Rising Rents Cause Shop to Close Down

Alo, a high-end women’s clothing boutique, is closing its doors permanently after nearly nine years in Harvard Square.

Owner Marie Santa Maria, who along with her husband Hernando also owns and operates the boutique Via Vai across the street, said that rising rent and a mismatch between the store’s offerings and Harvard Square clientele precipitated the closure.

“We’re going to be reinventing ourselves somewhere else,” she said. While Santa Maria declined to disclose the exact location of the new store she and her husband plan to open, she said it would also be in the Square.

Alo opened in 2000 after Seven Stars Bookstore vacated the 58 JFK St. location above Shay’s Pub & Wine Bar. The space is owned by the trust of Geneviève McMillan, a former Cambridge resident and philanthropist who passed away last year.

Like other Harvard Square owners who have been recently forced to close their stores due to their inability to pay rent, Santa Maria attributed Alo’s lackluster sales to the recession.

“I mean, we’ve got an economy problem here,” she said. “All these shops everywhere are dropping like flies.”

The Santa Marias’ first foray in Harvard Square was a leather goods store, which opened at Via Vai’s current location in 1985. According to Marie, the economic recession of the early ’90s prompted them to turn from leather to clothing.

“We’ve gone through good periods and good times and we have loyal customers here at Via Vai,” she said. “Honestly, Alo’s merchandise might have been a little too sophisticated for the area, which is mostly college students.”

The store had provided clothing for the Harvard fashion show Eleganza and several fashion shows sponsored by Harvard Business School.

Alo will liquidate its merchandise at the Santa Marias’ new store location.

Despite the difficult environment for high-end retail stores, Marie Santa Maria was sanguine on the outlook of their next business venture.

“It’s just a process that we’ve been through,” she said. “We’ve seen it all.”

—Staff writer Shan Wang can be reached at wang38@fas.harvard.edu.