Elyse Walker has long been defined by a discerning eye and a steady nerve. She opened her first store in 1987 on Madison Avenue; two weeks later, the stock market crashed; an early lesson that retail, like fashion, is built on resilience as much as taste. In 1999, Walker opened her eponymous boutique in Pacific Palisades, quickly cultivating a star-studded clientele and earning a reputation as a Hollywood tastemaker. Her approach balanced established houses like Saint Laurent, Alaïa, and Alexander McQueen with emerging designers before they broke big, a mix that became her signature.
Today, Walker oversees eight stores, three in California and three in New York. She is rebuilding her Pacific Palisades flagship as well as towne by elysewalker, a more casual concept store, following the January 2025 Palisades Fire, underscoring a career marked not just by style, but by endurance and forward momentum.
“My first real watch was a Tissot, PR100, a bat mitzvah gift from my father’s business partner, Vincent. Vincent and my dad shook hands in 1972 and built their shoe company on that handshake for more than fifty years – no contracts, just trust,” Walker told Crown & Caliber.
“The watch was small, stainless steel, with just a hint of gold, and felt like a 10-pound piece on my wrist,” she added. “For years, maybe decades, that watch defined my relationship to time.”
That Tissot, which sits in her jewelry box to this day, proved only the beginning of her watch collecting journey.
“I met my husband in New York City in 1989, we moved to the Pacific Palisades in 1996. We were on one of our trips in Carmel, and we were walking down the street and went into a vintage watch store called Fourtané. I spent a few thousand dollars for a Rolex green Submariner. Green is my favorite color.”
Although Walker would go on to build a varied collection, including a Gucci dress watch with a malachite dial, a blue Submariner, and a diamond-set Cartier Tank, the green Submariner remained a constant for decades. “I wear a lot of men’s watches, but I style them with other pieces. I love the weight.”
For more than twenty-five years, Walker has been one of American retail’s quiet forces, growing from a single store into a multi-location, omnichannel business that ranks among the highest-performing multibrand fashion boutiques in the country. She has consistently anticipated industry shifts; bringing luxury to neighborhood retail, placing contemporary and heritage brands side by side, and investing early in personal styling and private label. Through it all, the philosophy has remained unchanged: dressing clients head to toe, with confidence, instinct, and longevity in mind.
“Vincent bought my brother a Rolex Pepsi for his barmitzvah and my brother to this day still wears it. I wanted to do that for my kids; I wanted to buy my son a Green submariner for his barmitzvah. I was in the vintage section and I bought a 1938 vintage men’s Rolex. I don’t think the band is original but I wear it as a bracelet. It was the first time I spontaneously was like, ‘I’ll take this watch.’ It’s rose gold with a bright blue second hand. People are like, ‘I’ve never seen something like that before.’ I wear it all the time.”
For Walker, the pieces she lives in, including the watch on her wrist, are extensions of the same instinct that built her career: choose well, commit fully, and let time do the rest.
