Iconic Los Angeles retailer Fred Segal on Monday shuttered its online store, in addition to its Malibu and flagship West Hollywood locations, removing any presence it once had in its hometown Los Angeles market.
The boutique retailer had been offering a sitewide promotion of as much as 75 percent off in the past few weeks, which was ramped to 85 percent over the weekend and dubbed a summer sale.
The West Hollywood location on Sunset and Malibu at Cross Creek Road were the retailer’s remaining doors in a market where the Fred Segal name has been synonymous with Los Angeles fashion for over 60 years. It often served as a launchpad for many local brands and designers.
A Fred Segal Market at Resorts World Las Vegas, which opened in 2021, is the remaining U.S. door.
Earlier this month, the retailer closed its Studio City store at The Shops at Sportsmen’s Lodge, after a roughly two-year stint at the upscale lifestyle center. In May it shuttered its Montana Avenue location in Santa Monica, which opened in October and had been hailed by the company as its return to the city. That was followed up with the closure of its first-ever location in Northern California, after less than a year at the Marin Country Mart.
Challenges with Scale
It’s unclear what majority owner Global Icons has planned for the brand or why the stores were closed. It acquired a majority stake in the business about five years ago. Evolution Media Partners retained a minority share.
CEO Jeff Lotman did not respond to a request for comment at the time of the Santa Monica closure.
A source with knowledge of the matter said the company was in talks to potentially sell the business, but that deal fell through.
The licensing firm’s investment marked its foray into brand ownership, with ambitious plans expand the Fred Segal name through stores and licensed product.
A similar plan had been attempted by previous parent, Sandow Media, which bought rights to the brand in 2012. Fred Segal’s former Sunset Boulevard flagship bowed during the Sandow period, turning heads with a 21,000-square-foot store that replaced its longtime home on Melrose Avenue.
Shifting Landscape
Fred Segal is now the second major boutique retailer to disappear from the Los Angeles retail landscape more recently.
Ron Herman, whose founder is the nephew of Fred Segal, quietly closed its Malibu and Brentwood locations in November. A month later it closed its famous Melrose Avenue store and online shop, marking an end to a 47-year run in California.
Parent Sazaby League Ltd., which bought the business in 2019, now operates a Ron Herman store in Honolulu and a sizable footprint of nearly 20 doors in Japan.
Sazaby said in a statement to WWD in November the closures were part of a strategy to “reshape its U.S. operations.”
“The company has decided to scale back its current retail footprint by closing its Los Angeles stores, with sights set on renewing its dynamic digital and physical presence in California and abroad,” the company said in a statement to the fashion publication.
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