Dylan Lauren '96
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Candylandlords: Lauren, left, and business
partner, Rubin |
As a child, Dylan Lauren's favorite candy
was anything red--red gumballs, red licorice, or red gummy fish.
At Duke, she kept a supply of gumballs on hand, and her mother
would ship boxes of Bazooka bubble gum to provide a sugar boost
at exam time.
"It was great study food," she says.
Seven years after graduating, Lauren has parlayed her love of sweets
into a successful business on Manhattan's Upper East Side that
has brought the candy store into the twenty-first century. The
two-story, 10,000-square-foot store, just across Third Avenue from
Bloomingdale's, offers 4,000 different kinds of candy, including
twenty-one colors of M & M's, sixteen flavors of Skittles,
and an assortment of chocolate roses, as well as candy "accessories" such
as crystal Pez dispensers.
In a store where the dÈcor changes with the seasons and
items are packaged in a style that Lauren, an art history major
at Duke, deems "fashionable and hip," there are also
300 flavors of ice cream and plenty of old-fashioned cotton candy. "We
attract all ages," says Lauren. "Kids like candy, because
it's fun and sweet. For adults, it's comfort food and reminds them
of happy times."
Lauren, who keeps in shape running a seven-mile loop in Central
Park, says she eats candy--in moderation. "It's a feel-good
product, and when your metabolism kicks in, it makes you energetic."
Lauren says her father, designer Ralph Lauren, provided sage advice
as she embarked on her retail career. "He told me if you have
a dream, do it, because you'll do your best, and find the energy
to do the things that you are passionate about," she says.
| A suite of sweets |
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And Lauren is passionate about sweets. While in Europe during her
junior year, she collected candies from all over the continent.
After graduation, she began doing her own artwork, using candy
as the medium for sculpture. She found artists who sculpted with
chocolate and showcased their work at special events. She attended
national candy shows to learn about the industry.
In June 2000, she met Jeff Rubin, who had set up a candy department
called FAO Schweetz inside FAO Schwarz, the famous toy store. They
teamed up and developed the concept of a store that offers expensive,
beautifully packaged candy such as Belgian chocolates, as well
as bins full of nostalgic favorites like Bazooka bubblegum and
Tootsie Rolls.
With only nine employees, Dylan's Candy Bar is still a small company,
but expansion is on the way. This summer, the company went national,
opening stores in Long Island and Houston. Another store was scheduled
to open in Orlando in September. Lauren is considering new stores
in other cities across the United States, as well as in London,
Paris, and Toronto. And she is expanding offerings of her own candy
label, while developing a line of spa and bath products that will
also be sold at Dylan's.
Lauren works with the company's buyer to select the steady stream
of new products that keep the store fresh. She also helps design
the interiors and plan events held in the candy store's party room,
where Manhattan's elite throw kids' birthday parties and bar-mitzvahs
or young sophisticates gather for bachelorette sendoffs. As Entrepreneur.com
put it, Dylan's shop "has made candy cool."
So far, her passion for sweets is undiminished. "Sure, there's
pressure," she says. "It's a lot of responsibility, and
we have to sell things. But it's a creative outlet for me, and
it doesn't feel like work."
--David McKay Wilson
Wilson is a New York-based freelance writer.
www.dylanscandybar.com
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