Fred Segal to Close Santa Monica Store By End of March

Photo Credit: Fred SegalThis season, Fred Segal is celebrating what makes the Los Angeles the city “that we dream about and where history is made.” Sadly, that sentiment doesn’t extend to its Santa Monica location, which will officially shut its doors in just a few days.

The high-end, L.A.-specific, beloved boutique located at the corner of 5th Street and broadway, will shut its door by end of March.

Annie Segal, daughter of company founder Fred Segal, confirmed the news in a recent Facebook post. The store’s page has conveyed that merchandise will be heavily discounted until the location closes shop.

The company was founded in 1961 as a denim retailer by its namesake, owner Fred Segal. Its Melrose boutique was the first jeans-only store in the world. The Santa Monica opened roughly 25 years later in 1985. The brand updated its approach and launched its e-commerce site in August of 2015.

Though the Westside location was not owned by Sandow, the company that took over the brand in 2012, Sandow will make sure that a third Fred Segal shop exists in L.A. A new, 20,000-square-foot Fred Segal location at the Runway retail center in Playa Vista is scheduled to open for the 2016 holiday season, joining stores on Melrose (which has just been purchased in a landmark deal by international retail real estate investor, CormackHill, LP., though it is said that the flagship store will not only remain open, but continue to expand) and at LAX’s Tom Bradley International Terminal.

Previously, the parent company and its CEO, Paul Blum (whose prior work experience includes David Yurman and Juicy Couture) decided to expand the brand globally. That expansion included two stores in Japan, including a “lifestyle center” with an on-site eatery in Tokyo and a second location in Yokohama. A third location—the Fred Segal Collective—was also opened at the SLS Las Vegas Hotel & Casino, which closed the seven stores it operated in Sin City last fall.