Redefining the Retail Experience

As is often the case with creative individuals, designer Beau Lawrence’s career in fashion commenced with an “Aha!” moment. His happened in the summer of 1997, when he was 22, while browsing retail shops at the Newport Beach Pier. He smoothed his hand over the graphic T-shirts in Billabong when suddenly it hit him, “These guys are smart,” he thought. “They’re smarter than I am. I’m going to do the same thing. I’m going to build a brand.” He hopped in the car and drove nearly 90 miles from Newport to Valencia and optimistically declared to his parents his new career path: “Mom, Dad, I’m not going to be an architect. I’m going to be a fashion designer.”

He tells me this story almost 28 years after the fact, in the office space on the top floor of his men’s clothing store, Ace Rivington, the latest location of which he opened on October 17. This space represents what I believe to be a window into his mind and, consequently, his brand: Sentimental maps, Ace Rivington posters, fashion design books, photographs, model airplanes, letters, and other accolades line the walls and shelves of the intimate space, which functions like a man cave, if that man were a fashion designer with a love for 1930s aviation.

A desk occupies one corner; a couch, coffee table, and a chair occupy the other. I take the sofa; he takes the leather foldable chair opposite — though I feel it should be the other way around. This space, his office, is his sanctuary. It is adjacent to the design room, where a workman’s table occupies the room’s center, and a whole wall displays a miscellany of flannel shirts.

Downstairs is the retail space located at the corner of State and Figueroa. He spends every day in the flagship store, “at least six days a week,” he offers. It’s a warm and inviting space — the back wall is covered from crown to sole in wood. An electric fireplace glows opposite a leather sofa, and 1940s French jazz permeates the air. You feel like you’ve been transported back in time.

This is precisely how he wants you to feel — like you’ve traveled to a time when retail shopping was a whole experience in and of itself. For Lawrence, that time was the ’80s, when he was young and would accompany his parents on their shopping trips. He appreciated the high level of service that was the norm back then and wanted to emulate it in his store. He also referenced some great ambiance creators: “I’ve looked at so many people, from Walt Disney to Ralph Lauren and others, for the power of space and being able to create feelings and experiences in a space like our retail stores.” 

This is why he converses with his customers — connects with them. He especially enjoys giving recommendations to first-timers to Santa Barbara and welcoming them to our quaint town. “One of my first questions when customers come into the store is, ‘Where did you have dinner last night? Where are you having dinner tonight?’”

“Why’s that?” I ask.

“Because there are so many spectacular food considerations in this town and so many inspired entrepreneurs and restaurateurs who are creating experiences in their own rights for people.”

If you visit the store, you’ll surely receive this high-quality service as you peruse a selection of jeans, flannel shirts, graphic tees, custom belts, shoes, and other accessories. It’s quality over quantity for Lawrence. “We’re not building a broad range of fashion,” he says. “We’re building fashion basics, things that I want to look cool in your closet for the next 10 years.”

The jeans are a hallmark of the brand, offering comfort and stretch but controlled growth to avoid what Lawrence refers to as “dumpy butt.” Lawrence works with Candiani Denim, a fourth-generation family-run mill in Robecchetto, Italy, half an hour west of Milan. 

He always knew he wanted to explore his creative side, but he wasn’t sure how. “What I was very clear on from an early age was that my path would revolve around making things,” he recalls. He attended the College of the Canyons in Valencia, where he studied math and science. Shortly after, he went to The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM), where he studied fashion design. After FIDM, he interned for fashion designer Richard Tyler, worked at BCBG, and then at Guess, receiving a Design Excellence Award in 2008.

He launched Ace Rivington in 2013 and ran it out of his garage. He based the brand around an imagined character, Ace Rivington, a “globe-trotting, gallivanting modern-day private pilot able to explore every corner of the planet.” Lawrence wrote numerous stories detailing this character’s adventures, who became more than just branding for him; Ace Rivington was a whole venture, almost becoming a television show at one point.

The brand started with wholesale at the outset and even launched a catalog that “was a flop.” The day before Thanksgiving in 2016, Lawrence opened Ace Rivington’s first retail space in the Waterline in the Funk Zone. “Within the first few weeks of being there, I knew that retail was going to be a big part of our path,” he muses. He then opened a location at La Arcada Plaza and, shortly, after one in Los Olivos. To stay afloat during the pandemic, Ace Rivington produced masks made from denim chambray, a soft denim material, and delivered them door-to-door.

Now, he’s on a prime corner at State and Figueroa in downtown Santa Barbara, soaking it all in and feeling a tinge of nostalgia. Lawrence hands me a black-and-white photograph dated December 27, 1930. It’s taken from the standpoint of Ace Rivington, facing the stores across the street. He points to a partially obscured sign for a shoe repair shop and informs me that the space was once owned by the illustrious shoe designer Salvatore Ferragamo. His excitement at this fact resembles that of a kid in a candy store; I imagine he mentions it to people often.

“When you think about the scope of people who have created concepts and businesses out of Santa Barbara, it’s so significant and inspiring,” he reflects. Ferragamo ran his shop across the street for a few years before moving to Hollywood. Lawrence hopes for Ace Rivington to become a fixture of downtown Santa Barbara. “My goal is that we’ll be here for 25 years,” he says. 

See acerivington.com.