It’s the end of an era for the Fred Segal brand.
The storied retailer, which has gone through many transformations over the years, has closed the last two of its five California stores, leaving only one retail outpost operating at Resorts World in Las Vegas.
Last year, Jeff Lotman, chief executive officer of Global Icons, the Los Angeles company that had the worldwide master license for the Fred Segal brand and operated the stores, announced he was hoping to open more locations in Miami and New York while eyeing China as another retail opportunity.
Instead, earlier this year he closed two Southern California stores barely open one year. One was on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica and a second venue was located at The Shops at Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City. He also shuttered a relatively new outpost at the Marin Country Mart in Larkspur, Calif. The last to go was the Malibu store and a flagship on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.
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Lotman, reached by email, said Fred Segal was closing its stores due to challenges in the retail industry and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The shift to online shopping, economic uncertainties and decreased foot traffic have made it difficult to maintain physical store operations,” he wrote.
He referred all other inquiries to Los Angeles attorney Larry Russ, who represents the Segal family, the brand’s owner. The attorney said Lotman had many hurdles to overcome. “The objective was Jeff would manufacture his own Fred Segal products and have them in the stores to have a bigger margin, which is needed to sustain yourself in the retail world, particularly with a multibrand store,” Russ said. “Jeff never had any manufacturing experience, and it was a challenge.”
While Lotman was trying to license the brand overseas, Russ said, the businessman didn’t pay enough attention to his retail stores in the U.S. “The Sunset [Boulevard] location was not ideal. It is hard to get to and is huge. It would have been better to locate it somewhere else. It was a very expensive property,” Russ said. “But the Malibu store was doing OK.”
With sales declining, Lotman decided two weeks ago to return the Fred Segal worldwide master license to the family, although the businessman could have continued operating the stores for another six months, Russ said.
Earlier this year, a sublicense was issued for a Fred Segal Home furniture and accessories showroom at the HD Buttercup Design Center in Culver City, Calif. That 4,000-square-foot showroom will continue to operate and might take over the Fred Segal store location in Malibu, the attorney said.
Russ said he is now negotiating with several companies either interested in licensing the brand or acquiring it. “I am already involved in extensive discussions with various parties around the world,” he noted.
The Fred Segal brand has gone through several iterations since it was founded in Los Angeles in 1961 by renowned retailer Fred Segal, who passed away at the age of 87 in 2021. He was a man before his time who envisioned a retail world whose merchandise embraced contemporary styles and emerging brands, particularly in denim.
Segal started with a 350-square-foot store on Santa Monica Boulevard before moving to Melrose Avenue where he pioneered the then-novel shop-in-shop concept and experiential retail that introduced up-and-coming labels synonymous with SoCal style (think Juicy Couture, Hard Candy Cosmetics and Earl Jeans). He later opened another location in Santa Monica with the same shop-in-shop concept.
Lotman came into the picture in 2019 when he acquired the brand’s global master license and slowly expanded the retail business, even housing pop-up stores within his flagship space with buzzy brands. One of those was a pop-up set up two years ago with the German brand Bogner, which took more than 1,400 square feet to create a Swiss chalet ambience showcasing its skiwear mixed with fashion. It was called “Ski Sunset.”