Stores Closing: On Sunset and Belle Gray's Calabasas, Calif., Location
The economy is still tough for many boutique owners, and two boutiques with connections to Hollywood celebrities have called it quits recently.
On Nov. 2, Lauralee Bell, who starred in the soap “The Young and The Restless,” announced she would shutter her high-fashion boutique, On Sunset, after Dec. 1.
On Sunset had sold fashion labels such as Blumarine and Jean-Paul Gaultier in Los Angeles’ high-profile Sunset Plaza retail district since 2004. Bell said the demands of running a boutique took too much out of her already bruising schedule, where she juggled her family life and a full-time show-business career. The rough economy of the past year also took its toll on the store, according to its office manager, Nadine Zanotti. “Business is just not happening,” she said.
Later this month, On Sunset will hold a going-out-of-business sale, where its Blumarine gowns as well as its fixtures and mannequins will be put on sale.
Lisa Rinna, a television host and actress, closed the Calabasas, Calif., location of her Belle Gray boutique chain on Oct. 1. On Oct. 22, her former landlords, The Commons at Calabasas LLC, filed a lawsuit against her in Los Angeles County Superior Court for breach of contract. The Commons at Calabasas retail center is owned by Rick Caruso, who developed the popular The Grove retail center in Los Angeles.
The lawsuit contends that Rinna stopped paying rent on the 1,430-square-foot boutique on March 1. The minimum monthly rent was $7,946. The Commons lawyers asked for damages in the amount of $635,083 from the owner of the contemporary fashion store.
Lawyers for the Commons did not reply to interview requests. Rinna runs another Belle Gray location in Sherman Oaks, Calif. Heather Martin, the manager/buyer for that store, said there were no plans to close the remaining Belle Gray.—Andrew Asch
