With at least 1,000 structures destroyed and two people confirmed dead in the ongoing and growing wildfires in the Los Angeles area, businesses are just beginning to learn the impact of the ongoing damage.
The Palisades Village mall, home to luxury brands including Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta, was mostly spared, owner Rick Caruso confirmed in an interview with a local Fox network on Jan. 7.
But the general Palisades Village area is in ruins with burned businesses along Sunset Boulevard, including the flagship location of fashion retailer Elyse Walker, which posted in an announcement on Instagram that it lost its flagship store to the Pacific Palisades fire.
âI am beyond heartbroken by the devastation the fires caused in the beautiful town of Pacific Palisades. Like so many others, we were severely impacted as we lost our flagship Elyse Walker Pacific Palisades in the fires. And while that is an incredible loss, I am thankful that our staff is safe and remains unharmed,â wrote Walker in the announcement.
A post on X by CBS correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti showed a video of the devastation of the block where the store once stood. One block over on Sunset Boulevard was a burned out shell of the Starbucks across from the Palisades Village mall.
Vigliotti reported on X that the mall had âsurvived.â A spokesperson for Anine Bing confirmed its store in the mall remained intact. An Instagram post by Erewhon said that its Palisades Village and Calabasas locations would âremain closed until itâs safe to reopen.â
A Palisades Village spokesperson did not reply to a request for comment, and it is unclear if businesses in the mall were damaged. âWeâre going to help them get rebuilt and help them get reopened,â said Caruso of Village businesses during the Fox interview, without noting any details on possible damage.
Other retailers located in Palisades Village have not yet received information on the status of their stores, including a second store Elyse Walker has in the mall itself, Towne by Elyse Walker. A spokesperson for Favorite Daughter said the brandâs founders were receiving conflicting information and did not yet know the status of their store. A spokesperson for another brand said they could not comment because they were in the process of evacuating their home.
But even stores still physically standing exist amid a sea of devastation, with closures until further notice stretching through upscale shopping locations in Brentwood and Calabasas in evacuation areas.
