Friday is the last day that customers can stop by one of Hawthorne Plaza’s longest-running stores.
Locally owned lingerie and bra boutique Clair de Lune will officially close at the end of Friday, April 15, after 17 years at the shopping center near 119th Street and Roe.
What it was: Clair de Lune has offered a range of lingerie and bras in many different sizes, long promising to help customers find the perfect fit.
Customers could also find a variety of European brands and styles, from active wear to nursing and bridal merchandise.
The couple behind the store: Owners Clair Keizer and Terry Levine opened Clair de Lune in 2004, after Levine decided to make a career change after years of working in marketing and advertising.
Levine is originally from the Kansas City area, while Keizer is from Lawrence. Aside from its Overland Park shop, Clair de Lune also briefly had a shop in St. Louis.
Levine said it is “time to move on” and added that they currently have no new business ventures planned after Clair de Lune closes.
More than lingerie: In addition to selling bras and lingerie, the store also started the First Bra Foundation in 2014. First Bra allowed breast cancer survivors to receive a bra for personal fitting and free bra of their choice.
“Being properly fit was often a painstaking process for them,” Keizer said. “We wanted to make it a much easier process for them to determine their new size, if they indeed were a new size.”
The store was also known for hosting an annual “Great Bra Exchange.”
Each January, customers were invited to donate gently used bras that the store would then donate to local domestic abuse shelters.
In reflection: In its nearly two decades at Hawthorne Plaza, Keizer said the location served the store well.
“One hundred and nineteenth and Roe is as an excellent retail intersection,” Keizer said. “And it provided great accessibility for our customers with (I-435) being so nearby. So we were able to draw customers from all over the metro and from, quite honestly, well-beyond the metro.”
From now until close of business Friday, the store’s remaining inventory will be available at 40% off.
