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L.A. Boutique Veterans Alisa Loftin and Neely Shearer Return to Retail With In Heroes We Trust
After a long break, two stars of Los Angeles’ boutique scene, Neely Shearer and Alisa Loftin, will open a new store near booming Abbot Kinney Boulevard.
In Heroes We Trust, which debuts on July 24, will sell merchandise from local designers, T-shirts, vintage clothing and homeware in a 500-square-foot space at 300 Westminster Ave., a block off Abbot Kinney.
Shearer ran Xin and Loftin owned Aero & Co., two boutiques that developed a regional reputation as go-to places to purchase goods from Los Angeles designers with an avant-garde edge. Both stores shuttered around 2010. The duo tried other fields in fashion, but found once bitten by the retail bug, it is hard to leave, Loftin said.
“After being off for four years, I had plenty of time to reflect about what I learned from Aero & Co.,” Loftin said. She’ll be able to put some of her past experience to use.
Loftin said the foundation of the venture was having a partner who shares the same creative vision. “If it weren’t for a partnership, this wouldn’t have happened,” she said.
The new store will be offering items from Los Angeles brands such as Mor Dotter, Malicious Designs and Anita Arzé. It also will offer a diversity of merchandise, such as women’s swimwear, jewelry and vintage clothes with a “Doris Day in Palm Springs meets Beatles in India” inspiration, Shearer said. Eventually, the store will sell men’s fashions.
Core retail prices will range from $100 to $400. An e-commerce site will be introduced in the fall.
The store also will offer an in-house T-shirt line called In Heroes We Trust, which will feature the work of artists such as Chase, who has painted street murals around Los Angeles.
While both entrepreneurs had been thinking of what kind of store they would run if they had a second chance, opportunity came knocking early when, in April, Shearer found the space on Westminster Avenue. “I had been thinking of my idea of a perfect store,” Loftin said. “But she picked out the space, and we needed to jump on the space and run with it.”
