New York ? Stephanie Gruber Fried used to drop by her local Target store every couple of weeks, to shop for low-price basics and an occasional fashion item. Now she goes every week, looking for more.

Target has been aggressively pursuing partnerships with designer names for exclusive merchandise, from capri pants and lipsticks to chic coffee tables and teapots. Customers are responding.

Target employee Sharon Olson stocks the shelves with Sonia Kashuk cosmetics at a Minneapolis store. Target Corp. is offering more designer merchandise made exclusively for Target such as Mossimo, Michael Graves and Sonia Kashuk cosmetics.

“I really like the Mossimo clothes because they are so trendy,” said Fried, 36, of Bethesda, Md. “And I buy all the Sonia Kashuk lipsticks and brushes … The Michael Graves (housewares) line is terrific. It has awesome design.”

Target’s strategy is helping the nation’s second-largest discounter, behind Wal-Mart Stores Inc., solidify its niche in cheap chic. It also puts more pressure on department stores, whose merchandise has failed to excite its customers and whose prices are higher.

Fried said that she is shopping less often at department stores, going there “for fillers, like a coat, a nice business suit and nice shoes,” she said. “Target is great for casual clothes.”

Since the mid-1990s, Target has attracted more style-conscious consumers by offering trendier lines, under various store labels, while still pulling in its budget shoppers with conservative tastes with basic merchandise.

The discounter first ventured into the designer arena in 1999 with an exclusive line from architect Graves, including $29.99 sleek tea kettles, $89.99 coffee tables and other housewares and furniture.

That was followed last year by a rollout of apparel and accessories from designer Mossimo Giannulli and cosmetics from celebrity makeup artist Kashuk.

Kashuk’s lipsticks sell for $5.99, while Mossimo’s lineup includes $24.99 faded jeans and $21 wrap dresses.

This year, Target will add home accessories from sportswear designer Todd Oldham and interior designer Philippe Starck, as well as a young men’s collection from urban designer Marc Ecko. Target also has teamed up with Stephen Sprouse, known for his downtown rock ‘n’ roll-inspired clothing, to create a patriotic apparel collection this summer.

Having maximized its store brands, Target “is recreating what used to make department stores great,” said David Wolfe, creative director at The Doneger Group, a company that acts as a middleman between retailers and apparel manufacturers. “We used to love department stores because they had a specific identity and they had brands that people did not find elsewhere.”

Arnold Aronson, managing director of retail strategies at Kurt Salmon Associates, says: “These new names add even more status appeal” to Target.

The 1,053-store division of Minneapolis-based Target Corp. generated sales of $32.5 billion for the year ended Feb. 2, a 13.1 percent increase from the year before.