California Apparel News

The lingering effect of the Great Recession continues to take a toll on the Los Angeles boutique scene.

Hillary Rush recently announced that she will be closing her influential Hillary Rush boutique on March 1, after seven years of business at 8222 W. Third St. in Los Angeles.  She follows Lisa Kline, another prominent boutique retailer who, in December, voluntarily left the bricks-and-mortar business. 

In another grim statistic, five fashion boutiques have closed on stylish West Third Street in the past six months, said Deborah Wolsh, president of the West Third Street Business Association. However, a couple of these vacancies have been filled with new fashion tenants, including Gogosha Optique, an eyewear boutique that opened last May.

Rush offered a few reasons for shuttering her self-named boutique. In 2010—the height of the Great Recession—her sales declined more than 30 percent. Although Rush said she saw an occasional uptick in business, specifically during the store’s biannual sales, when merchandise was marked down 30 percent, overall business never returned to the go-go years of pre-recession business. 

 “The only thing that is driving customers is sales,” Rush said. “It is not how I wanted to run my business.” 

It was a jarring change, the retailer said. Business was so good when she launched her store in 2005 that she paid back all of her business loans—ranging from merchandise to store renovations—in six months.

Rush will remain in the retail business. She is shopping at the MAGIC, Capsule and Project trade shows Feb. 13–15 in Las Vegas for her next venture—working as the buyer and co-owner at her family’s emporium, Church Street Trading Co. in Great Barrington, a popular summer vacation spot and ski resort town in western Massachusetts.  She will also create shop-in-shops at Church Street Trading Co. The new shops will be called HR Man and Hillary Rush Berkshires and will be similar to her West Third Street operation. She will also run a website (http://thegoods.hillaryrush.com) selling men’s and women’s clothing. 

Rush also said that a tough business environment was not the only reason why she chose to leave West Third Street. She also wanted to return to the East Coast to be near family and close friends. Business took her to California. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, she had a chance meeting with pioneering executive Mickey Drexler in 1995 when he led Gap Inc. It led to a job in advertising at the retail giant, and she rose to director of advertising and print in television, a post she held until 2000, when she looked for new opportunities and a change in pace from corporate life.

After a couple of years consulting and styling in Los Angeles, she joined U.K. accessories brand Lulu Guinness in 2002 and oversaw the label’s West Coast retail, wholesale and public relations. When the label shuttered its Los Angeles operation, Rush took over the lease and started the Hillary Rush store.

Despite setbacks, West Third Street remains a vibrant thoroughfare for boutique retail, said West Third Street Business Association’s Wolsh, who is also owner of fashion boutique Ethel.  Boutiques such as Satine, Milk and Polkadots & Moonbeams continue to thrive and influence other shops.  “All clothing stores are hanging in there—but some better than others,” she said.—Andrew Asch