retail profiles // classy // estivo

Q&A with Carolina Malabet, Creative Director.

Number of stores: 5
Location: Bogotá, Medellin and Cartagena.
Square footage: 60 METERS
Year opened: 2009

Ted Vayos, BODY: Describe your store.

Carolina Malabet: A store that’s carefully imagined and created so each woman can feel great…a fresh, natural, and calm area where you can be free of pretensions. Come inside, and let your senses and soul be awakened by our fruity and citric scents.
Categories:
LINGERIE, LOUNGE WEAR, BODY CARE, SOAPS, BOOKS, CANDLES.
SWIM SUITS, COVER UPS, SANDALS, BAGS, HATS.

Ted: What makes your store special?

Carolina: Estivo is a Colombian brand that emerges from a clear philosophy: "we don’t want you to become someone else, we love you just the way you are". Estivo proposes a universal communication that goes beyond women’s physiques. Estivo speaks of women’s inner words: you are beautiful just the way you are.

With the slogan "Beyond Bodies", Estivo aims to break the barrier of what’s just physical. Estivo’s main interest is in women being women.

Estivo believes in the body and its differences. Its idea of beauty is what comes from observing each woman attentively and finding that natural charm and spontaneous personality, which serves as inspiration.

The brand firmly believes on freeing women of the thought that they won’t find a silhouette that fits their bodies and makes them feel good. Confidence and security are words that define Estivo as a brand.

Estivo’s mission is to generate a new voice of beauty for women. Estivo invites women to try its garments and discover a brand in which many silhouettes, colors, and prints are thought for each shape and body type. The brand firmly believes that shopping for swimwear and underwear should be a fun, exciting, and comfortable experience.

Estivo understands that each woman is different and unique, and that magazine-style women with perfect bodies only make up a small fraction of the world. Estivo loves diversity and believes that a woman’s beauty comes from within. An Estivo woman looks at the mirror confidently and with a big smile, even if she doesn’t have the perfect body type.

Ted: What do you look for in a brand?

Carolina: We have our stores with own brand.

Ted: Describe popular styles or trends in your store.

Carolina: We specialize in swim suits and lingerie for real women! We offer lot’s of styles, we have the one piece with tummy control, removable cups and straps and drapes in different parts of the piece to help the figure. We are very popular in this line because we dress the average women and because you can mix & match all the styles in the store, creating your own style. The same is applicable for the lingerie line
too.

Ted: Describe your price points and size ranges.

Carolina: Swim wear Sizes: XS- XL
Lingerie Sizes: XS- L / 32 - 38.
Price point 80 USD to 120 USD.

Ted: What is your average customer size?

Carolina: We focus on every kind of woman, but the target is from 28 years old to 60 years old, but younger and older women visit us also.

Ted: What does the average customer spend per visit to your store?

Carolina: In us dollars, 300 USD per visit.

Ted: Describe your customer base.

Carolina: Our customer is a woman that loves her body the way it is! She feels great and with confidence the way she is!
She is looking for special pieces that makes her feel better and that shows the best parts of her body. She is an average woman with a normal body that is looking for a brand that believes in her and that loves her just the way she is.
Our women identify with our brand, because our philosophy is to speak the truth, we believe in being a new voice of beauty and women.

Ted: What other information would you like to share?

Carolina: In a world in which brands advertise their products showing women of a perfect and almost surreal beauty, Estivo chooses to advertise its product with real women, like those you can find next door or around a corner. The brand conveys realistic sensations and stimulates emotions closer to a woman’s reality, as well as speaking to women in an intimate and honest language. It generates real messages that each woman can identify herself with.

Estivo believes that beauty shouldn’t be exclusive. It believes in finding beauty in common things and in leaving a mark in each woman’s memory.

Estivo rethinks basics and presents the market with a brand concept that covers femininity, comfort, and security. Its mix-and-match sales method offers total freedom when buying because a customer can assemble countless numbers of silhouettes according to her taste: colors, sizes, designs, and styles.

Estivo invites women to understand it’s concept of beauty and it’s way of thinking. It’s an invitation for women to have fun, be real, free, spontaneous, fresh, and natural…to be themselves!