When it comes to opening new retail stores, LoveShackFancy has specific criteria. The company, known for catering to a multigenerational audience with its fairytale aesthetic, ultra-feminine dresses, accessories, fragrances and apparel, doesn’t just land on any street or in any mall.
“We just celebrated our 20th store,” said Rebecca Hessel Cohen, founder and creative director of LoveShackFancy, referring to the new Aspen store she described as a “little jewel box.”
“It’s 1,300 square feet and it’s in the perfect location and opened during spring break,” said Stacy Lilien, president of LoveShackFancy, who was interviewed with Hessel Cohen last week over Zoom.
“It was just incredible. We’re just really so excited to be there,” said Lilien. “The customer is so multigenerational there. I was surprised there were a lot of customers my age coming in and looking to shop. She was looking for anything special. Women were calling in from all parts of the country and want to spend XY and Z and [asked to] ‘pull an amazing rack for me,’ something unique and custom to the location. We had girls from 7-year-olds to teenagers and a lot of men shopping for women too. We had a really nice opening with mothers and daughters shopping too,” she said.
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“We’re opening another ‘temporary to hopefully permanent’ 1,800-square-foot store in Charlotte [N.C.],” added Hessel Cohen. The store, which will be their 21st location, opens Thursday.
On April 4, LoveShack Fancy opened a store in Kiawah Island, S.C., because “our Charleston store is amazing.”
“We’re really big in the Carolinas these days,” said Lilien. “It’s so charming, seaside, it’s just so pretty,” she said. Both the Aspen and Kiawah Island store are open 12 months a year. The Kiawah store is about 45 minutes from the Charleston store.
Describing their criteria for opening new stores, Lilien said, “We really prefer lifestyle centers that have food and beverage.” Hessel Cohen said they’ve never opened anything in an inside mall, it’s more The Royal Poinciana Plaza and Highland Park Village type of centers. “We look for stores where she’s going to lunch with her mom and then they’re going shopping and will spend an afternoon,” said Lilien.
Hessel Cohen said that at the Palm Beach store in The Royal Poinciana Plaza, for example, “it’s grandmother, mother and daughter, and they’re going to lunch at Sant Ambroeus and they’re coming to stop by, and they’re going to meet their friends and coming over on their bike later. It’s very much lifestyle and it’s a destination too. It’s like, ‘Let’s meet at LoveShack.’ Especially in the South — Charleston, Palm Beach, Dallas — these stores have such incredible energy, music, drinks, it’s like a big hug when you walk in,” said Hessel Cohen.
Customers requested LoveShackFancy’s new Charlotte store. “Sometimes when we posted, ‘Guess what’s opening next?’ Charlotte was at the top of requests,” said Hessel Cohen.
“I think it’s going to be really exciting,” said Lilien, who said they analyze how their e-commerce is performing in certain locations to determine where to open a store. “We do a lot of pop-ups and that’s how we learn about untapped markets that we haven’t entered,” she said.
Asked what cities are on their wish list, Lilien said, “We definitely have a big list but we’re going to keep it internal, especially with what’s going on in the world. We do plan to open four more this year.” Overall, in 2025, there will be six to eight new stores. They plan another six to eight new stores in 2026.
All of the LoveShackFancy stores, except for one, used the same interior decorator. “We use the location to really build around,” said Hessel Cohen. There are stores near prep schools (Madison Avenue in New York), in university towns with a big Greek presence (Charleston, Nashville and Austin), and resort towns such as Palm Beach and Kiawah Island.
The most successful store in the fleet is the Palm Beach unit at The Royal Poinciana Plaza, which is its smallest store “and is not even 1,000 square feet,” said Lilien.
“There are a lot of developers who have developed these elevated luxury malls such as The Royal Poinciana. As they start to open other ones in different cities, there’s that partnership as well,” said Hessel Cohen. The owners of Highland Park Village bought a stake in the upscale Phillips Place, a retail center in Charlotte, where LoveShack Fancy will open its long-term pop-up store. “We’re opening in like-minded plazas close to luxury brands like Hermès and more competitive market like a Zimmermann or Veronica Beard-type space,” said Hessel Cohen.
As for how many stores LoveShackFancy can support, Hessel Cohen said, “Now that we have so many categories – we’re growing active, we’re growing swim, fragrances, beauty, home – there really can be so many different spin-offs. Even smaller stores next to bigger flagship stores. Or we choose some areas that there can be a more concentrated store which can also be smaller. Hopefully, fingers crossed, we’re going to be opening a really great one, more of a flagship in the coming year.”
Asked if all these retail stores have done well, and whether they’ve had to close any underperforming ones, Lilien said, “They all do extremely well. As we’re growing, we’re looking at which pieces of the business should stay in the stores and which pieces can leave. Certain stores don’t have all the different categories.”
In Europe, the company has one store in London and is eager to open more, especially in Paris. “Paris is such a source of inspiration and where I travel and source,” said Hessel Cohen, so that city is definitely on the list. Right now their biggest store, size-wise, is in Charleston.
Growth opportunities could be a LoveShackFancy Home store or a LoveShackFancy tween store. They are also seeing a lot of momentum in active and swim, said Lilien.
Eighty percent of the business is direct-to-consumer, and 20 percent is wholesale.
LoveShackFancy’s biggest wholesale accounts are Shopbop, Revolve, Saks, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, and Bergdorf Goodman. Sephora is their only wholesale partner for fragrance. Within the last year, they took on a distribution partner, The Brama Group, which oversees European distribution. “We hope to be able to expand even further internationally,” said Lilien. The privately held company declined to reveal its overall revenues.
Production is done mostly in India, because their brand is so cotton-heavy with a lot of embellishments and embroidery. Because of the tariff situation, Hessel Cohen said they look to move production out of China. “We’re looking to Europe such as Romania, Turkey and Poland, and we’re looking to move some of our pieces into Vietnam,” said Hessel Cohen. Silk fabrics will still be sourced from China and will be made in India. They also do some cut-and-sew in Los Angeles.
Asked if she’s worried about price increases, Lilien said, “We’re working with our factories to try and absorb as much as possible. Prices will increase slightly.”
As for what’s next, Lilien said, “We have so much room to grow within all the categories that we’re in. Also, with all the collaborations that we’re doing, we’re learning so much about the categories we’re not in. We have 20 collaborations this year, and we’re already into 2026 and 2027,” she said.
She said they do swimwear themselves but have collaborations such as Goody Wetbrush, State Luggage, Roller Rabbit pajamas, Kendra Scott Jewelry, Stanley tumblers, Pottery Barn, and Bogner. “We just launched the main line Pottery Barn and we have Pottery Barn Teen and Kids,” said Lilien. “Our home category is still growing. We have an ongoing partnership with Pottery Barn. It’s the new way of licensing. They’re fun and our customers love them. We have 1-800-Flowers. We have beautiful roses in miniature hat boxes. A lot of them go back to our fragrance prints. They’re really beautiful giftables,” said Lilien.
Last week the brand launched a limited-edition rosé with Santa Margherita Wines, as reported.
Hessel Cohen said they go to companies where they love their products, and the companies are specialists in the product “and we’re able to give the LoveShackFancy and whimsy and touch and story tell that makes it a part of our world. It’s extensive and fun for our customer.
“It’s a different demographic and price point and it’s just speaking to so many different customers,” she said.
“We’ve seen so many new customers who’ve never shopped LoveShack before,” said Lilien.
