Boutique has fresh designs on Haight
Cary Lane moving its Hayes Valley location
A former American Apparel store in the Upper Haight that’s been empty for more than two years is finally getting an occupant this fall.
Cary Lane, a boutique that sells discounted designer clothes, signed a 10-year lease for the almost 3,000square-foot location at 1615 Haight St. between Clayton and Belvedere streets. The area is known for vintage shops and tourist stores, but it has recently seen a rise in empty storefronts as e-commerce dampens interest in shopping and a disconnect grows between the area’s store-heavy counterculture feel and younger residents’ preference for restaurants over products.
Cary LaScala, 38, founded the business in 2008. It sells sample clothing — unworn pieces from designers and manufacturers that do not make it to wide-scale production. He currently has three stores — in the Mission and Inner Sunset districts and Hayes Valley. The Hayes Valley store will close and move to Haight Street.
“Signing a long-term lease in the Haight neighborhood is not scary,” LaScala said. What had been scary, he said, was moving his first store from Noe Valley to Hayes Valley almost a decade ago.
Two doors down on Haight Street, Steve Smith, whose grandfather started Robert’s Hardware in 1931, said another business is welcome.
“I’ve seen the street with more and less vacancies — I am encouraged that a new store is opening up,” he said.
LaScala said he’s seen steady growth in his business
over the past decade, though he declined to give revenue numbers. He expressed confidence that the new location will do well, and said a rent clause allows for a fiveyear extension once the lease comes up.
“People come to here to shop for great clothes at low prices,” LaScala said of the Upper Haight. “I am exactly where I need to be.”
Efforts to reach the building’s landlord, Baychester Shopping Center Inc., were unsuccessful. The space previously housed American Apparel, a Los Angeles clothing company known for minimalist designs. It closed all three of its San Francisco stores in spring 2017 after filing for bankruptcy protection the previous fall.
LaScala declined to disclose his rent but said it would be double that of the Hayes Valley location.
Thousands of companies make sample clothing to showcase to buyers, usually department stores, but only a few get selected for mass orders, according to Ilse Metchek, president of the California Fashion Association, a trade group in Los Angeles.
“Samples are used for display purposes, on runways and when designers produce multiple lines for merchants,” she said.
The makers of the unused clothes sell it to businesses like Cary Lane. A woven top from the brand Shilla sells for $49 at the Hayes Valley shop, a discount of almost 50%. Other clients Cary Lane works with include Free People, French Connection, Converse and Alternative Apparel.
LaScala also has an eponymous private label men’s shirt line, which he started in 2010.
He plans to close the Hayes Valley store at the end of July. He hopes to open the Upper Haight store in the fall after renovations over the summer.