Elyse Walker Finds Men Make Business Sense
Elyse Walker was warned by her friends not to open a men’s boutique. Stores for guys typically do not enjoy the same earnings as women’s fashion stores, they said. Walker thanked her friends for their advice but opened Elyse Walker Men anyway at 15300 Antioch St. in Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades neighborhood in September.
“It’s not going to win the lottery,” Walker said of her men’s boutique. “It’s not going to change the bottom line.” She forecast the men’s store will earn 30 percent to 40 percent less in volume per square foot compared with her three self-named women’s boutiques, which are located adjacent to the men’s boutique. However, the men’s store made business sense for Walker, who has sold fashions in the wealthy Pacific Palisades neighborhood for 10 years. Her customers won’t have to travel to other retail locations to buy fashions for their husbands and boyfriends. Better yet, the store will attract new customers.
Walker intends to supply all styles of men’s fashion at her new boutique. She offers celebrated designer labels including Prada, John Varvatos and Dolce & Gabbana, but most recently her male customers have preferred looks that are casual but stylish.
One of the top-selling items is the “Haskell” jean by Los Angeles–based label Ever. The straight-leg jean, which tapers off at the ankle, retails for $185. Other top-selling items are white, crew-neck T-shirts from the Los Angeles–based James Perse label, which retail for $41. Other popular labels at Elyse Walker Men’s are shirtings from New York–based Steven Alan and Citizens of Humanity’s “Evans” jean, which retails for $195.
In other Elyse Walker news, she said her annual Pink Party fund-raiser for the Cedars-Sinai Women’s Cancer Research Institute will take place in the fall. Past Pink Party events have been attended by California first lady Maria Shriver and movie stars Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel. —Andrew Asch
