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The clothing chain is headquartered
in this small town just outside his old surfing haunts in Ocean City.
It is still relatively small for a clothing company with 11 stores
in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. Most recently opening a store on Chestnut Street in downtown Philadelphia.
But South Moon Under is steadily
making a name for itself in the fashion world. It has become a popular
chain among the region's young trendsetter crowd, carrying all the
hot designers, from Juicy Couture, BCBG Max Azria, Citizens for Humanity,
and Free People - just to name a few.
The retailer is gaining recognition
nationally. Its clothing has been featured in several fashion magazines,
including Lucky Magazine, Cosmopolitan, InStyle, Paper Doll and SHOP
Etc. The largest number of shoppers to its Web site hail from Los Angeles.
"It's an excellent and
fairly affordable resource for trendy of- the-moment looks," said
Elise Loehnen, shopping news editor at Lucky Magazine. "They offer
a trendy take on fashion that doesn't seem to be too intimidating,
too expensive or too overwhelming."
But
fashion was far from his mind when Gunion, now 56, opened South Moon
Under in Ocean City in
1968 and ran the store during summer break while a student at George
Washington University. His interest was focused on surfing, a hobby
he picked up when his family would drive to the Eastern Shore every
summer from Washington for vacation. He also liked the quaintness of
beach living "where you didn't have to lock your doors" and
people were laid-back.
"I just loved the beach," he
said. "Once you got into the beach it was hard to go back to the
city. It seemed natural to build a business around something which
I loved."
His parents thought running
a surf shack was an odd career choice, but gave Gunion the money to
start it.
When a friend mentioned South
Moon Under after seeing the novel by Marjorie K. Rawlings with the
same title on a shelf, Gunion thought the wording would fit well for
a surf shop since it played on the relationship between the moon and
the tides at the beach.
Gunion has a black-and-white
photo of the original store. The wood hut on the main commercial strip
in Ocean City had a row of surfboards - which were 10 feet at that
time compared with the typical 6 feet today - lined up outside the
store.
There was little attention
to appearance since the surfboards were the main piece of the business.
Clothes were hung haphazardly from hangers on what looked like a clothesline
in the window.
"We didn't know what
we were doing and it showed," Gunion said.
But the business did well.
Gunion left college early and moved to the beach to run the store full
time. He opened a second store in Rehoboth Beach, Del. His wife at
the time, who no longer works for the company, began adding more clothing
to the merchandise mix after noticing how well bikinis sold. Women's
clothing became a larger part of the business.
The
big shift in the company came after Gunion made plans to expand "off the Shore." The
first mainland store opened in Bethesda in 1980 and, for the first
time, the business looked more like a clothing boutique than a swimwear
shop.
Gunion, who concedes he doesn't
have the strongest eye for fashion, began building a team of buyers
to help the company expand.
Jeannette Cowan was hired
fresh from college in 1979 as the company began to focus more on fashion.
Today, she is the director of buying. She said the key to competing
among the bigger players is to keep the merchandise fresh.
"The fashion world is
always changing," Cowan said. "Just when you think you've
got everything figured out, something else changes."
South Moon Under buyers attend
as many fashion shows and merchandising conventions as possible. Many
stores will buy large amounts of one article of clothing. South Moon
Under may buy only a few pieces of a certain shirt or pair of pants.
"Our buying philosophy
is that we go all over the place and cherry-pick," Gunion said. "Every
couple of weeks a quarter of the store is different."
Loehnen of Lucky Magazine
said more retailers are taking this tactic as consumers these days
are more apt to become bored with fashion choices.
Retailers don't want to see
the same dress in the store all season. And if they know a limited-supply
pair of shoes is likely to sell out quickly, they'll buy right away
rather than dwelling on the purchase, she said.
Many of the South Moon Under
stores are like the one in Baltimore's Harbor East. The boutique has
a young feel to it and the staff is on top of the trends. One manager,
for instance, recently was wearing a vintage Aerosmith T-shirt, flip-flops
and cropped jeans that stopped at her knees.
Along the back of the store
are the latest designer jeans that cost well above $100. Wedges and
summer sandals are on sale in the middle of the store in a section
with plush chairs that one might find in a Georgetown bar and lounge.
As with most companies, lessons
were learned along the way. Attempts to sell children's clothes and
ski wear have been abandoned over the years because they weren't profitable.
The apparel chain has raised its profile by increasing its Internet
presence and moving into larger urban markets.
Gunion
said he doesn't want the company to grow too big. For years it has
had what he describes
as "glacial" expansion plans of one store a year.
South Moon Under employs about
250 people companywide. It started nearly 40 years ago with two. Many
are Eastern Shore natives who leave the area but find out later they
miss beach living, such as a buyer who left Neiman Marcus to work for
South Moon Under to be near her hometown.
Even though the company has
changed direction over the years, Gunion promises there will always
be a swimsuit and beach component. The company will never forget its
roots.
"Even as we've
moved to the city," he said, "we still have our toes in the
sand."
The Sun - Baltimore, Md.
Author: ANDREA K. WALKER
Date: Jul 6, 2006
Start Page: 1.D
Section: BUSINESS
Document Types: News
Text Word Count: 1223
(Copyright 2006 @ The Baltimore Sun Company)
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