Location-inspired clothes find place on fashion's map

NEW YORK -- A globe-trotting wardrobe hangs in the closet: A brightly colored, short-sleeve shirt from St. John's Bay is next to a pair of relaxed Sonoma slacks, and there, on the floor, are those perfect-for-the-beach espadrilles from Newport News.

Yet the owner of these clothes hasn't taken a trip farther than the mall in years.

Instead, manufacturers and retailers are naming their garments after vacation destinations, giving cash-strapped consumers a taste of the good life at a fraction of the price.

JCPenney Co.'s labels include St. John's Bay, Arizona Jean Co. and Stafford, a town in both Virginia and England; Kohl's Department Stores has Sonoma; and New York & Co. touts its namesake clothes as modern, energetic and always evolving, just "like the city itself."

Meanwhile, Coldwater Creek is a growing retail chain, Newport News gave its catalog a facelift and The North Face now has a store in Manhattan.

And then there's Tommy Bahama's upscale tropical chic clothes.

Brand names inspired by plausible places (it doesn't matter if they really exist on the map) conjure up images in shoppers' minds even before they see the clothes, says Irma Zandl, president of The Zandl Group, a trend analysis and consumer research company.

The labels "provide the brand with an immediate identity, image-building advertising and in-store display," Zandl explains. And it doesn't hurt that licensing fees aren't attached to locations, she adds.

JCPenney's Arizona label is supposed to represent more of a vintage Americana and ruggedness than an actual Southwest influence on the styles, says Tami Wolfe, vice president and director of product development at Penney's.

St. John's Bay certainly is intended to be a pleasant distraction for the brand's typical 35- to 40-year-old customers who live harried lives, Wolfe says, but because the clothes are a cohesive, complementary line of classic denim and khaki bottoms and simple knit and woven tops, the real "escape" is from daily decisions about what to wear.

Using locations for labels isn't a new idea, according to researcher Zandl.

"In the 1950s and 1960s, accessibly-priced cars for the middle class were often given the names of aspirational places to elevate the image of the product," she says, pointing to Chevrolet's Monte Carlo, Bel Air and Malibu models.

But, Zandl adds, it's a tougher sell now because for years the emphasis has been on "designer" names, especially in the world of fashion.