Riding a wave of exciting contemporary store openings, South Coast Plaza is debuting another fresh new lineup. While we love to showcase the superlative style of our sought-after stores, we have always been even bigger champions of the people behind the brands and their origin stories. And what we love best about these labels is that they all had a modest start, but flourished on the larger-than-life visions of a founder or founders, as the case may be. After all, South Coast Plaza is the very embodiment of just that kind of dream. Fun fact: Lima beans once grew where the shopping center now stands. The Segerstrom family, who first arrived in Orange County in 1898, put down agricultural roots that grew into a robust farming operation. By 1967 it was a shopping center with 70 stores, and now it is a world-class destination for luxury shopping, dining and the arts.

You may already be a die-hard fan of one — or many — of the brands which have just landed at South Coast Plaza, or you may be discovering them for the first time, but we thought we’d give you a proper introduction — and a few fun factoids — about these sought-after labels and the founders who brought their vision to life.