SoCal Fashion Stalwart Fred Segal Closes Remaining L.A. Storefronts

Los Angeles fashion purveyor Fred Segal has closed its two remaining stores in Malibu and in West Hollywood, bringing its more than 60-year legacy in Southern California to a dignified end — at least for now. 

The brand had operated in L.A. since 1961, when Fred Segal opened his first storefront on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. The high-end yet laid-back clothes Segal sold eventually became synonymous with the “California cool” style, getting referenced in classic California-based television shows like “Beverly Hills, 90210” and movies like “Clueless.”

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The West Hollywood location, at 8500 Sunset Boulevard, was the brand’s flagship location, taking 22,000 square feet. 

Global Icons CEO Jeff Lotman in 2019 acquired a majority stake in the brand, which at the time occupied nine locations in California and several international outposts. 

But COVID-19 hit the retailer hard, and it never fully recovered from challenges brought on by the pandemic. A 2,200-square-foot storefront that opened in Santa Monica in late 2023, for example, lasted less than a year, closing its doors in May. 

Fred Segal’s website displays a curt “currently unavailable” message on a white background. 

Segal himself died from complications of a stroke in early 2021, at age 87. 

A Fred Segal-branded home furnishing store in Culver City, Calif., is the sole aspect of the company remaining open. Although Lotman had the controlling stake in the company, the Segal family still owns the Fred Segal trademark, implying that an eventual resurgence of the brand would be up to Segal’s descendants, according to the L.A. Times. 

Yet the fashion retailer is far from the only one struggling lately. 

The retail market in L.A. County in general has been slow to recover since the end of the pandemic, with vacancy rates and bankruptcies still on the rise, according to a recent market outlook from NAI Capital. Still, investor interest in retail remains strong. Average sale price for retail space rose by nearly 60 percent this past quarter compared to the same period last year, with the average asking rent increasing by nearly 4 percent over the same period. 

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.