Nau is Then

Nau, the startup eco-oriented and fashion-forward retailer, with a store at 2118 North Halsted, abruptly announced that the entire company was winding down operations, just two weeks after opening its first LA store in the Beverly Center. In a statement on its Web site, entitled “Goodbye for Nau,” it blamed its demise on its inability to raise the funds necessary to continue, pointing to the difficult retail climate and the extremely constrained capital markets. It’s a sad day for the green cause, since Nau was a company designed at its very core to reconstruct the retail model around sustainability and good citizenship, with 5 percent of its revenues going to local and national nonprofit causes, chosen by the consumers.