One of Vancouver's first high-end luxury fashion boutiques is set to close in a few months, Business in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»has learned.
The 33-year-old retailer posted a notice to its Facebook page that confirmed that the store is closing down and that a liquidation sale started Friday.
Alberto and Maria Leone first launched a string of Alberto’s Boutique locations in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»in the 1970s. They then consolidated their retail operations, rebranded and opened their iconic high-end fashion store Leone at 757 West Hastings Street in 1987.
Though divorced in 2005, the two continued to work together for many more years before they sold Leone reportedly to off-shore investors.
They competed with Holt Renfrew and brought in global high-fashion brands such as Versace and Dolce & Gabbana.
Alberto Leone’s dream was to operate a large, free-standing store that sold high-end Italian fashions on one floor, so that was why he opened Leone, his son Marcello Leone told BIV in 2015.
Marcello was so eager to join the family business that he took courses year-round while finishing his bachelor of arts degree at the University of British Columbia. By 1989, Marcello had graduated and was working full time at the family business in sales before assuming the role of general manager and then vice-president of operations.
Leone left his parents’ business in 2009, when the global economy was sputtering through a financial crisis. He later went on to be an investor and CEO at RYU.
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