First-Time Retailer Bets on Beverly Hills

Nina Messiah does not consider herself someone who enjoys gambling against high odds. But her friends thought the first-time retailer was taking on an insurmountable challenge when she opened a fashion boutique at 9406 Brighton Way in Beverly Hills on Feb. 28.

Messiah’s store is just a few blocks off Rodeo Drive, packed with such flagship stores as Prada and Dolce & Gabbana, and just around the corner from the likes of other iconic retailers such as Ron Herman.

“Everybody was saying, ’You’re up against the big boys.’ But we had a vision for this,” she said of the 550-square-foot boutique she owns with her husband, Eddie Jackson.

Messiah, who worked on design and product development for Joe’s Jeans from 2002 to 2005, said her strategic vision should even the odds. She believes that her retail stock of independent and up-and-coming brands will provide more fashion choices to Beverly Hills shoppers, specifically men and women ages 15–40 who are eager to find new looks.

Messiah’s style options highlight independent fashions that have their origins on the boutique strip of Los Angeles’s funky West Third Street, two miles east of Beverly Hills.

Messiah offers independent Los Angeles–based labels such as Grey Ant, Geren Ford and Orthodox. The boutique also sells such international fashion lines as Gsus and Fornarina, as well as Messiah’s T-shirt label, Mosquito. The store’s price points range from $40 for T-shirts to $300 for dresses. —Andrew Asch