I used to go out to all the best restaurants, clubs and bars in Los Angeles to promote my women’s store in the early 90’s and men used to ask me all the time when I was opening a store for them? They were almost mad I didn’t think of them. Men’s never really interested me, not even when I was in college at Syracuse studying fashion design, so it never crossed my mind.

After enough men asked me I realized it was probably a great idea and I had already figured out the recipe for success at my women’s store and was ready for a new challenge. I was 29 years old. There happened to be a new parking lot being built across the street from my flagship women’s store with 2 retail spots. I decided it was time and if I got the space I would open my men’s concept. I was too scared to take on the larger space so I bid for the smaller one, signed the lease, sold myself to the bank with the success of my women’s shop and they gave me an unsecured line of credit and I opened my first men’s store on April 17th, 1999 before the men’s business was a thing. It was very hard to find brands to fill my tiny shop. I even went to Europe out of despair and didn’t find anything I liked there either as my customer is the American guy and has a different body type and style.

I loved designing that store with thick masculine rustic dark wood furniture, counter and tables from scratch with my decorator and builder and then decorated the shop with found objects from the Rose Bowl like vintage cars, old sporting equipment, a sports vibe, car racing memorabilia and pin up girls in the dressing rooms that I ripped out of old Playboys and framed myself.

We had a bar, Playboys, a play station, and a big cozy leather chair to sit in. It had a great vibe and became a hang out until we eventually got so busy and didn’t have enough dressing rooms or space. So I moved down the street to a 2400 sq foot space which was stunning, masculine and perfect and I opened up the kids store in the 900 sq foot space creating a trifecta of Lisa Kline retail on the street.

That is when I came up with the Lisa Kline girl logo inspired by the classic trucker girl to frame my name back to back. I wanted something that was graphic that would connect the stores. It worked out well and the logo to this day is very memorable and famous.  

What I learned is that dressing men is nothing like dressing women and I love buying for them and dressing them. It ended up becoming my favorite store and to this day I love buying men’s so much and styling them because it is so rewarding on so many levels as well as men are just cool to work with.

I built the men’s industry and was the first store to look and write brands such as Theory, James Perse, Vince, True Religion, Seven Jeans, Citizens of Humanity, J Brand, and the list goes on and on. Lisa Kline Men was a place where brands could launch, where my customers could discover new brands, dress cool, dress their age, look like an adult, toss their high school clothes out and finally get laid.

I ended up designing my own men’s line of dress shirts, dress pants, tee shirts, boxers and more. And Lisa Kline Men was known for catering to the big guy. Most men weren’t even that big and couldn’t fit in a standard XL so I made my brands size up and give me a XXL and even XXXL and bought jeans with a 36 inseam. I love solving problems and finding solutions to look and feel good in what you wear.

We had so many parties, brand launches, red carpets, anniversaries, celebrations, DJ’s on Saturdays, Tattoo artists, game days, tequila and scotch tastings, as well as a huge TV that played James Bond and sports. It was like every day was a party in that store. We would always have late night private shopping, and customers would stay until 1:00 am! We had a full bar with top shelf liquor and amazing silver jewelry. Men would come from all across the US and world to shop. Hotel cars would drop them off, we would deliver bags of clothes to the hotels, I even started a box program for my out of town customers and sent them all the cool new stuff and opened the doors in the morning with a couple grand before we even opened the doors! And then we shipped families from all 3 stores and my girls would run around and pull and wrap every outfit in Lisa Kline tissue with custom notes. Those were the days! 

I bought every category from sneakers, to belts, hats, socks, boxers, knives, watches, a jean bar with every cool denim brand, the best tees, button downs, sweaters, swim and more. You could get a new wardrobe, have a shot of whiskey and have fun shopping. We had a ton of press, filmed all the time in the store, I was always on camera and just like my women’s store my men’s store was influencing people before there were influencers. My staff was incredible, professional but very fun! It was an experience that only people who shopped there would know.

Now the men’s industry is multifaceted and men have so many wonderful choices in all categories to represent who they are from their size, body type, vibe and everything in between. It is so easy to get dressed now as a male and there is no excuse not to look and feel your best in what you put on and how you present yourself. I actually miss that store at 143 S Robertson so much! It was my favorite and you could always find me in there working and hanging out. 

LK