This weekend was the grand unveiling of Bellevue’s new shopping center The Bravern.
The layout of The Bravern is beautiful. They have spent a considerable amount of money to try and recreate a European villa shopping experience in the middle of downtown.
We visited on Saturday and although it was pretty busy I was surprised that the only areas truly swamped were the makeup counters at Neiman Marcus. I suspect many women were enjoying free make overs but how much they were buying.. I can’t say.
This was my first visit to a Neiman Marcus and I was very excited that the famous department store was coming to our little city. Unfortunately, it did not meet my expectations. The store is quite small, so I don’t see that it brings any more selection than the large Nordstrom right up the road.
The main floor is makeup, shoes, and handbags and this appears to be where Neiman’s hopes to make it’s money. Cosmetics and perfume consume the entire center of the store. Men’s clothing is located on the lower floor and Women’s wear on the upper.
I have to say, the over all styling, clothing, and accessories selection of Neiman’s was very bling. They seem to be catering to a customer that wants to shout their wealth.
I saw a lot of leopard, patent leather, and gold. Sometimes all in one piece. There was a ton of animal prints. My husband claims that he saw penguin and that is all he will be wearing this Fall lol.
Most of The Bravern stores shared this.. flashiness. I expected it to be ritzy but I thought it would be done with class and only a few stores managed this. Most of what I saw was flat out gaudy.
I hate to be rude but honestly the Jimmy Choo store hurt my eyes. Not even a free glass of champagne can convince me that hot pink patent leather leopard peep toe pumps are a good idea.
There were some beautiful and classy pieces at The Bravern. The Salvatore Ferragamo shop was full of chic shoes and handbags in shades of taupe and black. There were plenty of killer spiky heels and studs to be had but it wasn’t distasteful.
Louis Vuitton was it’s classic stylish self but the store was small. I’m sure you’d get a better selection at the larger downtown Seattle store.
Anthropologie is the only store I will revisit. It is smaller than the downtown store and the layout is very confusing but it is still girly heaven. They have a tiny little separate room in the very back of the store with the word Sale just peeking out. It made me laugh that the discounted items had to be hidden from view.
Perhaps The Bravern is just what the uber rich of Bellevue want in a shopping complex but to me it felt…elderly. It really lacked anything fresh, interesting, and unique.
Have any of you local gals been to The Bravern? What did you think of it?
I liked the Neiman Marcus, mainly because it had some designer lines that I like such as Milly. Nordstrom carries Milly too but Neiman carried more. Loved their handbag collection, I finally got to see a Chloe Python Paraty IRL. Will I buy it? No, can't afford it but it was fun to see. I did splurge on a sparkly pair of Miu Miu flats, then stopped spending all together. I walked through the Anthropologie, it is small but cute. I think the Bravern will do well, but it should have been closer to Bel Square and/or they should offer a streetcar or something of that nature between the two.
nice article, i really like it.
-cathy young
http://hotwomenfashionmodels.blogspot.com/
Not a local girl
, but it looks interesting. I wonder how it will do financially. The Bravern is almost a dead-ringer (in concept, not appearance) for our Santana Row (San Jose, Ca.). SR came here a few yrs. ago and offered the "Euro Village" shop, eat, and live experience. SR started out with all the "exclusive" boutiques, but most are gone now. Bottega Veneta, Escada, Wolford, and many more of their ilk are long gone — replaced by restaurants. Anthropologie seems to do well though. But just like makeup is doing well at The Bravern, eating does well at Santana Row. Restaurants are everywhere — too bad they aren't very good though. Still, you did a very nice job with this post and I enjoyed reading it.
Carole
sasy.com
I love this style of mall. It looks similar to a few of the malls in Colorado that I frequented during college. Even though I'm wayyyy over on the east coast I appreciate the review. Nicely done!
Neiman's can be a really great store, but I don't think the "fun" that Neiman's offers is really there if its a tiny store. It sort of defeats the purpose.
I like your blog. There are some really interesting articles.
http://shtarticles.blogspot.com/
Laura-Thanks for your thoughts! I agree, a trolley or something between the shopping malls would be really convenient.
Carole_ Interesting! I think there are a lot of foodies up here as well. I wonder which will be more successful, the stores or restaurants
Roxy-Thanks!
Sarah-I don't know how big other NMs are but this one seemed like it may be a mini version which was a let down.
Jose-Thanks
I've been lurking on your blog for a few months and didn't realize you were in Seattle.
Thanks for the low down on The Bravern. I'm going to check it out next week.
I'm hardly ever in Bellevue, but will check out this new shopping center thanks to those pictures. Probably won't spend anything, but it will be fun to see something new.
Papercourt-Thanks for visiting! let us know what you think of the bravern!
Cyclone- lmk what you think! I might give it one more go down the road. Maybe I had too high expectations
<3 it so much!!
Thank you for the honest review. I too found the Neiman store a bit flashy and frankly trashy. I was looking for an Armani ladies suit, the selection was terrible, there were several jackets and some pants but no matching suit, the size selection was also very poor. I am a size 36 italian, they only had 4 and 6 sizes, which is weird since Armani clothes usually come in italian sizing, not sure if this is some kind of American line, the quality wasn't what I am used to seeing in their line.
Also at Neiman's we had two odd incidents in the maybe 15 minutes that my husband and I spent there. First, I was looking for a creed Spring flower tester to spritz my wrist with, as I like to test my body chemistry before I buy a perfume (I have purchased a few bottles that I ended up not liking the drydown of), as soon as I approached the counter a saleswoman came out from nowhere and gave me a sample to test as they did not have any tester bottles, which was nice, however, she also proceeded to harrass my husband and ask him whether he wanted to try some Creed, I tactfully told her that he wears penhaligons, which unfortunately we have to stock up on when we go to England, as many stores here do not carry the full line. She still kept insisting that he try a Creed, he had to essentially tell her that he is set in his ways and didn't really want to try a new fragrance. Nice salesperson, but a bit eager. I don't know how other people feel but I am less likely to make a purchase when I feel harassed.
I also experienced the other extreme, at the jewelry counter where we were ignored in favor of an older couple. Both my husband and I are very presentable young professionals, who actually do purchase high-end jewelry from time to time. In fact at the time I was wearing a platinum and diamond art deco ring that probably costs more than most of their trinkets. I stood there for a good five minutes and after not even being acknowledged I just decided to leave.
Parking was horrendous (very narrow, valet vs self-park entrances not clearly designated). The location itself, a bit isolated from the main shops of Bellevue square, which gives me no reason to return other than if I were going to make a big ticket purchase, which at least for me doesn't happen every weekend. Also, for the budget conscious parking for 1 hr will cost you six dollars, unless you have it validated at a store. As a result of this parking fee, the only and only store which had a long line was the cup cake store, which was where apparently many patrons were having their ticket validated with purchase.
I do not know how the mall will fare in the long run, from the look of things it appears that the cup cake store will be very profitable. As for the Louis V, Jimmy stores etc., there was not much selection, I didn't really go in for fear of being harassed.
There is no coffee shop yet.
my two cents, I hope it helps.
Menocala-Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the Bravern! Wow the service sounds awful. Surely the SAs have heard the cliche of the obnoxious perfume lady and snooty jewelry service. How funny and ridiculous that they are full filling it lmao
I will have to check out the cupcake store. They sound like the big winner here!