New Lands' End shop to drop anchor in Loop

The Sears flagship store at 2 N. State St. will open a first-floor shop showcasing its preppy Lands' End apparel in lateSeptember, including a new Lands' End collection of women's lacylingerie.

The 10,000-square-foot shop will have an assortment 50 percentlarger than the Lands' End apparel and accessories now sold inseparate departments in the downtown store.

The Lands' End shop will sell men's, women's and children'sclothing in a full assortment of sizes and colors; men's, women's andchildren's shoes; towels and bath accessories, and the lingerie lineof bras, panties and lounge wear.

Lands' End is known for basic cotton and workday intimates, butthe expanded collection will include feminine styles with French laceand Swiss embroidery and an assortment of colors, said MicheleCasper, director of public relations for Dodgeville, Wis.-basedLands' End.

"We are offering beautiful feminine details and fine fabrics. It'san opportunity to grow the business," Casper said.

A Sears spokesman said the Loop store attracts professional officeworkers, tourists, conventiongoers and others who recognize Lands'End's quality of workmanship.

Kim Picciola, a retail analyst with Morningstar in Chicago, saidthe lacy lingerie seems "a bit of a departure" from the basic andclassic look that is Lands' End's style.

"Why go into intimate apparel when Lands' End is still trying toget the ready-to-wear apparel business back on its feet?" Picciolasaid.

Lands' End is higher priced than Sears' discount clothing. Itinitially flopped with urban shoppers and suffered from inventorymishaps that forced Sears to discount the merchandise and heap itinto sloppy displays.

Sears was even rumored to be shopping the Lands' End brand at adiscounted price a few years ago.

Former Sears CEO Alan Lacy championed buying Lands' End for $1.9billion four years ago in an effort to woo Sears' upscale appliancebuyers over to the "softer" side.

Edward S. Lampert, the hedge-fund billionaire who engineeredKmart's $12.3 billion takeover of Sears last year, denied the sell-off rumors and called Lands' End a "great American brand" that had aplace in the retailer's strategy.

The Lands' End shop at Sears in the Loop will be set off by navyblue-and-white signs representing Lands' End's nautical roots, andwill have a couch and overstuffed chairs, teak tables and an Internetkiosk where shoppers can order goods online.

The Lands' End shop lets Sears leverage the strengths of what'sknown as multichannel selling -- enabling shoppers to call an 800number, or go online or walk into stores to buy goods.

The new line of Lands' End intimates will also be added in lateSeptember to existing Lands' End shops at Sears stores at WoodfieldMall in Schaumburg and at Westfield Hawthorn shopping center inVernon Hills.

Lands' End has set up "shop in shops" in 25 Sears stores in sevenstates, including four in the Chicago area. The other two are atOakbrook Center in Oak Brook and at Orland Square Mall in OrlandPark.

There are no plans to open more Lands' End shops in the Chicagoarea, Casper said.

The downtown Sears store will hire a handful of new salespeopletrained to work in the Lands' End shop. Existing merchandise is beingrearranged to make way for the shop, but no lines will be dropped, aSears spokesman said.

"Our hope is that [the Lands' End shop] will be a much morepersonalized service experience," Casper said.

sguy@suntimes.com