Stein Leaves On Sunset
The exclusive couture-style boutique On Sunset is going casual. The boutique’s buyer/manager, Shauna Stein, was the brains behind its high style and one of the pioneers of Los Angeles’ specialty-retail scene. She left the store in the first week of February. Stein said her break with the boutique was amicable. On Sunset owner Lauralee Bell now runs the boutique.
The 9-year-old partnership was dissolved after the two disagreed about the fashion direction of the boutique, located at 8711 Sunset Blvd. in the luxury Sunset Plaza retail district in West Hollywood, Calif.
Bell said the store will emphasize sportswear and contemporary clothes instead of designer. Eventually, two-thirds of the boutique’s space will be devoted to more-casual contemporary clothes and sportswear. One-third will offer the high-fashion labels.
“Shauna is brilliant, and her core department is couture,” said Bell, who has acted on the soap opera “The Young and the Restless.” “But couture is very costly. The store was not being as profitable as it should have been. As much as I wanted to keep it the way it was, we had to move with the times or close down.”
On Sunset already is selling casual and sportswear labels such as organic tops line Zooey T-Shirts and denim label Fidelity Denim. The store formerly devoted itself to high-fashion labels such as Roberto Cavalli, Jean Paul Gaultier and Blumarine.
Stein said that she is looking for new career opportunities. “The industry is in extreme flux,” Stein said. “I’m looking for what would be a good fit.”
Stein has been in the forefront of Los Angeles retailing since the 1970s, when she opened Ron Ross’ womenswear store in Los Angeles’ Tarzana neighborhood. At the store, she sold the wares of new Italian designers such as Cavalli. In 1987, she launched her own shop, called Shauna Stein, in the Beverly Center, located in Los Angeles.
Her store was purchased by the Bernini Corp. around 1996, and the company hired her as president and buyer for the store. In 1999, she left the company due to creative differences. She opened the boutique On Beverly the same year, and Bell was her business partner. In 2004, the store changed its name when it moved to its current 2,800-square-foot space in Sunset Plaza. —Andrew Asch
