Stripe Design Group’s Suna Lock and Dana Rader keep it timeless and classic
The tireless entrepreneurs of Stripe—Suna Lock and Dana Rader—think of their work as “providing an inspirational playground” for their customers. Anyone who’s found themselves glued to the retail eye candy of both Stripe and its brother store, Stripe Men, will agree. “Walls and windows,” they tell me, are key. “Windows are the eyes of the store,” says Lock. “The back wall is the anchor,” says Rader. Stripe’s back walls remain lit after hours—“like a stage set” they both nod in agreement. Pooling Lock’s background in textile and interior design with Rader’s degree in fine arts, the duo focused on creating an irresistible retail environment. “That’s what we needed to compete in an online world. People have to be enamored immediately. We can’t be lazy about the environment,” says Lock.
A giant whiteboard in the upstairs office documents the coming year of windows and walls for Stripe designers and planners. “We collect ideas all year,” and then the entire team meets in January to brainstorm and hash out ideas for the 6-year-old flagship and its 3-year-old sibling. The theme-driven walls change six times a year. “Or more,” Lock quickly adds. Once themes are planned, the buying begins. Where do they shop? I ask. Their eyes roll as if dealing with a friendly idiot. Flea markets! Including one that spans five towns and thousands of purveyors. Who knew that the country’s largest flea market unfolds each year in Round Top, Texas? A recent display of vintage farm implements—this in a shop for women—testifies to the stylish frenzy of their retail imagination. “Stripe for men is much easier to plan for,” they both agree without knowing exactly why. “The space is smaller, hence cozier.” Right now giant puffy cotton-batting “clouds” drift along Stripe’s back wall and down the front windows. The idea came from a friend’s wedding. “Effective and simple. That’s what we love.”
Lock specializes in kids’ stuff, jewelry, and heads up Stripe’s Design Group. Rader, who pretty much can’t stay still, does clothing and buying. “We start with soap land and kitchen world,” Rader says. They both laugh. Other “lands” include “blue and white.” I start noticing all the blue and white towels, toys, blouses, and scarves. “Or beige,” Rader says, straightening a towel. “We never run out of ideas. We get ideas everywhere. Ideas in the shower,” says Rader. “We know our customer by now pretty well. We buy timeless.” Timeless is a guiding concept at Stripe, hand picked in a curated landscape. They both nod. “We watch what’s trending,” says Lock. “But we tend to be just off trend,” adds Rader. “Timeless and classic.” It looks expensive, they both agree. But it isn’t. Stripe shoppers cross over age groups and body types. Stripe is for the entire gamut of age groups, from the rubber-duckie new moms to people who partied with Andy Warhol. And there are private as well as corporate clients for their design group, too, including Marini’s new candy store, the new Venus Spirits tasting room, Bonny Doon Vineyard Tasting Room and Citrix.
“We moved here to Walnut [Avenue] in 2007,” Lock explains. “Rents were lower and negotiable. Everyone was closing up. We saw a massive opportunity in a time that was desolate.”
What’s next? International travel “to find places that make certain clothing the very best,” they say. There will then be a Stripe line of clothing, and eventually more. “We asked ourselves, if we want to mind the store ourselves, how could we expand?” says Lock. Having a custom line available online and in other larger retail stores, that’s how.
“Besides,” Rader reminds me, “we have a team—and we’re both OCD.”
Past the $24 earrings displayed on playing cards, we check out a huge dried tree stuck into a giant tub and anchored by round boulders. “We actually went driving around looking for a dead tree,” Rader recalls happily.
When customers come in they’re greeted by a circular table, the “activity area.” “It’s how we’re feeling at that moment,” Lock explains. “Our current ideas on a table.” Hammered copper Moscow Mule mugs make a statement next to striped scarves, jelly glasses and tooled leather. “We try to help people look at things differently,” Rader confesses. “We wouldn’t buy something we didn’t like,” they agree, adjusting clothing on racks and turning tags to maximize visual excitement.
PHOTO: Suna Lock and Dana Rader celebrate six years at their retail location on Walnut Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz. CHIP SCHEUER
