Elyse Walker at her store at 1234 Adams Street in St. Helena.
Craig Lee
As I walked into the Elysewalker boutique in St. Helena on a recent Monday morning, the bright, cozy store was abuzz — clients and stylists catching up on the day’s news, locals popping in for a quick hello and shoppers perusing the latest fall arrivals. In the center of it all was the store’s owner and namesake, Elyse Walker, a petite brunette with stylish thick-rimmed glasses, an easy smile and an infectious joie de vivre.
Over the last two decades, the New York native has become a powerhouse in the fashion retail world. When she opened her first eponymous store in Pacific Palisades in 1999, the boutique catered to women wanting to shop for stylish clothes in the neighborhood, near their favorite coffee shop and kids’ schools. With an offering of high-end brands mixed with more casual, everyday wear, Elysewalker was an instant success. Since then, that original Palisades store has expanded multiple times, and new Elysewalker boutiques have opened in Newport Beach, Calabasas and St. Helena.
In 2018, Walker debuted Towne by Elysewalker, featuring a more casual selection for men and women. There are now three Towne stores in Southern California. And Walker isn’t stopping there. Within the next year, she is opening two Elysewalker outposts in New York City, including a 6,000-square-foot flagship on the Upper East Side next spring, just a few blocks from where she opened her first shoe store while still in college.
But it’s not all about bricks and mortar. Walker recently launched her new e-commerce platform (elysewalker.com), allowing clients to shop 24 hours a day. Walker and I sat down on the comfy sofa in the middle of her chic Napa Valley shop and talked fashion, family and the importance of a supportive community.
Meet Elyse Walker.
We are in this beautiful boutique that bears your name. Tell me how the Elysewalker stores came to be. I grew up with a very hardworking, entrepreneurial family, and my dad is still in the shoe business. He’s a wholesaler. When my brother and I were in high school, my mom decided to open a retail store in New York, Capretto Shoes. So I grew up [in the] fashion business. And my grandparents had restaurants and wig stores and sneaker stores. I was always surrounded by hardworking people that worked seven days a week.
My mom was such a community member, so it was kind of ingrained in my brother and me to always be part of a community, no matter what we did in business. … Like Pacific Palisades, where I launched Elysewalker in 1999. Now I’m lucky enough to say I’m in the Napa Valley in St. Helena. I really think there’s something magical in this earth, not just for making grapes. I speak to a lot of people who come in from New York or Chicago or Canada, and we all say the same thing: There’s just something very soulful here.
What can people expect to find when they come into one of your stores? We mix designer with contemporary and advanced contemporary. And I’d like to think that people come to us for a point of view. We just did an event in the Hamptons, and people said, “I love how you can mix a Valentino with a Mother Denim and a Common Project sneaker.” Our secret sauce is never buying one piece just to wear for one look or one event.
We are designer-heavy with brands like Celine and Saint Laurent and Valentino, which don’t sell a ton [to] independent multibrand retailers, which I am. We’ve managed to keep really strong partnerships through [the] decades, like Gucci. My mom worked with Gucci in the ’80s. So we’ve been in business, if you can imagine, since the ’80s with some of these brands.
You had your first retail store while in college at Columbia. Tell me about that. While I was in college, I opened a store. It was kind of crazy. My mom was like, “Absolutely no,” but my father and I are kind of devilish together, and we ignored her. We found this great location on Madison and 82nd Street. And I said to my mom, “I’m opening a store. Dad lent me a little bit of money” — because I needed a deposit — “and I’m going to work on it this year.” Our plan was for [my mom] to take over the store. She had a very successful shoe business in Scarsdale, and here we were opening 30 minutes away. When I graduated college, I wanted to work on Wall Street. It was the ’80s, and I thought, “I can see myself on Wall Street.” But in that same year, my mom was diagnosed terminally ill with ovarian cancer. She was only 40 years old. The stock market crashed. My mom passed away. Instead of opening a store and then handing it to her, I inherited her store. So now I’m in college and I have two stores, which I loved, but it wasn’t my plan. As we all know, in life sometimes you get thrown these little curveballs, and you just roll up your sleeves and plow through them.
What brought you to California? When we moved to Pacific Palisades and I sold my mom’s company — my husband and I moved west for my husband’s job in banking — I swore I’d never be in retail again. Two minutes later, I’m in Pacific Palisades and I’m like, “There’s no retail here.” So I opened a very small 800-square-foot boutique one block from my kids’ school. I was room mom every year. One year, Ryan. Next year, Kevin. And I realized there are not a lot of businesses that [allow me to be] present at home and also do my own thing. So I’ve been in [retail] ever since. I grew one little store that has expanded six times. But then about seven, eight years ago, I really wanted to open more stores, and I realized I didn’t have the wherewithal to do that. I’m very hands-on. I was the accounting team. I was the buying team. If the store was dirty, I’d clean the store, whatever needed to be done. But I knew that in terms of management, I didn’t really have the skills to open another location.
