Story

Born on the dirty, neon-lit streets of Melrose Avenue in 1983, Retail Slut, founded by Helen O’Neill, became a home for the punks, the goths, the fetish community, the ravers, hippies 

the drag queens, A bastion of the underground.

Over the years, its influence bled far beyond fashion. Retail Slut helped soundtrack the scene too—partnering with Cleopatra Records on Retail Slut: Burning from the Outside, a compilation that featured underground icons like Switchblade Symphony, Christian Death, Alien Sex Fiend, Birmingham 6, and March Violets. It was dark, loud, unapologetic, and alive—just like the store itself.
 

The doors closed in 2003, but the legacy never died. In 2021, LA’s Lethal Amounts Gallery paid tribute with an exhibition honoring Retail Slut’s notorious aesthetics and uncompromising history. And now—decades after it first kicked in the doors of conformity—Retail Slut is back.
 

Today, RetailSlut Records rises as the next chapter: an online resurrection that smashes together the worlds of fashion and music, louder and bolder than ever. Partnering with Take Back the Power Records, we’re gearing up for a full-scale comeback with pop-up events leading to a flagship storefront. 

And a Printed Zine- to support the maddess.
 
Retail Slut never died—
it just went underground, waiting for the right moment to return.
 

That moment is now!