Maintaining luxury brand standards takes quite a lot of work these days, so in an effort to protect its revered reputation as one of the most upscale jewelers in the world, Tiffany & Co. is suing one of its’ L.A. landlords for violating the terms of its contract. The Tiffany boutique in the Westfield Century City shopping plaza currently shares proximity with Gelson’s grocery store, but is refusing to sit idly by while an H&M apparel store moves in. H&M is considered a low-priced retailer, and Tiffany’s contract with the mall states that retailers “whose merchandise and/or price points are not considered to be luxury, upscale, or better by conventional retail industry standards,” are not permitted to use or lease spaces within, fronting, or adjacent to the upscale brand’s boutique. H&M is one of the trendiest apparel companies in popular youth culture today, which may be exactly why Tiffany’s does not deem it worthy enough to share its locale in the high-end, open-air mall, which caters to an affluent Westside clientele. According to the lawsuit, Tiffany’s feels that “H&M is at best characterized as a ‘popular-price’ mass merchandise clothing retailer…The location of the H&M store will cause irreparable injury to Tiffany’s business reputation as a luxury retailer, a reputation that Tiffany has enjoyed and worked hard to maintain for more than a century and a half.”
Via Luxist and L.A. Times
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