Vice Magazine's Fashion Store Closes
Vice, the store that provided contemporary streetwear to shoppers in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles for three years, closed Jan. 9, according to Aviva Yael, Vice’s director of retail.
The boutique, located at 3938 Sunset Blvd., was part of the retail division of New York–based humor magazine Vice. The company’s other stores, located in Toronto and New York, will remain open. Yael said the company also hopes to open a store in Japan.
Yael reported the Sunset Junction store had been financially successful, although she declined to give sales figures. She said the company, which is consolidating its retail division, decided to close the Los Angeles store because of marketing concerns. “The Los Angeles store was nice, but it was hard to connect to the magazine,” she noted.
The store sold denim by European labels such as G-Star and J. Lindeberg. It was also an exclusive outlet for several Los Angeles designers, including Brian Lichtenberg.
Neighborhood fashionista Sylvia Villareal mourned the passing of her favorite store on Los Angeles’ Eastside. “It’s in Silverlake. Now you have to travel to find clothes like this,” said Villareal, a bartender at legendary Silverlake rock club Spaceland.
Vice’s Los Angeles operations will be transferred into the magazine’s growing media production, marketing and partypromotion business, according to Yael. The more than 750- square-foot store employed five people, three of which Yael said will work for Vice’s new Los Angeles effort.
The retail space won’t remain vacant for long. Kicks Sole Provider, a sneakers boutique, will open at the site after mid- February, according to Ygal Aiche, co-owner of the shoe store. Kicks also maintains a shop in Los Angeles’ Larchmont Village.
—Andrew Asch
