Down undie

If you haven't heard of Gilly Hicks -- the independent young Australian woman (wink-wink) or the store named for her that recently opened at the Mall of America -- you're probably, like me, well over 30.

If you're "like this" with Gilly, you're probably more like 15-year-old Kayley, who gushed about Gilly Hicks on a YouTube video posted earlier this month. "I walk in. It was like ... heaven. So amazing I wanted to die!" said a breathless Kayley of Minneapolis. "It's like walking into a closet. Better than Victoria's Secret. Not even kidding!"

The creators of Gilly Hicks would be happy to hear that. After two years of development, Abercrombie & Fitch launched the GH chain in January (MOA, their third store, opened in February) to take on Victoria and her high-profile undie empire. Like VS, they're doing it in a thoroughly modern way -- youthfully and provocatively -- which, today, is pretty much the same thing.

Kayley's mother would probably be relieved to know that her daughter heard about Gilly while in A&F to spend a birthday gift card, since other flush young shoppers are learning about Gilly by viewing the chain's must-be-18-unless-you-effortlessly-make-up-your-birth-year video. The slickly produced two-minute clip (gillyhicks.com) features take-me-now music and a gorgeous, braless model diving underwater and romping on the beach with a buff young mate who apparently couldn't find anything to wear. No wonder she's giggling.

The whole thing makes me want to scream, but for a less-than-obvious reason. Yes, I have heard that sex sells. (I'm pretty sure I wrote a term paper about it in the 1980s.) But there's something that's even more compelling to savvy young shoppers than skin. It's called quality. And I can't help but think that Kayley, and my two daughters, and everybody else's daughters are being grossly underestimated by creative marketing types who are writing the same script over and over because they're lazy.

I felt even surer of this after walking into Gilly Hicks last week. The 10,000-square-foot store is designed as a British colonial-style manor, circa 1935, located in Sydney, Australia (a sexier back story than the company's actual headquarters in New Albany, Ohio).

The multiroom store features fireplaces, comfy couches, chandeliers, perfume, sleepwear and a bra "library" with 40 styles in luscious shades. It's fun. But naughty? I've seen racier stuff at Target. About the only risk to walking in with your teenaged daughter is tripping down steps in the dimly lit rooms and landing on one of the size 0 salesgirls before she can extend her earnest canned greeting: "Hi! Welcome to Gilly Hicks, the cheeky cousin of Abercrombie & Fitch!"

Which takes me back to that video clip. Why do it? Why create a marketing campaign that, according to A&F, walks "a fine line between sexy and soft-core porn" when the actual product is far tamer? Why do it when you know that a store directed at females 18 and older will be populated by girls years younger who are aspiring up. Girls like Kayley who, by the way, bought not a thong, but "this really cute sweatshirt, and this shirt underneath. Oh my gosh, it's so cool!"

'In your face'

"It does not surprise me that they launched Gilly Hicks with a provocative video," said Tim Henderson, senior director and consumer strategist for Minneapolis-based trend research company Iconoculture.

"The brand promise, as with [their other lines] A&F and Hollister Co., is to be irreverent, in your face, all of it with an undercurrent of sexuality." And the brand hope is to stay in the black. Lifestyle-brand stores, Henderson noted, face growing competition and thinning margins. "They're looking for any way to differentiate their product," he said.

Selling sex is an easy solution. But there are other ways to win over that savvy young shopper, such as with creativity, color, whimsy or the best prices. First you have to really understand who she is.

Sharon Abramson, 16, of Minneapolis, wandered into Gilly Hicks recently and shelled out $35 for a pair of "really comfortable lounge pants." But she's tiring of stores that "try to make us feel older and sexy. I think it's wrong. We want to save our innocence. I feel like they're shoving it down our throats that wanting to be sexy is normal."

Gail Rosenblum • 612-673-7350