For the past 70 years, specialty fur shop Lowenthal Outerwear Boutique has been a staple in Hampton Roads.

Lowenthal’s has carried a variety of designer furs — from mink to fox, sable to chinchilla and beaver to shearling — and outfitted countless customers with the warmth and softness associated with the luxurious pieces.

The Virginia Beach store plans to close its doors for good on Feb. 28 as its owners, Norman and Sheri Mellides, step into retirement.

“It’s come to a point where the story has to come to an end,” Norman Mellides said.

And what a story it’s been.

Lowenthal’s has seen its share of the rich and famous walking through its doors, including entertainers Pharrell Williams and Timbaland, Navy diver Carl Brashear and NFL players Bruce Smith and Michael Jenkins.

The Mellideses were seeking a slower life — with less of a commute to work and away from the hustle and bustle of New York City — when they relocated to Virginia Beach in 2000. They were eager to get out of the manufacturing side and into the retail side of the fur industry.

Like many back in the day, Norman Mellides followed in his father’s footsteps and worked his way up, learning all facets of the field.

“He was a cutter. He used to match the skins, like on a mink coat,” he said, noting he is a third-generation furrier on both his maternal and paternal sides.

Sheri Mellides, a native of New Jersey, attended fashion school at the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising in New York City. The two met while Norman was vice president of a Manhattan-based company that manufactured designer furs and sold them to fine retail shops across the country.

Initially competitors in the industry — he represented Valentino and she represented Fendi and Claude Montana — the pair quickly formed a partnership in marriage and later business.

Norman and Sheri Mellides own the Virginia Beach staple Lowenthal Outwear Boutique. As seen Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. (Stephen M. Katz / The Virginian-Pilot)

The Mellideses knew Bert Lowenthal from when they worked in the heart of the industry in Manhattan.

“He would come into New York in May and again in October to buy from various designer houses to extend their collection of furs,” Norman Mellides said.

Lowenthal’s business began in 1955 on West Freemason Street in downtown Norfolk where Julius Lowenthal, Bert Lowenthal’s uncle, ran a store. In 1969, Bert Lowenthal relocated from Pittsburgh and accepted his uncle’s invitation to take over the business.

The store outgrew its location and relocated to another spot in Norfolk in 1970 before moving to Loehmann’s Plaza in Virginia Beach in 1984.

Rapid growth continued and, within two years, the store opened in a new 12,500-square-foot standalone building across Virginia Beach Boulevard. And that’s where it remains today, with its 4,500 square feet of retail showrooms and vast temperature- and humidity-controlled storage vaults.

Bert Lowenthal retired in 1997 and passed the torch to his protege and former advertising executive Hugh Vaughan and his wife, Carolyn. Lowenthal died in 2023 at 99.

Vaughan maintained the Lowenthal name but rebranded the business from Furriers to Outerwear Boutique to bring attention to the other goods they carried.

The Mellideses were 50/50 partners alongside Vaughan until three years ago, when he retired and they bought him out.

“It’s a different type of business because you have to be extremely educated in the product,” Sheri Mellides said. “And that’s really what we pride ourselves in — knowing the product so that we can educate people because they’re spending a lot of money and we want to make sure they know what they’re getting.”

The retail section of the store includes furs, cloth, leather outwear, rainwear and accessories from world markets. The other part of the business is the in-house service-related storage, cleaning, alterations and repairs.

Now the couple is encouraging customers to come pick up their stored items — coats, hats and wedding dresses — before Jan. 31.

Jamella Brown of Norfolk recalls buying her first full-length mink coat from Lowenthal’s 40 years ago.

Now with nine fur coats in her personal collection, Brown said she is looking to create a storage room inside her home.

“I have one for every occasion,” Brown said. “I’m going to miss them; they got me in trouble every time I went in.”

Sandra J. Pennecke, 757-652-5836, sandra.pennecke@pilotonline.com

https://www.pilotonline.com/2025/10/30/lowenthal-virginia-beach-closing/