So, what did you do? I was introduced to [our president] Summer Holl, who came from Intermix. She had opened 17 stores for them. Someone in New York put us together and said, “You should meet.” It was kind of instant. Summer came and really allowed me to move out of operations and management. [I’ve gotten] to work on new locations, interior design, customer experience, new brands. We’ve also launched Elyse Walker Private Label.
You’re expanding at a time when many stores across the country are closing. What do you know that others don’t? I don’t want to say I ignore bad news, but if something’s working for us, I don’t doubt it. And I do know that you have to build a team [and a strong point of view]. We’ve always kept with our point of view. Like when the whole world was doing streetwear, we really didn’t. We dabbled in it. We would buy an Off-White sweatshirt, because my client would throw that on and it’s adorable, but we wouldn’t do a whole store of streetwear. Because I have a mom, I have a board lady, I have a carpool mom [as clients]. They still want to wear a cardigan and a beautiful blouse and a nice shoe. So I guess my family gave me the strength to have the confidence or the nerve or the whatever to not follow what everyone else is doing. If I followed what everyone else is doing, we’d be out of business, too.
It’s unfortunate we have lost so many great retailers over the last few years. We lost Barneys. We lost Jeffrey’s, but we continue to grow. One of the reasons I think we did is when COVID hit and everyone was pulling back, as soon as [we reopened], we went big — ordering, moving forward. And I was told by clients, “You’re one of the only stores with merchandise in it.” Now, did we tone it down and do less eventwear? A hundred percent. Now we’ve swung the other way. There are so many events, we’re constantly, “Get more, get more, get more.”
Why did you choose St. Helena as your first Northern California location? Well, we moved here. It felt very reminiscent of Pacific Palisades in 1999. This is an affluent community, this is a generous community. Women dress beautifully here. How can there not be a lot of great retail? It almost seems so obvious that you think, “Am I seeing something wrong?” Because of my parents, I’m not afraid to take risks. It doesn’t obviously always work out, but I’m always willing to take that chance. And we found this [location]. I also look at signs in numbers — my background’s in applied mathematics — and it’s 1234 Adams Street. I mean, come on, what could be easier than that? So I felt good when I saw this building because it has symmetry. I thought people would come in and feel like it’s a house.
What do you like best about living and working in the wine country? I love any sense of community. Obviously, I’ve been in the fashion community. I’ve been in the women’s cancer community. To be in this wine country community, where people cherish the day, the weather, camaraderie, wine, food. I have clients come in. They come back with walnuts from their property. They come back, they bring you wine. Everyone wants to share, share, share, share.
I know it’s important to you to get involved in the communities where you have stores and you host a lot of philanthropic events. [I do] as many charitable events as I can. My passion, of course, is women’s cancer. I did a 10-year event for Cedars-Sinai [Medical Center in Los Angeles] called the Pink Party, and we raised $11.7 million over 10 years. Moving up here, one of my new friends suggested I join the board of St. Helena Hospital. It’s the first board I joined. And I said, “We’re going to do an event for the cancer center,” and we raised $1,450,000 our first year, which was crazy. The community just came out so supportive of it.
How do you define style? I define style as something that makes you feel good when you’re dressed well. And by the way, that doesn’t mean fancy and that doesn’t mean expensive. For me, I need to feel comfortable. That can be black tie, and that could mean picking up the kids at the carpool lane. It could be sweatpants with a cool Elder Statesman sweater. But when you feel good, you have a different walk and you have a little bop and you have a little confidence, and you’re usually kinder and more generous.
You have quite a celebrity following. Can you tell us any stories of working with celebrities? I had the great fortune of getting to meet Jennifer Garner really early in her career. I was asked to do the styling for her pilot of an unnamed show that later became Alias. I was so excited because I was kind of new to Los Angeles and I thought, “Oh my God, my first TV show.” Anyway, she wore black pants and a black T-shirt. And if I remember correctly, they needed seven of the same black pants. That was my whole styling. But we’ve been friends ever since. When it was time to start my ovarian cancer [fundraising], Jen had lost her first husband’s mom to ovarian cancer. So we did our first little event where we supported ovarian cancer research, and that was the catalyst to the Pink Party. Once I started the Pink Party, Jen hosted three out of 10 years for me.
What pieces will you be adding to your fall wardrobe? Everything Celine. And I’m still loving prints. You’re wearing a beautiful printed shirt and I am, too. One of our best brands that I’m super excited about, not on the designer side but super high fashion and more affordable, would be Nanushka. And A.L.C. just always.
What is the best style advice you’ve received and/or given? I’ll have some of the people on my style team style me, and sometimes they push me. I don’t know if that’s style advice, but I don’t think I know best. I’m willing to learn from other people. And sometimes you’re in the mood for someone who has a younger point of view, or someone who has a more classic point of view or whatever. So I’m constantly learning. We’re all evolving, we’re all changing. We’re all moody. At different times, we want different things.
And then the best style advice I give everyone is, “Are you comfortable?” I don’t really care if bell-bottoms are in or miniskirts are in. If you don’t feel comfortable in it, don’t wear it.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
