BEVERLY HILLS -- Rodeo Drive seems every bit the exclusive playground of the rich and famous on a recent Saturday.
Ferraris are everywhere; a show of sport and racing models has temporarily blocked every other vehicle from the four-block drive, home to some of the most expensive boutiques in the world: Versace, Chanel, Giorgio Armani, Fred Hayman Beverly Hills, Van Cleef & Arpels, Cartier, Bijan, Ungaro.
Here on the drive, ogling the cars, are "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno, Olympian infomercial star Bruce Jenner, and actors Perry King and Michael Nouri, along with many who are obviously tourists, and many others done up in exquisite threads who carry themselves in the rarefied manner that says "I belong."
So it's hard to tell, at first glance, that Rodeo Drive has hit hard times.
But the ritzy street has been knocked on its elegant behind by worldwide recession, bankruptcies, plunging sales and a loss of prestige.
While some upscale boutiques scramble to survive, moderate-priced but highly profitable chain stores are muscling their way in. The once-haughty street now has stores found at your nearest mall.
"We are going through an evolution," said Fred Hayman, as he watched passing scene from the cappuccino bar in the shop he founded under the name Giorgio Beverly Hills. It was Mr. Hayman who about 18 years ago organized the Rodeo Drive Committee and persuaded the other merchants to market the street as a shopping destination of the wealthy -- a strategy that succeeded beyond expectations.
Rodeo Drive became a street of dreams, where money was no object, where one went for $95,000 gowns, $42,000 bedspreads and $500,000 diamond necklaces. Fashion houses and investors fought to pay exorbitant rent for retail space, and rich travelers, California socialites and celebrities shopped till they dropped.
During the late 1970s and the go-go, spend-spend '80s, Rodeo Drive came to rival such world-renowned shopping streets as Rome's Via Condotti and Paris' Rue du Faubourg St. Honore.
Mr. Hayman's boutique was a symbol of the street; it drew the "creme de la creme," and was immortalized in Judith Krantz's racy 1978 novel "Scruples." (Mr. Hayman sold the Giorgio name and perfume to Avon in 1989.)
But Rodeo Drive is no longer as exclusive as it used to be. Opened recently are mainstreamers such as Baby Guess? and Guess?; Imposters, a costume jewelry store, and one of the Limited's Express stores.
