PICK OF THE CROP

Spanish fashion giant picks La Cantera for first San Antonio store

Mango is opening one of its first Texas stores right here in San Antonio.

The Shops at La Cantera will soon be bearing more fruit. According to a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), Spanish fashion giant Mango is building its first San Antonio store.

State records show the 4,461 square feet store will land at 15900 La Cantera Pkwy #8850 — the former site of shuttered tween retailer Justice. Behind the build is New York-based DOMO Architecture, the firm responsible for the splashy 2017 rework of the brand’s Soho flagship.

The $800,000 renovation is set to begin in April and wrap up in July. Neither leasing firm Brookfield Properties nor Mango corporate responded to a request for a targeted opening date, though assumably, the store will welcome its first guests before the end of the year.

Founded in Barcelona, Mango is a leader in fast fashion, often compared to another Shops of La Cantera tenant, Zara. Though pricing is relatively affordable, its menswear and womenswear lines are often cited for using higher quality fabrics and more exact tailoring. Styling leans more classic, relying less on the microtrends embraced by comparable shops.

Though nearly ubiquitous in Europe and Asia, Mango is a relative newcomer to the U.S. brick-and-mortar market. Its first foray on domestic shores was with the Soho shop in 2006. Since then, the company has been slow to build permanent homes — even while amping up omnichannel distribution online and through partnerships with Macy’s, Nordstrom, and others.

2022, however, saw a shift in direction, starting with the May opening of a vast Fifth Avenue flagship. In an October 2022 press release about its Florida expansion, the company also revealed that it was heading west with planned outposts in Georgia, California, and Texas.

Eventually, Mango plans to have 40 U.S. stores operating by 2024 and to grow the market to its top five in terms of turnover. The race will be to see which city gets the first Mango store. TDLR records also show a location planned in Friendswood, also to be completed in July.

Meanwhile, the Shops at La Cantera continues to position itself as San Antonio’s premier shopping destination. Gucci debuted its first standalone accessories shop at the development in December 2022. Whimsical jeweler Gorjana and eyewear behemoth Ray Ban also have boutiques on the way.

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It's Showtime

Original Beetlejuice costumes crawl to San Antonio in time for sequel

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice film still with Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice, Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz

Film still courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Beetlejuice was always instantly recognizable thanks to its unique costuming.

If you say his name three times in a row, a striped suit appears...or something. In celebration of the new Beetlejuice movie, titled Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, a costume pop-up in San Antonio is putting some of the memorable looks on display from August 28 to September 15.

These costumes are some of the most iconic parts of the 1988 film, from Beetlejuice's stripes, to Lydia's red wedding dress, to Lydia's mom's single-gloved black ensemble. Some original pieces (including two of those three) will be on display at Santikos Casa Blanca, in a free exhibit that will surely inspire some Halloween trends this year after the film's September 6 release.

Directed by Tim Burton, the 2024 film follows a different plot years after the original, with returning cast members including Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice, Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz, and Catherine O’Hara as her mother, Delia Deetz. The hottest name in campy, creepy film, Jenna Ortega, is also joining for the first time as Lydia's daughter, Astrid, an unexpected twist for people like Ryder who expected that Lydia was not exactly the maternal type.

Beetlejuice costumes at Santikos Casa Blanca A new release shared an image of the display.Image courtesy of Santikos Entertainment

These costumes are the work of designer Colleen Atwood, who is responsible for some of the most distinctive costuming in movies, often with a fantasy or horror element. Atwood worked on Hannibal Lecter's famous mask in Silence of the Lambs; many fantastical, extravagant looks in Alice in Wonderland; and the surprisingly whimsical, yet dark garb of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

In the ouroboros of Tim Burton movies, there is always much cross-collaboration, so it makes sense that Atwood has worked alongside Ortega in another spooky reboot before. She served as a designer for Wednesday, the Burton-Netflix series that launched Ortega into fame for her portrayal of Wednesday Addams.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice cast The new film adds a generation to the Deetz dynamic.Film still courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Visitors to the display are invited to take pictures with the famous looks, and they can generate their own images as fabulously dressed dead people at welcometoafterlife.com. Santikos Casa Blanca is located at 11210 Alamo Ranch Pkwy.

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