Sunny days for C&C California

C&C California, the barely three-year-old T-shirt company, is thinking big and bigger. Its first shop-in-shop bowed last Friday at Bloomingdale's Manhattan flagship, the second is to launch today at the retailer's SoHo store and four more are set to open next week in Southern California.

The Los Feliz, Calif.-based company, whose brightly colored, layerable T-shirts got a huge boost when Oprah Winfrey featured them on her show in C&C's first year, was acquired by Liz Claiborne Inc. in January. In England the brand is available in department stores such as Harvey Nichols, Selfridges and Liberty, and high-end boutiques such as Browns, The Cross and Diverse.

"We were this little groovy sailboat and now we're this tanker," said Claire Stansfield, who cofounded the brand with Cheyann Benedict. The venture is part of a growth strategy for a company that generated net sales of $21 million in the 2004 fiscal year, according to Liz Claiborne. People familiar with the company expect it to do about $28 million this year.

C&C California has started to add bottoms and dresses to the line, and this fall unveiled cashmere T-shirts as well as lightweight corduroy trousers. It hopes the same recipe of easy, layerable styles that worked for the T-shirts will prove as delectable to customers as they adapt it to other pieces. "We want to establish it as a lifestyle brand," Stansfield said. "And we thought, 'Why don't we start making some of the products that people normally wear with our T-shirts?'"

Stansfield said the company is ready to aim for domination in the category. Opening a stand-alone shop is high on the wish list, particularly after watching the success of some competitors, she said.