Lamonts

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Lamonts was a Pacific Northwest department-store chain with roots in Seattle’s suburban shopping centers. In 1970, Pay ’n Save rebranded three former Rhodes stores and Bell’s of Burien as Lamonts, naming the chain for Pay ’n Save leader M. Lamont Bean. It sold family apparel and accessories alongside footwear, jewelry, furniture, and housewares: the classic mall-era promise that a new shirt might somehow solve everything.

The chain expanded through Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, and beyond during the 1970s and 1980s. Lamonts became independent of Pay ’n Save in 1985 through the formation of Northern Pacific Corp. It was sold to Aris Corp. in 1989, after which ambitious expansion and mounting debt made the balance sheet considerably less cheerful than the sales floor.

Lamonts filed for Chapter 11 protection in January 1995, reduced its store count, and moved its headquarters from Bellevue to Kirkland. After emerging in 1998, it introduced brighter store designs in an effort to freshen the formula. A second Chapter 11 filing came in January 2000.

Gottschalks completed its Lamonts asset acquisition on July 24, 2000, acquiring store leases, fixtures, equipment, and one store building; 34 retained locations reopened under the Gottschalks banner later that year. The Lamonts name then exited the mall directory.

Our Lamonts collection celebrates the striped-carpet, fluorescent-lit, department-store optimism of the Northwest: a little practical, a little polished, and absolutely ready to meet you at the mall entrance.