Stanley Korshak Sets Renovation, New Shops
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DALLAS — Stanley Korshak owner Crawford Brock turns 69 this month, but he but can’t fathom the idea of retirement.
In fact, he’s in the midst of a $5 million renovation of the luxury fashion emporium that he thinks will help boost annual revenue by 50 percent beyond its current $50 million in 10 years.
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“I’m going to hire the best people and put this on a 10-year track — or a 25-year track for a generational business — and I’m not gonna give up,” Brock said. “I’m going to stay with it.”
The pivot point was a 15-year lease that can be extended to 25, which Brock signed last July for Korshak’s home at The Crescent, an upscale hotel, office and retail complex that is locally owned by John Goff and Richard Rainwater.
“With runway like that, you can do all the things you’ve dreamed about doing,” Brock said.
The vision is to update the overall look with lighter hues and furnishings and colorful commissioned artwork, like the newly installed Venetian glass sculpture that evokes a double helix and hangs in the center of the atrium.
The plan also calls for new Brunello Cucinelli, Kiton and Cesare Attolini shops and an authentic Italian cafe with tables that spill into The Crescent’s fountain courtyard. It’s a pet project for Brock, who loves homemade pasta.
In the women’s fashion department on the second floor, two curved walls will be removed to improve sight lines and expose large windows. The designer area will get two more fitting rooms plus a spacious private VIP suite with two large dressing rooms, a three-way mirror and a sitting area.
Coming early next year is a bridge that crosses the atrium to forge a second link between the women’s designer and contemporary departments, which are on opposite sides of the upper level.
“We’re knee-deep in all those changes now,” Brock said. “It’s very exciting.”
The facelift will add only about 1,500 square feet to the store’s 33,000 square feet of selling space, said Brock.
“We’re repurposing space so that it functions better,” he explained.
Like Brock, who came to manage Korshak in 1987 from the stand-alone Neiman Marcus store in Beverly Hills, all three of the company’s top merchandise managers are Neiman’s veterans along with renovation consultant Ignaz Gorischek, who formerly worked for decades in store design and visual merchandising at the luxury department store.
“I’ll double the women’s business now that I’m here,” said Rachel Goldberger, who joined Korshak in February as vice president and divisional merchandise manager of women’s ready-to-wear and earlier in her career was a DMM at Neiman Marcus.
Just completed are fresh Cucinelli shops for men and women in the brand’s signature cream and charcoal decor. The men’s Cucinelli boutique commands prime placement next to Korshak’s front entrance and features a bar with leather stools.
Korshak is “one of the most beautiful American multi-brand stores,” Brunello Cucinelli said in an interview. “We have a great business with them, and Crawford is a person of taste, very smart, quick and young in his head. He has a young frame of mind.”
Martha Leonard, senior vice president and general merchandise manager, claimed Korshak has the highest sell-through of Cucinelli of any multibrand store in the country.
“It resonates with our clients because it builds upon itself season after season — everything kind of goes together,” Leonard said.
Next to the women’s Cucinelli area on the upper level is a new women’s shop for Kiton. Korshak has long had a strong men’s business with the brand’s made-to-measure clothing, which it carries exclusively in Dallas, and Kiton’s women’s collection has “exploded,” Brock said.
The shop offers rtw and made-to-measure dresses, jackets and sportswear, Goldberger explained.
“It used to be really tailored and jacket driven, but now it’s soft and feminine, and the quality is beyond,” she said.
A new shop for Sylva & Cie — Korshak’s top fine jewelry vendor — was celebrated with a May 11 party for Los Angeles designer Sylva Yepremian, one of the few jewelers who doesn’t sell via her own website.
A number of clients collect Sylva’s pricey, one-of-a-kind jewel encrusted skulls, and the line sells across the board to all ages, noted Korshak’s longtime jewelry buyer Melissa Geiser.
In addition, the Attolini shop of men’s tailored clothing from Naples is only the second one in a U.S. multibrand retailer after Bergdorf Goodman.
In recent years, Leonard and Brock have focused on increasing gross margin and dropped brands that demanded bigger orders without regard to prior sell-throughs.
“We’re chasing vendors that we want to be great partners,” Brock said, “and therefore our margin last year ran up 53 percent.”
Korshak just introduced Borgo De Nor’s colorful print dresses to the selling floor and is adding 10 new designer and eight contemporary women’s collections for fall, Leonard noted.
Business has been strong, posting the highest revenue ever in 2022, followed by record-setting months in January, February and April, Brock said.
“We’re selling fashion and femininity and seeing a resurgence in suiting and solid monochromatic dressing,” Leonard said. “We’ve had a real uptick in new clients from people moving to Dallas from the East Coast or West Coast and people who are in town for events. People are ready to buy. They just want something new, not for a date or a vacation or a wedding.”
Brock credits men’s DMM and planning director Alex Lancaster with doubling the men’s business in the past two years largely by motivating the salespeople and encouraging collaboration.
“Alex showed up, and in a nice, firm, direct way [got them] all on board, and they don’t want to disappoint her,” Brock said.
Every men’s vendor offers made-to-measure and the store routinely sells custom suits for $15,000, Brock said.
“Our clients have closets full of clothes, and they want to buy what they want,” he said. “They aren’t focused on how much it costs.”
Brock’s youngest daughter, Helen Calen, is the only one of the three who has consistently worked in the store. She has cycled through a number of roles, including as accessories buyer, and is working with Leonard as a financial analyst.
Brock, who bought the business from oil heiress Caroline Hunt in 2002, still refers to the counsel he received from late retail guru Stanley Marcus, who consulted for him for eight years beginning in 1988.
“You have to develop relationships and build the business one brick at a time, and that’s working,” he said. “It’s Stanley’s shopkeeper concept.”
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