business

What does a corporate headhunter do when the economy tanks and clients stop hiring?

What else? She designs swimsuits.

Gillian Gabriel, a headhunter of advertising, marketing and communications talent for the past 16 years, launched an Internet-based line of swimwear this spring called "GiGi," designed as "the little black dress" of swimsuits.

Gabriel, who sells the one-piece suit for $98, said she hopes to capitalize on the horror and trepidation that some women experience when shopping in stores for swimsuits.

"That is a big motivation for not buying a suit," Gabriel said about the traditional retail experience. "Anybody will do anything to avoid walking into a store and stripping down and looking at yourself in those bright fluorescent lights."

Indeed, a survey earlier this year by casual retailer Lands' End found that 68 percent of more than 1,000 women it interviewed used the Internet to shop for a new swimsuit.

"Women are really resourceful when it comes to shopping for swimwear," Suzanne Bryant, vice president of design for Lands' End, said at the time of the survey's release in April. However, Bryant also noted that four out of 10 surveyed go to a retailer to get properly fitted. The survey also found that more than 80 percent confessed to wearing a swimsuit that was too big or too small.

Gabriel began her swimsuit quest in 2008 when client needs for a headhunter "just shut off" as the recession's grip tightened.

"I cooked, I worked out, I played Scrabble with my friends. Then I got bored and started this up," Gabriel said. "This swimsuit thing had been bothering me for 10 years."

Gabriel, who is 52 and still has headhunting assignments, said the demographic she targets is "30-ish to 50-ish" women who no longer can wear, or want to wear, the more revealing swimsuits favored by 20-somethings.

"Women at a certain age don't want a skintight look," she said.

In New York, Gabriel found a Spanish fabric with a higher level of nylon than other swimsuits, giving it a soft texture and a little more room. Her one-piece suit also has a higher back, covers "the behind," and is adjustable.

To further simplify shopping, Gabriel also limited the GiGi to four colors -- black, white, pink and brown.

The start-up process for GiGi has been a bit of trial and error. When she ordered her first swimsuits -- made by H&H Sewing in Blaine -- she ordered them in small, medium, large and extra large.

Initial orders, however, have been almost exclusively large and extra large in the color black.

"I did the sizing, and I was wrong," she admits.

But it doesn't hurt to have connections. Gabriel's marketing strategy is anchored by her website, gigilovesyou.com, which was designed by the ad agency Gabriel deGrood Bendt, where husband Tom Gabriel is a name partner.

The agency also helped Gabriel with focus groups and viral marketing techniques.

Using the dining room table of a longtime friend as "worldwide shipping center," Gabriel says suits are shipped out within 24 to 36 hours of an order.

A corporate headhunter since she moved to Minneapolis in late 1993, Gabriel -- a New York native -- got her retail start while living in Hawaii. She was pregnant with the first her of two children and realized that few stores carried baby clothes.

After some market testing in the living room of the 29th-floor condo where she and husband Tom lived, Gabriel moved down to street level and opened up Baby, It's You.

Gabriel is circumspect about the financials for GiGi. She said her start-up costs were in the "five-figure" range and passes on discussing sales projections. But overhead is low and she may have tapped a little-known market.

"My Gigi is fabulous," raved Audrey McClelland last month on the Mom Generations blog that she co-writes. "It really is the perfect little black suit .... We don't want to be hiding under cover-ups and towels all day."

David Phelps • 612-673-7269