Local • Perspective

A holdout from Washington’s era of opulence finally gives in

By Petula Dvorak
Columnist
June 21, 2021 at 5:26 p.m. EDT

CORRECTION
A previous version of this column incorrectly said that Brooks Brothers and Tiny Jewel Box on Connecticut Avenue in D.C. had closed. They are open. The column has been corrected.

This is the end-of-an-era story that really, really doesn’t want to be written. ... Maybe it’s because Rizik’s always survived all those eras.

The opulent D.C. fashion boutique opened in 1908, during Teddy Roosevelt’s administration, the same year the Model T was introduced.

For decades, Rizik’s was the boutique for designer clothes, from ball gowns to wedding gowns to business formal in the nation’s capital.

European lace, elbow-length gloves, empire waists, trumpet beading, power suits and tulle kept swathing capital women through suffrage, wars, prohibition, depressions, scandals and social upheaval.

Each time the economic or social forecasts said a boutique like this — one that began with Ayoub Michel and Joseph Rizik, immigrant brothers from Lebanon who wore formal tails to work every day — shouldn’t survive, it did.

{snip}

Twitter: @petulad

By Petula Dvorak
Petula is a columnist for The Post's local team who writes about homeless shelters, gun control, high heels, high school choirs, the politics of parenting, jails, abortion clinics, mayors, modern families, strip clubs and gas prices, among other things. Before coming to The Post, she covered social issues, crime and courts. Twitter https://twitter.com/petulad