Farewell Fashion Bookstore
In another blow to the printed word, The Fashion Bookstore, which has been serving Los Angeles’ fashion industry and the region’s stylish people, is calling it quits. The last day of business for the shop located in the lobby of the California Market Center showroom building will be March 31, said Bill Golant, a co-founder of the book store which has been serving the fashion literate for 25-years or so.
Golant cited high rents as a reason for closing The Fashion Bookstore. There are no plans to take the shop online, said his wife and store co-founder Linda Brand. The Fashion Bookstore started business on the second floor of the CMC. It moved to the building’s lobby in 2001. It started out publishing and selling business directories. Gradually, it began offering international fashion magazines, as well as tomes on subjects such as Russian embroidery and how to build a business. No title was too obscure for the store, Brand said. “I kept buying as much as I could,” she said. “I wanted people to say, ‘Whatever I need, I’ll buy here.’”
The store will produce a going out of business sale where books will be discounted up to 80 percent off. The Fashion Book Store will be sorely missed by customers such as Beatriz Camacho, a Colombian designer. She considered her trip to The Fashion Bookstore a highlight of her annual trip to Los Angeles. “There is no other place in the world like this,” Camacho said. “There are a lot of treasures here.”
