LB L Brands Inc

By Leslie Brody 

Since news broke that the retailer Henri Bendel will shut down in January, fans and tourists have streamed into its Fifth Avenue flagship, hunting for discounts and taking nostalgic last looks.

Many leave with the store's signature brown-and-white striped bags, and wistful sighs about the end of an era. Open for 123 years, Henri Bendel was once a swanky icon of luxury and cutting-edge fashion.

"I hate to see stores with so much history close," said April Gentry, a 48-year-old visiting from Olympia, Wash. She browsed hoping for a goodbye purchase but was disappointed by the store's pitch to a younger crowd. "I feel badly leaving without anything, but there was nothing I couldn't leave without."

L Brands, which acquired the retailer in 1985, announced plans Thursday to close all of Henri Bendel's 23 stores along with its shopping website in January to focus on bigger brands with greater growth potential. Under L Brands's ownership, the store stopped selling clothing and focused on handbags and accessories. Still, it kept a certain renown. The chic fictional characters on the television series "Gossip Girl" often popped up there.

Inside the 56th Street store on Sunday afternoon, signs declared bags 40% to 60% off. Lindsay Kauffman, of Los Angeles, was scrutinizing the shelves because her friend had texted her with orders to "go into Bendel's for a last time," punctuated by a sad emoji. "See if they have started liquidating stock."

Another shopper from Los Angeles, Tara Weingarten, 56, came with her son to pay respects and bought a vanilla-scented candle. She said she would never forget the time when, as a 20-year-old newspaper intern, she saved up all summer for a $250 handbag made of wicker and burgundy leather. "It was a dream to be able to afford something from Henri Bendel," she said.

A week after she finally bought it, a mugger accosted her in Midtown Manhattan. As she recalled, "I said to this guy with a gun in my boyfriend's stomach, 'You can take the money, but please let me keep the purse!'"

The man grabbed it anyway and dumped it in Central Park, but to her delight she got it back from police. Ms. Weingarten told her son, "You don't understand what this store used to be."

Some wealthy New Yorkers lament Henri Bendel's loss of elegance and its move, in 1990, from its spot on 57th Street. They pine for the decades the store was run by former fashion editor Geraldine Stutz, who was president from 1957 to 1986, and introduced an array of creative designers from Europe.

An article in New York magazine once quoted Ms. Stutz on her taste for "dog whistle" fashion, meaning "clothes with a pitch so high and special that only the thinnest and most sophisticated women would hear their call."

Ms. Stutz created a "Street of Shops" on the first floor, creating intimate boutiques within the store for buying fancy stockings, perfume and party accessories. The concept became a model throughout the retail world. Some well-heeled women bought almost all their clothes at Bendel's, with favorite saleswomen tipping them off by phone to deliveries of the best new dresses from Paris. Actor Warren Beatty and other celebrities could be seen stopping by.

Merchandise became decidedly more down-market in recent years. On Sunday shoppers pored over a $118 necklace with a sparkly charm saying "chill" in script, and a purple purse strap in fake fur. A faux alligator handbag, once $398, was 30% off. Signs urged customers to promote their purchases with the hashtag #bendelgirl. The company said it would keep stocking new goods through the holiday season.

Graydon Feinstein, a 24-year-old who works in marketing at a luxury brand retailer, said there was a disconnect between the stylish building and its signs inside exclaiming "OMG!", connoting a child's candy store. "I don't get who they are trying to appeal to," he said. "A 12-year-old would be interested, but you're not going to spend hundreds of dollars for a backpack for a 12-year-old."

Victoria Teeman, a grandmother from Long Island, said she came with her daughter to get "something for posterity." She used to shop at Henri Bendel for one-of-a-kind jewelry and was crestfallen to see piles of identical bracelets for sale. "It was so chichi," Ms. Teeman said. "I feel sad any time an old establishment closes."

The company estimated that Henri Bendel revenues and operating loss for 2018, excluding closing costs, will be about $85 million and $45 million, respectively. The company is still estimating the costs of closing the business.

Write to Leslie Brody at leslie.brody@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 19, 2018 08:14 ET (12:14 GMT)

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