Louis Boston Closing Doors

An icon of the Boston retail arena is shutting its doors after 90 years. Louis Boston announced that it will cease operations in July. Debi Greenberg, a fourth-generation owner of the family-run business told Women’s Wear Daily that while the store is performing well, growing development in its Back Bay neighborhood and developers’ desire to acquire Louis’ property “sped up” the 60-year-old owner's decision to retire. Before Greenberg took the reins, her father and legendary retailer, the late Murray Pearlstein, transformed the store created by his father and uncle by becoming one of the first U.S. retailers to import high-end European designers such as Giorgio Armani, Brioni and Luciano Barbera.

Designer and retailer Joseph Abboud, who began his retail career at Louis Boston at the age of 18, told the Boston Globe, “[Louis Boston] was the foundation of everything that has ever happened to me. Louis in its day was legendary.”