California Apparel News

It’s been almost a decade since Lisa Kline, one of the giants of Los Angeles boutique retail, closed her influential bricks-and-mortar Lisa Kline stores, which did business on Robertson Boulevard, as well as in Beverly Hills, Calif., and Malibu, Calif.

Despite her shops' defining an era of West Coast-casual styles, Kline bid farewell to bricks-and-mortar retail because competition coming from digital commerce, department stores, fast fashion and off-price retailers was too harsh. Consumer behavior had become too unpredictable.

“There’s no rhyme or reason to the way people shop in the bricks-and-mortar world,” she told California Apparel News in August 2011. “It is sporadic and unpredictable. You could predict in the old days.”

Since then, she started and closed an e-commerce venture. She has sold fashion on HSN television network, consults retailers with her company Lisa Kline and also works in brand placement with clients such as the “Today Show” and online shopping channel Shop LC. But Kline might be proof for the maxim that once you’re in fashion retail, you never really leave.

On June 12, she sent an email blast with the announcement that she was officially back in the business. She unveiled digital retailer shoplisakline.com.

She’ll be doing what she always loved—curating merchandise and buying for a shop. Brands sold on the site will include apparel labels such as Cosabella, Electric Yoga and LNA. But the new shop will be guided by a truly contemporary mission. It will offer personal protective equipment, as well as housewares and activities for people sheltering at home.

Kline had been wanting to get back into the business for a while. She became serious about it when she was sourcing personal protective equipment for other retailers.

“People were reaching out to me to buy items like masks and sanitizers like I still had my store. I knew that I had to relaunch online and bring my customers the items that they needed, because there’s nowhere left to shop. I have always been a trusted source for essential items and things on trend. I was so excited to bring all the brands that people need in 2020. These items are shipped to their doorsteps,” she said. “This is a big home play.”

Categories sold on shoplisakline.com include beauty, gifts, erotica, reading glasses, socks, kids’ games, and the site also features a dispensary that sells premium paraphernalia such as rolling papers and grinders. Retail price points range from $18 to $800. She forecasted that Los Angeles fashion designers featured on her site would promote items on videos that would be posted on shoplisakline.com. This year also marks her 25th anniversary in business. “I’m just getting started,” she said. “I’m so excited to be back.”