While there remain plenty of papered over and boarded up shop windows from the depths of the pandemic slowdown, the draw of Capitol Hill’s younger and increasingly wealthy demographics and its proximity to the city’s downtown core continues to be strong enough to attract new ventures and nationwide brands.
On E Pine, a pandemic-emptied retail spot has reopened on the E Pine block of the massive Excelsior Apartments development where “American classic” fashion purveyor Buck Mason is now resident: Continue reading →
A Frankie4 shop Down Under (Image: Frankie4 Shoes)
Global brands big and small continue to dabble in retail experiments and new concepts in Pike/Pine. The latest will be rapidly growing Frankie4 Shoes as the Australian fashion footwear designer plans to open its first U.S. “concept store” later this year on E Pine.
Permits for the shop show it taking the corner space at 501 E Pine with a classic Capitol Hill recent retail history — ventures including the shuttered anarchist co-opBlack Coffee and a shop for the PUBLIC Bikes startup that closed after just under two years of business.
The new store will neighbor the Raygun Lounge. CHS checked in with the game shop and arcade as the popular hangout struggled through COVID-19 restrictions. It has now fully reopened.
UPDATE: Business Operations Manager for Frankie4’s Madeline Losee tells CHS the Capitol Hill location will also be home the company’s U.S. headquarters with office space and a customer support call center. The company’s Australian leadership chose Seattle, Losee said, due to the “innovative nature of the city” and it “marriage of culture and style” based around a growing number of outdoor and adventure brands.
“It’s a perfect fit,” Losee said.
The headquarters and store will bring new activity to the building and some new jobs to the neighborhood — Losee says they are hiring for retail and call center positions.
The store will debut in September with a soft opening and “private fittings” for customers in the new space designed as “a beautiful showcase with natural wood and plants,” Losee says,” and a focus on “a personalized experience for these customers” and “everything they need for better foot health.”
Standard Goods is moving to 501 East Pike, the former location of Bassline Fitness in the Dunn Motor Building. Sign designed by Scott Moffatt. (Image: Standard Goods)
Don’t be surprised if you see the Standard Goods team shuffling inventory from their 701 E Pike location to their new digs in the Dunn Motors Building, especially this week — it’s crunch time. Standard Goods’ lease is up at the end of April, and the retailer is busy moving into a new home at 501 E Pike, the former home of Baseline Fitness. The plan is to close the last two days of the month and officially open the new location on May 1st. Luckily, they’re only moving a block and a half down the street.
“[The old shop is] such a small space and we have been filling it with so much product that it’s a really tight space to walk in,” said Maxx Kautz, Standard Goods’ Capitol Hill Manager. “When we found this space that was kind of twice the size, and we knew our lease was coming up, it was like, ‘We might as well.’”
Standard Goods features apparel, candles, pins, stickers, patches, rain gear, health and beauty products, and much more, many from local Pacific Northwest makers. Owner Jeffrey Gardner launched the shop in 2015 at the location that previously housed occult bookstoreEdge of the Circle for over 20 years. When Gardner heard about the availability of the Baseline Fitness space through Jill Cronauer, a frequent customer—as well as Chief Operating Officer and designated broker for Hunters Capital—the idea of moving into a location about twice the size was too good to pass up. Continue reading →
While we’re thinking about Capitol Hill fashion and beauty that may end up being nothing more than plans due to the COVID-19 crisis, one neighborhood center of fashion, beauty, and more is doing everything it can to hang on through the pandemic and celebrate its 20th anniversary in style.
When COVID-19 first hit, Pretty Parlor owner Anna Banana turned to doorstep delivery to local customers, focused on her Etsy shop, and created an e-commerce store attached to her website — graceful but major shifts for a business that has been in motion since the turn of the millenium.
“In the beginning, I would do doorstep delivery and sometimes, if I knew the customer well, I’d pick them up a Dicks burger and friends, because why not!” Banana says of the early pandemic delivery effort. Continue reading →
Capitol Hill personal styling services and clothing store Sum is coming to E Pike.
The Sum Styled Box is a more personalized take on the growing delivered style box trend. Kim’s client base, urban working professionals, are very busy people. Because of this it is the goal of Sum Style to serve them in the best way possible and bring a bit of ease to their lives said Sam.
“Our boxes are unique in that our clothes are never mass produced. We are very personal. We don’t style by algorithm, we treat each client like a family member because they are each different and deserve that care.” Continue reading →
Four years after its opening, Capitol Hill dress design shop Visette Boutique will be moving up the Hill.
Capitalizing on an expiring lease, owner Visal Sam took the opportunity to move locations and, in turn, expand her store.
“It was a perfect storm for us,” she said. “The situation provided us with an option to go with it and benefit from it.”
Sam, whose boutique primarily focuses on special occasion dresses, aims to push women out of their “fashion box.” She feels that everyone has their own style and it is very difficult for industrialized and mass-produced clothes to truly fit someone’s look.
“If you want something really beautiful you don’t know where to go because everywhere else is generic” she said. Continue reading →
With Thanksgiving out of the way, it’s time to Shop the Hill. E Pike’s newest retailer is ready for your business. Meanwhile, two other Hill fashion shops are marking the start of the holiday shopping season celebrating important milestones.
Ritual, a new independent fashion shop from two industry veterans, is now open on the Comet block and ready for your very Black Friday visit.
“When we’re feeling feel sassy, we might have some charcoal,” Sarah Randall Williams tells CHS about Ritual’s monochromatic approach with an emphasis on texture and shape.
Two industry veterans are coming together to create a new fashion shopping experience on E Pike they hope moves beyond faceless, soulless big box retailers.
“We both became a little more disillusioned with faceless, fast profit, fashion companies,” William Rheinhardt tells CHS about Ritual, the new store he and business partner Sarah Randall Williams are creating in the 900 block of E Pike in the middle of the neighborhood’s nightlife and club scene.
After meeting in the trenches working on West Coast efforts for Swedish retailer H&M, Rheinhardt says he and Williams are breaking out after a combined 40 years in the industry to create their own fashion shop featuring clothing as well as household and lifestyle goods.
“We’ve been looking to partner with brands that have a social conscience,” Rheinhardt said. “We see that as the greatest need in fashion.” Continue reading →
Inside Anne and Valentin’s Nolita U.S. flagship (Image: Anne and Valentin)
Young but aging tech workers and luxury are, apparently, booming Pike/Pine retail markets. French luxury eyewear concern Anne and Valentin — or Anne et Valentin, if you prefer — is sizing up a space in the neighborhood’s Odd Fellows building.
CHS has confirmed the project with the Toulouse-founded global fashion brand with plans for Pike/Pine to join the exclusive ranks of locations with A&V shops — the southern French capital, Paris, and three New York City locations: Madison, the Upper West Side, and the Nolita flagship.
Marc Oliver, who will manage the Capitol Hill store for the company, tells CHS the Seattle expansion is part of Anne and Valentin “dipping a toe” into creating more stores “out west.” Continue reading →
Seattle’s sneakerheads will have a new foothold on Capitol Hill when Sole Mates, a sneaker consignment store above the Broadway and Pike QFC, opens shop at the end of the month. Owner Parris Johnson said culture is “in demand” on Capitol Hill, and that preparations are basically done and the store should be open by August 31st.
“I felt like this is what the area needs,” Johnson said. “A real true boutique. Brick and mortar.”
Johnson, who grew up in Seattle, jumped at the opportunity to open a business less than a quarter mile from where he grew up on 20th and Union. Continue reading →
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