Hot, sweaty evenings into nights, foldout chairs sprawling onto the sidewalk, the odd trek up a five-floor walk up to a sought-after rooftop soirée. New York summer is a far cry from a picturesque European beach club. And that’s exactly what brands are banking on.

Ahead of peak summer, brands from Barcelona-based Gimaguas to London’s Fruity Booty have set up shop across the pond, opening limited-time pop-ups in New York and Los Angeles. While, next week, Cou Cou Intimates is returning to NYC for the second summer running. Other brands are jumping on the US train, but swapping the two coastal go-tos for less obvious, but still buzzy American destinations, like Australian activewear brand CSB’s action-packed 25-day Miami pop-up. Even US-native brands are getting in on the action, swapping coasts to reach shoppers East to West; last weekend, LA-based brands Cleo Camp, Brooke Callahan and Lizzie Ames upped sticks for a three-day ‘Spring in New York’ NYC shop on the Lower East Side. These brands aren’t focused on summer holidays, but on dressing women for their everyday city lives during the hot summer months.

“Our brand really connects with that feeling of wanting something that lifts your mood, and summer is definitely at the core of our spirit,” says Claudia Durany, co-founder of Gimaguas. “Our clothes are lightweight, easy to wear in the city during summer, and also perfect for traveling and packing,” co-founder (and twin) Sayana Durany agrees. “You can fit so many Gimaguas pieces into a single carry-on, which makes them ideal for that effortless summer-in-the-city lifestyle.”

The bi-coastal It-girls certainly think so. In both Los Angeles and New York, stars including Addison Rae, Amelia Gray, Emily Ratajkowski and Paloma Elsesser posted an array of summery looks in the Gimaguas changing room, tagging the brand and making it known that it was in town from Spain. The girls were invited in for gifting, but are also existing brand fans, so purchased extra items, the founders say. “Everything happens very organically. Most of the girls who come already know the brand, have shopped with us before, or naturally wear Gimaguas, so the pop-up simply becomes a more personal and fun way to experience it,” Claudia says. It’s going well — the brand’s LA pop-up was up 90% versus last year, and the New York pop-up is open until June 21, but the numbers are looking “great”, Sayana says.

Cou Cou founder and creative director Rose Colcord is arriving in town with a similar ethos. “So many of our pieces lend themselves to effortless summer essentials and styling. When it heats up in New York, I’m constantly seeing Cou Cou on the street — you can just slip on one of our little slip dresses with some kitten heels and go out,” she says.

Pop-ups are a valuable volume driver for non-US-based brands. Each founder coming to town says the US is one of their fastest-growing markets, and that the pop-ups are primarily a bid to meet — and fuel — demand. Fruity Booty founder and designer Hattie Tennant notes that people tend to buy more at these IRL outposts, knowing they’re less likely to place an online order in the near-term due to customs and shipping costs. Though bringing items into the US for the pop-up still means customs and tariffs (as you have to declare the goods), it still helps to offset the high shipping costs that each individual would have to pay were they to purchase online.

Enabling customers to try on the clothes IRL also makes a difference for future orders. For Colcord, who is back in New York after a better-than-expected pop-up in Williamsburg last summer, this is key. “We’ve also had so many new customers this year who want to try their pieces on in-person so they can find their sizing,” she says. “We also have new pieces and essentials that we want our customer to see and experience in person.”

Still, it’s no small feat for a small brand, Tennant says. Fruity Booty had to push back its LA dates earlier this month due to delays getting the stock into the country. “Customs is the part that can feel really out of your control unless you’re spending loads on brokers and external support. As a small team, we try to handle as much as possible in-house, which obviously comes with challenges,” she says. “The LA delay was such a blow, but we just tried to be really transparent with customers about what was happening.”

In hindsight, the delay was a blessing in disguise, Tennant adds, and wound up driving the pop-up more towards summertime than spring. “The original dates felt like there was a bit of a post-Coachella lull in the city, and doing New York first helped us activate the market a bit before arriving in LA, which hopefully means more people know about us now,” she says. Fruity Booty’s US pop-ups wound up making almost double last year’s figures, Tennant says. “The response this year was genuinely really strong.”

