The credits will soon start rolling on Sundance Living, though its fate won’t be as flashy as the one that awaited the heroes of its namesake movie.
Apparently shutting down for good, the apparel and home decor chain founded by actor and director Robert Redford is holding closing sales online and at all its physical stores, including the lone Virginia location at the Mosaic District (2910 District Avenue, Suite 140) in Merrifield.
Large signs announcing “store closing” and that “everything must go” can be seen through Sundance’s storefront in Merrifield, where a steady stream of customers popped in on Tuesday (Aug. 5) to check out discounts ranging from 30% to 80% off all items. More than one visitor commiserated with staff that they were sad to see the store go.
An official closing date, however, doesn’t appear to have been determined yet. Workers at the Merrifield store told FFXnow that they don’t know the exact date yet and directed inquiries to Sundance Living’s corporate office, which didn’t respond to requests for comment by press time.
Sundance Living got its start in fall 1989 as a catalog selling curated clothes, jewelry and gifts originally offered at the general store for Sundance Mountain Resort, the ski resort established by Redford in 1969 and the longtime home of the Sundance Film Festival.
Redford sold the company, then named Sundance Catalog and still operating as a mail-order business, to two private equity firms ACI Capital and Webster Capital in 2004.
Popular for its western-influenced aesthetic and partnerships with artisan designers, Sundance Catalog began expanding its brick-and-mortar footprint last decade after being acquired by Brentwood Capital, another private equity firm. The Mosaic District location became the chain’s 15th when it opened in November 2018.
But signs of trouble cropped up over the past year, as jewelry designers alleged that Sundance owed them millions in unpaid invoices, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Customers also began complaining that the products and even the catalog paper seemed to have declined in quality.
According to one jeweler who said she was enlisted by the catalog five years ago, the company stopped paying vendors in January but continued to accept and place new orders.
The Tribune reported last month that Sundance Living signed an agreement with Corbin Liquidation on June 25 to liquidate its assets and distribute the proceeds to creditors following “an extended period of economic distress.” In addition, five artisans filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition against the company in July.
Sundance Living has 16 stores in total, but the Mosaic District location is the only one in the D.C. area. For now, it remains open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. except on Sundays, when it opens from noon to 6 p.m. The company is no longer accepting catalog and online orders.
