Say a fond farewell to your favorite online boutique — Piperlime is shutting down. Gap’s trendy online store, along with its New York City brick-and-mortar location, will be scaling back by the end of February, and by April it will be out
for good.

Piperlime has built a cult following over the years, selling major brands like French Connection, BCBGMAXAZRIA, Kate Spade and Rag & Bone.  It is no wonder that nearly every fashion blogger has sung its praises at one time or another. Starting as a high-end footwear website for fashion lovers, it was intended to compete with Zappos. But after only three years of major street cred and endless online praise, former Gap President of E-commerce Tony Lenk decided to include apparel, saying, “It’s like peas and carrots. Apparel sells footwear, and footwear sells apparel.” Piperlime then received its biggest push when featured on Bravo’s “Project Runway,” where the designers had a wall of Piperlime accessories to complete their looks before rushing to the runway. The new style of shopping across a wide selection of brands drew in buyers far and wide, but that may have been what ultimately hurt it.  The market continuously rewards highly focused and selective brands with a single type
of style.

In just nine years, the brand netted a whopping $16 billion in sales, but that was only 1 percent of the clothing giant’s total revenue.  It was not enough for Art Peck, the San Francisco-based CEO of Gap, who said via press release, “We plan to keep on pushing new ideas and look forward to seeing how we can apply what we’ve learned to the rest of our company to bring great products and shopping experiences to our customers.” It seems like Gap Inc. will now only feature its more established brands: Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Athleta and Intermix.

It’s not looking good for retail brands right now. Teen clothing giant Wet Seal abruptly shut down hundreds of stores and filed for bankruptcy. Target is closing down the entirety of its Canada operation. C. Wonder, created by Chris Burch to compete with his ex-wife and preppy designer Tory Burch, has also announced that his business is coming to an end. The closing of Piperlime is hopefully the end of the madness, but for similar online stores like Bluefly, this could either be an increase in shoppers or a sign that the end is coming near.

If you’re an avid Piperlime shopper, you’ve still got some time before April, and the online store shows no indication that anything is awry. For shoppers who have never heard of Piperlime, now is their last chance.  And with the current liquidation sales, now might be the best chance, too.

A version of this article appeared in the Feb.4 print edition.  Email Madison Reis at [email protected].