Here’s why a summer in the (US) city is worth the trip across the Atlantic.

Conversation starter

Brands from CSB to Gimaguas regard this summer’s US pop-ups as a community-building initiative, as brands who have built up strong digital followings Stateside look to better connect with — and understand — their US customers.

“We’ve spent the last few years building a strong digital relationship with our US customer through social, partners and community, but there’s something powerful about translating that online energy into a real-world brand experience,” says CSB founder Rachel Dillon. “Each pop-up has taught us that customers want to engage with the brand in a much deeper way than just shopping.” In Miami, this meant integrating brand partnerships, community programming, hospitality and exclusive products. The brand welcomed 3,000 people through the doors on day one of trade — and processed an order every 78 seconds for nine hours straight.

Gen Z consumers, in particular, love the chase. The ‘IYKYK’ aspect of these pop-ups is key for shoppers who enjoy the IRL aspect of discovery. Knowing about — and posting at — a limited-time pop-up of an out-of-town brand signals a level of cachet not attainable by simply clicking ‘purchase’ online. After all, the in-person interaction may be key, but as important is the way these pop-ups travel on socials. The celebs may kick off the posting spree, but by the time the pop-up is up and running, ‘regular’ shoppers are posting too. This social-driven spread of the word ultimately brings more people in-store.

It’s this community opportunity that keeps bringing Gimaguas Stateside. The brand has been hosting its ‘Ephemeral Stores’ since its 2018 launch, but is now spending more time in the US since it’s emerged as one of the brand’s most important markets.

US consumers are especially keen to chat, Fruity Booty’s Tennant observes. “In the UK, customers are a bit more reserved and usually want less interaction from retail staff, whereas in the US, people really want to chat and get involved in the whole experience,” she says. Dillon agrees: “US consumers are incredibly engaged with brands on a cultural level. They don’t just want to purchase a product; they want to understand the brand story, the founder, the lifestyle and the broader community attached to it.”

What Tennant now wishes she had tracked is the conversion rate — how many people came into the pop-up versus how many actually bought something. “It’s something we watch really closely online and I’d love to understand it better in a physical setting too,” she says. “We made around double what we did last year, but I’m actually curious whether that came from twice as many people coming through the door, or whether we simply had enough stock this year to capture demand properly.”

Cross-country

For Gimaguas, popping up in both New York and Los Angeles is a way to show up in both core (NY) and developing (LA) markets. Doing multiple US pop-ups at once also makes it a more worthwhile investment for brands, Tennant says. “Expanding the Souvenir Shop to LA felt like a good idea because it’s such a big investment getting all our stock over to the US, so while we were out there, it felt smart to test another market too,” she says. “There’s obviously so much potential for growth in the US, and the Cali girl feels naturally aligned with Fruity and our Souvenir Shop concept.”

Fruity Booty’s LA pop-up is lower risk because it’s hosted in an existing shop, rather than a space the brand rented. “We haven’t had to hire a huge space or bring in set designers or anything, we’re just trying to do it in a more scrappy way and see if it feels like a market we should invest in longer term,” she says. Finding space is, after all, one of the biggest hurdles to a successful pop-up, the Gimaguas sisters agree. “One of the biggest challenges is always finding the right location — the right corner, neighborhood, and street that genuinely fit the brand and the kind of atmosphere we want to create,” Sayana says.

The high effort and cost is also why brands are looking to spend more time in the US. Miami is CSB’s longest pop-up yet, spanning 25 days. Gimaguas is also spending more time in the US this year, across New York and LA — it’s why the brand popped up at the beginning of summer, rather than September, as it did in New York last year. Cou Cou, too, is in town for longer this year than last, in response to the lines around the block last summer, Colcord says. “This summer, we wanted to make sure we offered more fitting rooms, more product, and extended dates to be around longer.” The hope is that customers will stick around longer, too — even beyond summer 2026.

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