With owner’s passing, Star Fashion Salon goes out of business in La Jolla

The weekend of Oct. 6-7, 2018 marked the end of an era for Star Fashion Salon at 1110 Torrey Pines Road. The small boutique, which had been operating at that location since 1982 (near the Hertz Rental Car business), opened its doors for the last time for a Going Out of Business Sale.

With a cursory glance, La Jolla Light noticed everything from wedding gowns to little black dresses crammed into the small space, there was even a metal-spiked costume bra. The shop’s owner, Scott Spencer explained that “over the years, quite a bit of stuff has accumulated.”

Through its 36 years, the Star Fashion House sold mostly wedding dresses, but also girls’ dresses in sizes to fit 8-year-olds to young women. Many clients came in to buy flower-girl and quinceanera dresses. The store also offered mother-of-the bride outfits and women’s clothing for almost any special occasion, along with shoes and accessories.

Spencer said the closure was a year in coming. The business was owned and operated by his wife, who passed away last year. Spencer owns the adjacent space toward the back of the shop where he operates his architectural firm, and will continue to do so.

After the couple got married, he explained, “we married our businesses together. We had joint-use office space.” However, the building’s landlord wants the spot to be solely office-use now, so Spencer will expand his architectural business to fill the space vacated by the dress shop.

Alanna Sweeney, 7, stopped by the sale early with her mom. “It’s like a Halloween store in here,” she widely grinned. “And it’s great because there are lots of dresses I like.”

As for Spencer, it was time to do the math. At the beginning of the sale Saturday morning, he was ready to sell 150 pairs of shoes, 200 wedding dresses, nearly 400 women’s gowns, and dozens of young girls’ frocks. “We’re liquidating,” he said plainly, “to come down to zero clothes, zero shoes, zero wedding dresses. So we’re making extremely good deals right now.”

However, by Sunday afternoon, Spencer had only sold $100 worth of merchandise, with next to zero shoppers passing through. He said he was hoping for increased foot traffic from the La Jolla Art & Wine Festival just a block away, but it didn’t happen. He also admitted that though many people see the store’s façade from their cars every day, few stop to browse, not knowing there’s free parking in the back of the building.

Spencer put everything that didn’t sell that weekend into a storage facility. He plans to do a bulk sale (or business liquidation sale) of what’s left from his office. To learn more: (858) 459-8288 or e-mail scottspencerarchitect@yahoo.com

Of Note: A few more changes will occur in that complex: Massimo Hair Salon is relocating to La Jolla Boulevard, and Little Love Children’s Resale Boutique will move into Massimo’s space, leaving its former rental space in the complex up for grabs.