California Apparel News

Any move is tough. But when Diane Merrick moved her established fashion boutique to Beverly Boulevard in May, one of her concerns was whether a new location would be like starting a business from scratch.

“I wondered if it would be hard for my customers to travel so far east,” she said of the Beverly Boulevard location near La Brea Avenue. It’s more than two miles from her previous storefront on West Hollywood’s Melrose Avenue.

Since many people prefer to shop in their neighborhoods, the concern was legitimate. But Merrick also knew that her new digs had a lot of potential.

Beverly Boulevard has had immaculate fashion DNA since couturiers Eduardo Lucero and Kevan Hall established their ateliers and boutiques on the street. And couture designer Lloyd Klein plans to move his operations a few storefronts down from Merrick’s self-named shop at 7407 Beverly Blvd.

Pedestrian traffic also has been increasing. New gourmet restaurants such as Grace have been attracting people to the area over the past three years. The area seemed to be on the verge of becoming a pedestrian district as more restaurants, such as Eat Well and BLD, opened since last summer.

The increased foot traffic has been good news for the fashion boutiques. Several, including Merrick and footwear designer Caleen Cordero, have opened in the past year. Merrick said her boutique had been profitable since its first day on the boulevard.

Her customers have been a wide mix, according to her boutique’s partner/ buyer Kathy Shawver. “There’s never a dull moment on the block. One minute an edgy customer will be shopping your store for jeans and a T-shirt,” Shawver said. “The next, you’ll see a Hassidic man going to synagogue.”

For years, the neighborhood has been an interesting demographic mix of families of Hassidic and Orthodox Jews and young adults who have recently moved to Los Angeles.

The fashion boutiques represent a mix of tastes as well. Merrick sells contemporary fashions. Top-selling items include jeans from Los Angeles– based Paige Premium Denim. Retail price points for the jeans range from $166 to $200. Cashmere hoodies produced by the Los Angeles–based Vince label cost $245. T-shirts by Los Angeles label Love This Life, which sell for $48, also are popular.

Denim with a European pedigree happens to be a specialty of Hollywood Trading Co. Jeans produced by Swedish company Cheap Monday are top sellers at the boutique, which opened its doors on Beverly Boulevard in 2004. The jeans cost $65, and the skinnier the jeans, the better, said Ambie Stapleton, the boutique’s manager and women’s buyer. French label Atelier Production Creations also does well with its $145 denim pants and $180 cords. Denim price points increased with labels such as London-based Siereks ($325) and Bread Denim ($245).

Independent designers with a bohemian feel are consistent favorites at the Maude Carrin boutique, which opened in March, according to Kristi McDaniel, who owns the store with Jay McDade.

The boutique features an art gallery in the back and has a New Orleans milieu with a stuffed rooster and vase of fading flowers by the cash register, and a chandelier illuminating the Victorian-style flocked wallpaper in the dressing rooms.

McDaniel said her boutique’s dresses range from $60 to $300. Best-selling labels are Naughty from Montreal and Fremont, based in Los Angeles’ Silverlake neighborhood.

The increased pedestrian traffic and the new fashion retail have sparked other changes on Beverly Boulevard.

Eduardo Lucero, for example, said he would be phasing out the custom-tailoring section of his business to concentrate on his retail and wholesale businesses.

Although tailoring has been a core part of his business since he started in 1997, Lucero said Beverly Boulevard’s rising pedestrian traffic made him realize that he did not have to stress the parts of his business that made him a destination. “Every day I get more people walking in the store,” he said.

Lucero said he also would remodel the boutique and workshop. However, his remodeled 2,300-square-foot space will have an ambience that, Lucero said, will be perfect for the neighborhood. It will look like a creative workspace––fitting for a fashion designer on the boulevard.