The end of the world according to Fred began at breakfast at this very dining room table, with its handsome silver candlesticks and the two tiny crystal birds grazing between them for nonexistent crumbs.
The once and future kings of Rodeo Drive--Fred Hayman, who founded the original Rodeo Drive Committee in 1972, and Ron Michaels, manager of the Louis Vuitton boutique and currently the committee's president--were talking together at Hayman's elegant home in the Beverly Hills flats when Michaels made a surprising suggestion to the man he considers his mentor. How would Hayman feel about vacating 273 Rodeo Drive and letting Vuitton take over the space?
It was not unlike asking Dad to give up the throne. Hayman, 73, has held court in the ivory edifice at the southwest corner of Rodeo Drive and Dayton Way since 1961, first as a silent partner in the Giorgio boutique, then as its owner along with his wife, Gale. He held on through an acrimonious 1983 divorce and the 1987 sale of the business to Avon, and bought back the property for $6 million. He opened Fred Hayman Beverly Hills in 1989, by which time his name and that location were shorthand for the epitome of style.
He has had other offers over the years, and not small ones. Michaels had heard a rumor that The Disney Store was in active negotiations when the deal suddenly went south, and designer Calvin Klein, who has talked for years about opening a Rodeo Drive boutique, has made efforts to woo Hayman out of the way.
But Louis Vuitton needed a site for what Michaels calls its "global store concept." The company that started making luggage in 1854 hired designer Marc Jacobs last year to create a clothing line, and that, along with Vuitton's expansion into shoes, colored leather handbags and exotic leathers, requires more space than the company's current 5,000 square feet just a quarter-block away. When Vuitton fell out of negotiations on another location, Michaels' boss asked him simply: What is the best location on Rodeo Drive?
Without hesitation, Michaels said it was the Hayman space. "I can't imagine him ever wanting to close, though" he said, "or even move, or anything."
"Maybe," said Michael Burke, "that's because no one's ever asked."
Or at least no one the size of Louis Vuitton, which, along with Christian Dior, Givenchy, Kenzo and Christian Lacroix, is part of the world's largest luxury goods combine--Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. During the last 15 years, Vuitton has experienced exponential growth, from two stores in 1970 to 300 today. A behemoth with class; surely Hayman would be impressed.
