Pally Test-Drives Retail With Pop-Up Shop
When Rachel Pally sewed some costumes for University of California, Berkeley’s dance department in 2002, fashion business was the last thing on her mind. But her friends—and then their friends—requested she make them some of the free-flowing garments she had sewn for the dancers. Fast forward seven years, and her Rachel Pally label is sold in 300 stores, including Nordstrom. Soon the 29-year-old designer will try her graceful hand at retail. On Oct. 22, she held the debut party for her first boutique, the Rachel Pally pop-up store at 456 S. La Brea Ave. in Los Angeles. The space’s former tenants included a furniture shop and book shop Illiterature. The Rachel Pally boutique will sell her current Fall and Holiday collections. The pop-up shop also will feature a sales loft and will offer exclusive Rachel Pally designs produced in heather gray, a color she rarely has used in the past. The pop-up shop will do business for at least one month, she said. There may be a possibility it will be a permanent store, she said. “I’m just giving it a go. This is a great way to see how it would pan out in the real world.” La Brea’s fortunes as a fashion retail street have waxed and waned in the past few years. Since 2008, more than four La Brea boutiques have closed. However, other boutiques, including American Rag and The Way We Wore, have thrived on the street. The Way We Wore’s Doris Raymond forecast the Pally boutique would be successful because she had already developed a brand. “It’s a strange time to be opening a business,” Raymond said. “But she has her own following, and as the saying goes, if you build it, they will come.”—Andrew Asch
