, ‘You really have to go to Birmingham.’”
Birmingham was on the list of their top demographic areas for a retail store and when a space opened up at The Summit, Arons said it was the right opportunity, so her team jumped on it as fast as possible. She made her first trip to Birmingham in mid-November for the store’s grand opening.
Frances Valentine has five other retail stores. Two in New York (Madison Ave. and Southampton), Palm Beach, Houston, Atlanta (Buckhead Village) and now Birmingham.
There are two more leases that have been signed for Naples, Florida and Alexandria, Virginia to come in 2023.
Arons said The Summit location is near Belk and several doors down from the Kate Spade store.
“Ours is a tiny space, but we really wanted to be there. So we thought we'll take what we can get and happily move in,” she said. The space was formerly The Art of Shaving, so we had to pull out a lot of the built-ins that they had, but we had a great construction team, and they got it done in a couple of weeks.”
The pieces at Frances Valentine are vintage with a modern look. Arons shared that the age range for their customers is from 25 to 85, although their fastest growing customer segment right is ages 25 to 35. The brand offers options for their over 50’s customers including mock necks, sleeves for arm coverage and zippers in place of buttons.
“We've taken these beautiful, nostalgic, vintage pieces that we love, and brought them into the current day, but made them a little bit more modern,” Arons said. “The thing I love about it is that women can buy something today from Frances Valentine and walk into their closets 20 years from now and still love that same piece. It's not trending, the [clothes] are very eclectic. We call ourselves the opposite of fast fashion, because we make really great quality products with an accessible luxury practice price point. We want them to stay in your closet for the rest of your life.”
The tagline for Frances Valentine is “Wear what makes you happy” and Arons said their items are full of color with vibrant prints and personal details.
“Even for someone who wears all black, [they can] throw on a really great jacket that's got wonderful jacquard or embroidery on it, or a pair of bright yellow velvet shoes with rhinestones,” she said. “It's just really special pieces that even if you dress plainly, it just makes your outfit and makes you feel great.”
Arons said she feels that now is the time for a fresh, new American brand and believes Frances Valentine is just that. What started as an accessories brand with handbags and shoes has now expanded into other product categories and Arons said they’ve been able to do that because their customers communicate their requests to them.
“They write us letters and I talk to them at trunk shows,” she said. “I want to hear everything they have to say because if we're if we can do something better, or make something that I haven't thought of before that they're really asking for, we want to do it.”