Meet Larry.
Larry was my first and last retail boss and my business partner at David Lawrence from 1994 to 2001. People often ask about the origin of our boutique's name, so let's take a stroll down memory lane.
In the early 1980s, while studying fashion merchandising and theater at BYU, I realized I needed some hands-on retail experience in my chosen field which meant getting a job when I wasn't in school or touring with the BYU Young Ambassadors. With a reference from a family friend who owned successful Seattle restaurants, this inexperienced, annoyingly eager, recently returned Spanish speaking missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints managed to get interviews with the owners of all three of Seattle's Italian designer boutiques. Two graciously turned me down, but one hired me.
Larry, who managed one of the northwest's eight Jeffrey Michael stores at Northgate, the country's "first enclosed mall," was encouraged to hire me. The rest is "history." I enthusiastically dove in, simultaneously trying to outsell, outperform and endear myself to all the seasoned retail veterans. To me, this was fashion retail nirvana. After making myself indispensable, I returned to work for Larry at Jeffrey Michael every summer and holiday until I finished school. Upon graduation, I was offered a position in the management training program at Marshall Field, the storied carriage trade department store on Chicago's "marvelous mile." I never made it back to Chicago. At the eleventh hour, Jeffrey Michael offered me a position and I took it, seeing the opportunity in a smaller pond while avoiding lethal wind and extreme temperatures in Chicago.
I worked with, and for, Larry at Jeffrey Michael starting as Larry's assistant manager, then managing other stores at Southcenter and Bellevue Square, and ultimately buying for the company while running the Bellevue Square store. Larry was always my supervisor, mentor and champion during those formative years.
When Jeffrey Michael announced they would be closing all their stores and rebranding themselves as a more moderate monobrand company called Logan Drive, Larry and I saw an opportunity to start our own venture. We opened our store a few month's after Logan Drive's opening. Logan Drive lasted less than a year. We didn't see that coming, but we took advantage by buying their almost new fixtures at pennies on the dollar and acquiring their newly remodeled space in downtown Seattle at Rainier Square. Now with two stores, Larry stayed mostly in Bellevue, and I was in the Seattle store.
After 9/11, retail was pretty tough for a few months. Larry moved on to start other successful businesses. His contacts and experience were foundational in our success. We could have named the store David Larry, but Larry thought that David Lawrence sounded smoother. Cheers to Larry.
David of David Lawrence