I had mixed emotions upon hearing that Bendel’s was coming to Los Angeles, at first a giddy rush of excitement swept over me, then I found out it would be coming to the Beverly Center. Excitement gave way to confusion and a pit of anxiety began to form as it dawned on me… this was probably not going to be a full service Henri Bendel store, this I feared would be another one of their gift boutiques. This same Henri Bendel mirage lured me out of Miami on a recent visit, to far away Aventura and when I finally saw the Henri Bendel store front from a distance I rushed to meet it with all the glee of a wife seeing her husband come back from World War II, only to find that it wasn’t a real Bendel’s store. It was just a store trying to sell me the stuff I buy when I can’t afford to buy the stuff the real Bendel’s store sells. In the end I bought a Ben-doll keychain and left a little disappointed, while still relishing my brown striped bag.

After reading more on Racked LA and piecing the other dribs and drabs about the opening together, it has become disappointingly apparent that this will be an HB gift boutique, which is a strange concept to me. I don’t much see the point in buying the gift items in the absence of the experience of the real store. I will go there nonetheless, and I will probably get a keychain and a candle or two. But it’s like showing up to see the Nutcracker Ballet only to find out that you just bought a copy of the program, what’s a souvenir without the experience?