Although the village board was unable to reach a settlement agreement Monday night, Oak Park seems poised to welcome plus-size women’s clothing retailer Lane Bryant to its downtown.
“Our hope is we’ll be able to resolve this issue appropriately and expeditiously, and I believe that that will be possible,” said Village President David Pope Monday night after the board’s regular meeting.
“As far as we’re concerned, we’re in the process of welcoming Lane Bryant to the Eleven 20 Club,” said Richard Curto, CEO of RSC & Assoc., the developer of the mixed-use building at 1120 Lake St. “There are no significant issues. There’s certainly every expectation it’ll get worked out.”
Curto said remaining details to be worked out were “mechanical,” and that he expected a signed settlement agreement would be reached within days.
Pope said the board agreed that it would allow Lane Bryant in Oak Park, but that nothing is scheduled for the board to address the settlement.
RSC sued the village in June, months after the village board told the developer it would not allow Lane Bryant to occupy a space in the new building in accordance with a redevelopment agreement the two sides signed in 2003. Approved retail lists are commonly used to keep an appropriate mix of retailers in a shopping district.
The lawsuit stirred a maelstrom of media coverage, much of which implied Oak Park was too “sexy” for a plus-size clothing store.
“We would be delighted to do business in Oak Park,” said Gayle Coolick, head of investor relations for Charming Shoppes Inc., Lane Bryant’s parent company. “A lot of customers in that area have contacted us to say they’d love to have us there.”
Charming Shoppes’ (CHRS) stock has fallen more than 40 percent since early May.
A “resolution authorizing execution of a settlement agreement between RSC and the Village of Oak Park” was added to Monday’s board agenda late on Friday. The Open Meetings Act requires an agenda item being voted on to be posted 48 hours in advance of the meeting.
“The agenda was updated with the hope that there would be a resolution [Monday],” village spokesman David Powers wrote in an e-mail.
After covering some initial agenda items Monday night, the board adjourned to a closed-door meeting to discuss litigation related to the RSC suit, Pope explained before leaving, promising a short delay in the meeting.
Fifty minutes later the board returned to open session and removed the settlement agreement from its agenda.
– DREW CARTER
CONTACT: dcarter@wjinc.com
Lost in the brouhaha over the possible addition of Lane Bryant to the Lake Street retail mix is the fact that they were here once before”right across the street, in fact, at 1133 Lake St. You might have heard of the location. Today it’s known as the Colt building.
An article in the Jan. 8, 1953 Oak Leaves announced, “Lane Bryant, Inc., pioneers in maternity fashions and hard-to-find sizes, will open an Oak Park store in the spring. … This new shop will continue Lane Bryant’s merchandise policy of catering to the needs of stout women, half-sizes, chubby girls, expectant mothers, and the Junior Plenty miss.”
One ad showed a girl in a dress with a jump rope, noting that “Pleasingly plump little girls and teens”ages 8 to 15″find Lane Bryant has specially designed apparel to help them look their best.” The “polished chambray” the young model wore in the photo came from “the Chubby department (no ‘skinny’ girls allowed).” Girls were offered the opportunity to “register for membership in the famous Lane Bryant Chubby Club, whose members receive membership buttons, cards and regular issues of the club’s newspaper.”
As the March 19 opening drew closer, ads and articles told the story of the widow, Mrs. Lane Bryant, left with an infant son, who pawned her diamond earrings, bought a sewing machine and a few yards of dress material, and started selling “Tea Gowns” from her flat in upper New York. “Her tiny business grew,” the legend ran, “the precious earrings being pawned again and again to supply capital,” until one day she came up with the idea for the maternity dress.
“It soon dawned on her that other women had problems too, that real women rarely conformed to the dictates of the current fashion plates. … Where else could courage, energy, talent and the insatiable urge to serve, be nurtured and rewarded so handsomely than in this great land of ours,” one ad read with patriotic pride. “Lane Bryant’s is truly an AMERICAN success story with a successful past, an unrivaled present, an unlimited future.”
Actually the future was limited to 15 years. Lane Bryant left Oak Park in 1967 or 1968, part of the mass retail exodus to Oak Brook, where they had set up shop a few years earlier. The Lane Bryant Beauty Salon closed then as well.
“Thus one woman’s idea both a revolution and a romance,” one 1953 ad read, “has gone a long way to make American women of all sizes and ages the very best-dressed women in the world.”
What goes around, comes around, they say.
“Ken Trainor