Retirement? Never for Greta
Greta , center, with Tanya Newbould, right, and Roger Leguay, Greta's boyfriend of 37 years.
Fashion is proud of being fickle, and infamous for a short shelf life, but Greta Feigler who goes by her first name holds a marathon record in Los Angeles fashion. She has run the Greta boutique in Beverly Hills for 50 years.
This year the 87-year-old Greta will preside over a series of 50th anniversary parties at her boutique at 141 S. Beverly Dr.On May 5, Greta greeted longtime clients and new customers at a party/trunk show for designers such as Bryan Emerson.The evening’s guest list featured a wide range of notables, such as co-host Tanya Newbould, Samantha Levey, the Miss Pacific Palisades contestant for the upcoming Miss California Pageant, Dan Deutsch, president of Dan Deutsch Optical Outlook boutiques and Stephen Kamifuji, creative director of Genlux magazine.
Greta is at her boutique every workday. From the 1960s through 1990s, she ran a handful of boutiques as well as antique stores under the Greta nameplate. She closed her Sunset Plaza location in the early 1970s because she got tired of being at a frontline of history. Vietnam War protesters frequently chained themselves to a fire hydrant in front of her store so police would have a tough time carrying them away from the protests.
The store served as an outlet during national grieving when President Kennedy was assassinated. Women from all over Beverly Hills traveled to Greta’s South Beverly location to buy new clothes for a respite from the awful news, Greta said.
Since the late 1990s, Greta’s business was whittled down to one location. With three employees, she sells new lines such as Vivienne Westwood and house brand Greta Couture. The store also looks for new lines. “We’re continuously reinventing ourselves,” said Iris Riewer, who has worked for Greta off-and-on since the 1980s.
Greta said she will never quit. The only time she missed work in her career was a four-month period from September 2010 to January 2011 when she recovered from back surgery.
“You have to enjoy it to be successful. If you are not enjoying it, you are not successful,” she said of the boutique business.
