CHICAGO – The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Bonwit Teller will be coming back. It will come back as a boutique, now that revitalization company River West Brands of Chicago has bought the brand and intellectual property.
Chicago-based River West Brands is a company that specializes in brand re-launches, and the paper reports that Chicagoans could see a Bonwit Teller boutique within the next year. They apparently bought rights to the Bonwit Teller brand two years ago from Pyramid Management Group, a Syracuse, N.Y.-based mall developer that came out of the venerable department store’s bankruptcy.
The brand has some good bones and a great fashion history. It will be a home run for River West. There is some powerful equity with the name. A quick internet search dragged up the ad with Yasmin LeBon in the 1980s doing an ad for the department store. Click on the ad for some more photos.
Women’s Wear Daily reports that Andrei Najjar, interim chief executive officer of Avenue Brands, was hired to relaunch the brand.
Very exciting news. I did all my shopping at Bonwit’s-White Plains. My bible was Vogue magazine. Who will you cater to? I shopped at Bonwit’s when I was in my early 20’s. I think I still have Bonwit’s credit card. I just discarded one of the small shopping bags I saved for years. I am stil very angry at Trump because he destroyed the beautiful Art Desco plates, even when he promised to save them from destruction.