HYDE PARK — Clothing boutique Sir and Madame is returning to Hyde Park after closing its Ukrainian Village location.
Owners Autumn and Brian Merritt are preparing for a homecoming to Hyde Park, the neighborhood where they grew up and fell in love, reopening their boutique and clothing line at 5225 S. Harper Court.
The couple closed their Ukrainian Village store at 938 N. Damen Ave. at the end of May and are preparing to start construction on the new shop less than a block from where they first tried running their store.
Sir and Madame was one of the first in a wave pop-up shops brought to the neighborhood in 2013 by the University of Chicago.
“Hyde Park was just great for us,” Autumn Merritt said of the test run at 1504 E. 53rd St.
The pop-up location also came with pleasant memories for the couple. Growing up in Hyde Park, Brian and Autumn Merritt had both browsed records when the location was Coconut Records while they were in high school at Kenwood Academy.
Autumn was thrilled to find a few old floor tiles in the back of the pop-up shop that once covered the whole record store.
At the time, she said they had always thought about moving south since opening their first shop in 2007, but said she was waiting for Hyde Park retail to heat up.
“It’s a neighborhood that has gone untapped in the last decade for retail,” Autumn said.
By the end of the pop-up’s run, Autumn and Brian were convinced it was time to come back, but then couldn’t get out of their lease in Ukrainian Village and weren’t ready to run two locations.
When their lease ended in May, the couple jumped on the storefront in Hyde Park, though it doesn’t carry the same memories as the pop-up location.
Sir and Madame will open on Aug. 17 in the Harper Court development between Red Mango and Nancy Krause Floral Design.
When Autumn and Brian were growing up in Hyde Park, the space was a city parking lot, but was redeveloped as an office tower and retail project by the University of Chicago between 2008-13.
“We always knew that Sir and Madame was a great fit for Hyde Park and with the 53rd Street area increasingly becoming known as a vibrant shopping and dining destination, we could not be happier to welcome them back,” said James Hennessy, associate vice president for commercial real estate operations for the university.
Autumn said their customers are increasingly seeing Hyde Park as a place they should come to for museums, food and entertainment.
“For our downtown and North Side customers, Hyde Park is now a destination,” she said. “We’re excited.”
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