Boutique banks on O.C. expansion
Nearly two decades after launching her Pacific Palisades boutique, which houses couture with contemporary fashions, Elyse Walker has opened her first Orange County store.
Situated on the prime corner of the recently renovated Lido Marina Village, the 12,000-square-foot shop inside a former bank building incorporates fine shoes, bags, jewelry and clothing from women’s ready-to-wear and couture collections.
Below the space’s open ceilings and mesh chandeliers are edited displays of luxury brands that read like a compendium of international opulence: Givenchy, Chloe, Hermes, Stella McCartney, Alexander Wang, Lanvin, Brunello Cucinelli.
But don’t let that intimidate you.
Walker, a stylist and buyer whose star-studded clientele includes actresses Jennifer Garner, Kate Hudson, Cindy Crawford and Reese Witherspoon, is known for creating a relaxed and casual ambiance within a fashion-forward showroom.
“This should feel comfortable and fun, and it shouldn’t feel like high pressure,” Walker said as she sat on a pink velvet chaise in her Newport Beach store, which opened in late August.
“But, if something looks really great on you and I tell you, you know I mean it,” she said with a laugh.
Fashion wasn’t her initial profession.
While majoring in mathematics at Columbia University with plans to work on Wall Street, Walker’s mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
She took charge in running the family’s shoe business in New York City and completed her education. But she lost her mother — who was 42 — to the disease.
In 1996, she and her husband, David, moved California. Three years later, she opened her first boutique, which at first carried mostly shoes and handbags.
The nondescript store located on an unassuming block in Pacific Palisades garnered a following. Since its inception 16 years ago, the store has quadrupled in size with more than 150 designers and a team of stylists.
Since founding her namesake boutique, which is stocked with a mix of new and emerging designers, Walker founded her Internet business, Forward by Elyse Walker, and her curated women’s line, ThePerfext.
With expansion in mind, Walker embarked on opening a new store for the Orange County shoppers who would visit her Palisades shop.
The O.C. store, she conceptualized, would share her personal love for art while offering a different point of view.
The result: A space that features designer shop-in-shops, fine jewelry housed in the former bank building’s vault, a denim bar, beach shop and salon.
Guests may sip Champagne while slipping on precious stones by New York jeweler Bayco or have their hair colored and styled at the boutique’s two-chair salon.
They may stand before works of art created by street artist Retna, painters Paul Rusconi and Robert Mars and abstract mixed-media artist James Verbicky, or have a stylist unwrap a shoebox’s tissue paper before them to reveal the latest style by Gucci or Manolo Blahnik.
With more than 250 showcased designers, Walker said she wanted to create a shopping experience that felt like a place where a woman could take risks in pieces right off the runways while also shopping for classic and timeless pieces that could suit any occasion.
“This experience should be relaxed,” said Walker. “I hope you feel like you got a great foot massage. You should leave here feeling happy.”
Elyse Walker is at 3444 Via Lido, Newport Beach. For more information, call (949) 612-2646 or visit elysewalker.com.
Twitter: @KathleenLuppi
