What it’s actually like
Alixandra is the Old Town branch of a women’s boutique group that started a long way from Arizona and ended up headquartered here. The shop at 4235 North Marshall Way, Suite 101, sits on the stretch of Marshall Way north of Fifth Avenue, and it sells the full outfit: tops, dresses, sweaters and jackets, shoes, bags, jewelry, scarves, hats and visors, and a sport section for women who play golf or tennis and would like to look as if they meant to.
The company behind it, which trades online as SHOPALIX, was founded by a former tennis professional. She turned pro in 1993 after winning an NCAA Division I doubles title, played the Australian, French and US Opens, and in July 2004 started Alixandra Collections as a home-based business in Hinsdale, Illinois. A small second-floor boutique followed, then a main-floor storefront in October 2005, and over two decades the business has grown to eight stores in two states and more than fifty employees, with its corporate and buying offices moved to Scottsdale.
The racks reflect that history. Alongside resort clothing and handbags from labels such as MZ Wallace, Hammitt and Smith & Quinn, the store carries sport brands like Golftini and IBKUL, and visors are treated as a category rather than an afterthought. It is a polished, well-stocked boutique rather than a one-owner curiosity, and its seven-day hours make it a reliable stop on a street where several galleries close on Sundays.
What to buy
A course-to-lunch outfit. The sport racks are the store’s distinguishing feature; buy the golf or tennis piece that also works at the table afterward.
A bag. The handbag and tote brands are a strength, and a bag is the purchase that survives the trip home in a carry-on.
A hat or visor. In Scottsdale, a practical souvenir as much as an accessory.
A resort dress. The standard boutique purchase, done well, for the dinner reservation you already have.
Parking, timing and the practical stuff
The store is on Marshall Way just north of Fifth Avenue and the Bronze Horse Fountain, so it is the natural first or last stop on a walk that takes in the Fifth Avenue shops, Craftsman Court and the galleries south along Marshall. Use the public garage on the Fifth Avenue side near the canal, a few minutes’ walk away, or the free Civic Center garage off Drinkwater Boulevard. The Old Town on foot note maps the route and the Downtown & 5th Ave guide covers the district.
Hours are Monday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday is a good day for it, when some of the galleries are closed and the street is quieter. High season, roughly January through April, brings the winter residents and the fullest racks of resort wear; in summer, shop in the morning. If you live in the Valley, the sister stores in Arcadia, north Scottsdale and at Gainey Village share the brand and are easier for parking, but only the Old Town store comes with a walk.
Eat while you’re there
Berdena’s in Craftsman Court, a short walk west, is the coffee stop. The Herb Box on Fifth Avenue is the brunch and salad lunch, Citizen Public House is the Fifth Avenue gastropub, and Cartel Roasting Co. holds the far end of the street for a second coffee.
How it got here
Fifth Avenue and Marshall Way have always sold resort clothing. When the newly incorporated town laid out its shopping district in the 1950s, the small storefronts west of Scottsdale Road filled with owner-run shops selling resort clothes, jewelry and Southwestern gifts to winter visitors, and the district has been a place to buy the clothes for a Scottsdale season ever since. The format changed with the decades, from the boom of the 1960s to the long slide of the 1990s and 2000s, when shopping energy moved to Fashion Square, to the 2010s revival built around small independents.
Alixandra arrived by a different route from the shops around it. It is not a Scottsdale founding but a Midwestern one: a former tour player who, after a professional career that took her to the Australian, French and US Opens, started Alixandra Collections from home in Hinsdale, Illinois, in July 2004, moved into a second-floor boutique, and opened a main-floor storefront in October 2005. The growth that followed brought the business to Arizona, where it now has stores in Arcadia, north Scottsdale, Gainey Village and Old Town, and the corporate and buying offices relocated to Scottsdale along the way. When the Marshall Way store opened is not documented on the company’s site, and this page does not guess.
The pairing of resort clothes and sport apparel is the most Scottsdale thing about it. A town built on winter golf and tennis has always needed shops that dress people for both the course and the lunch afterward, and a boutique founded by a tennis professional brings that expertise naturally. On a street better known for bronzes and canvases, Alixandra is part of the Downtown & 5th Ave district’s other business, the one that dresses the people looking at the art.