Women's store Nina McLemore leaves town

By Lisa Brody

National women’s apparel retailer Nina McLemore has closed its doors at 227 S. Old Woodward in downtown Birmingham.

Earlier this week, the location had been emptied out of all merchandise.

Nina McLemore had been in downtown Birmingham since 2014, first at 550 Merrill Street, in the former Birmingham Schools administration building, prior to its renovation.

“Many Detroit area customers said 'You need to be in Birmingham,'” McLemore said in 2014.

A former department store and specialty buyer who later worked in finance, McLemore grew up designing and sewing many of her own clothes. Over the years, through professional organizations, she said she kept hearing from women “that I can't find clothes to wear, really well-made, tailored clothing out of fine fabrics,” she said. She said she'd go into meetings, and every woman would be in an Armani black suit or a St. John suit. “I wanted to sell directly to the consumer, where there would be better value to them.”

Today, Nina McLemore is a designer women's clothing company known for dressing professional women seeking to look polished without looking too trendy and high fashion, and has other boutiques in New York City, Aspen, Vail, Palm Desert, Nantucket, Sarasota, Charleston, San Francisco, and Chevy Chase, Maryland, among other locations around the country. All items are special ordered and delivered to shoppers’ homes.