Judy's Boutique Founder Passes On

Another Southern California trendsetter has passed away. According to the August 19, 2004 issue of Women's Wear Daily: "Retail innovator Marcia Israel-Curley, the founder of the young women’s specialty retailer Judy’s, died Tuesday morning of a stroke. She was 83, according to longtime friend Warren Cowan.

Also a civic leader and philanthropist, Israel-Curley was best known for creating the Van Nuys, Calif., chain that revolutionized the way young, fashion-hungry women in California shopped for more than four decades. Under the “Exclusively for Judy’s” bill, vendors in the state’s emerging junior market created everything from intimatewear to accessories to dresses for the stores. For teens and twentysomethings, it was a place to stock up on the trendiest moderately priced looks while hanging out for hours with friends."

Marcia and her then husband, Larry, eventually sold the company, but Judy's fell on hard times in the '90s. In 1993, Rampage founder Larry Hansel rescued the chain from bankruptcy and eventually renamed it Rampage.

You're probably too young to remember this, but LAist remembers accompanying our older sister to the mall for visits to Judy's in the 70's. It was the equivalent of Claires and Miss Sixty back then. Everybody shopped (or shoplifted) at Judy's. Angelenos have long benefitted from Marcia Israel-Curley's taste and philanthropy.