After 2 years of construction delays, Chloé’s new Los Angeles flagship found a perfect home on Melrose Place.
The 2,500-square-foot town-house-style boutique, full of natural light due to numerous skylights and eight-foot windows, spans two separate buildings linked by a landscaped courtyard.
“It’s a wonderful house,” said an ebullient Ralph Toledano, chairman and chief executive officer at Chloé. “It’s extremely private, extremely discreet.”
The boutique opens to the public today and will be christened April 22 with an in-store cocktail party attended by Toledano and Chloé’s creative director, Hannah MacGibbon.
It will be followed the next night by a party at Milk Studios hosted by Kate Bosworth and , Chloë Sevigny.
Hannah MacGibbon who used to work with Phoebe Philo, showed a very well received second collection for the brand during the Fall Winter 09 Collections in Paris, and Toledano Seems to be pretty happy about it.
Chloé recently opened two locations in Dubai, one in Doha, Qatar, and two in China. Coming this summer is a franchise location in Beirut.
The Melrose located store will feature accessories, jewelry, handbags, shoes and small leather goods and Ready To Wear.
The boutique carries the full range of Chloé merchandise, from silver charm bracelets for $170 and Sally handbags for $1,995 to a white summer skirt with crystal embellishment for $2,495 and a white linen dress with embroidery retailing for more than $6,000.
Toledano noted assortments would likely be skewed to cocktail and evening, including in handbags.
An upscale enclave, Melrose Place has seen high-end tenants depart recently, including Sergio Rossi and recently bankrupt Lambertson Truex, as luxury retailers continue to fall victim to the flailing economy.
The three-block stretch once commanded rents of more than $15 a square foot per month, a range that has fallen to $10 or below a square foot monthly amid the recession.
The Melrose Place store, formerly an art gallery, is the first stand-alone Chloé boutique to feature the new design concept; in-store boutiques inside Saks Fifth Avenue in New York and Beverly Hills debuted the aesthetic.
See the pictures below:
Photo By: Stefanie Keenan