After More Than 56 Years, Amanda Lasker Is Closing Gossypia — and Everything Must Go

ALEXANDRIA, VA – Amanda Lasker is finally doing it.

After more than 56 years in Old Town retail, after decades of buying trips, textiles, folk art, silver jewelry, wedding dresses, loyal customers, vivid window displays, and one of the most recognizable storefronts in Alexandria, Lasker is closing Gossypia and retiring.

The retirement sale runs July 1 through July 31 at Gossypia, 325 Cameron Street. Jewelry is 40 percent off. Everything else in the store is 70 percent off.

That means the linen, cotton, silk, folk art, scarves, dresses, blouses, handbags, hats, Mexican art, Frida Kahlo pieces, tagua nut jewelry, Nativity sets, wedding dresses, and treasures from around the world that have filled Gossypia’s three floors are now part of one final, month-long farewell.

Lasker Not Slowing Down

Lasker, who just turned 92 on June 25, still works every day and remains very mobile. But after one extraordinary ride, she said it is time to “end on a high.”

And no, retirement does not mean she has slowed down.

When The Zebra Press tried to catch up with her in person this week, her shopkeeper explained that Lasker had gone off to the grocery store. At 92, the woman who built one of Alexandria’s most colorful retail institutions is still out doing errands, still going to the shop, still making decisions, and still very much Amanda.

Lasker plans to retire and move to Nashville to be closer to her daughter. But first, Alexandria has one last chance to shop the store that has been part boutique, part gallery, part cultural classroom, and part Old Town landmark.

Gossypia sits at the corner of Cameron and North Royal streets, just across from Gadsby’s Tavern Museum. Its terra-cotta brick, turquoise shutters, large windows, maroon double doors, and hand-painted sign have beckoned shoppers for generations. The name comes from the Latin word for cotton, a fitting choice for a woman whose life began on a cotton farm in Lake Providence, Louisiana, and eventually carried her through Sudan, Guatemala, Mexico, and Old Town Alexandria.

Before Gossypia, Lasker owned a smaller boutique called The Phoenix, just down Cameron Street. In 1970, she purchased the Gossypia building for $50,000 and built a store that became known for natural fabrics, global artistry, and the kind of merchandise that could not be found in a mall.

“What we have is very different,” Lasker told Zebra in October 2025, describing her customers as “a big variety — young ones, older ones, and people in between who want original and unique things.”

The Gossypia Formula

That has always been the Gossypia formula: quality, color, culture, texture, and surprise.

Over the years, Lasker sourced linen from India and Lithuania, cotton from Serbia, silks from Japan, hats from Australia, silver from Mexico, tagua nut necklaces from Ecuador, folk art from Bolivia, Peru, Guatemala, Ecuador, and Mexico, and handmade wedding dresses, many from Mexico.

“So many vivid colors and lots of variety! That’s what the customers say when they come here,” Lasker said.

Lasker’s Story

Her own story is as vivid as her store. After graduating from Sophie Newcomb College, then part of Tulane University, Lasker worked as a guide at the United Nations. She later worked for a cotton broker in Sudan, spending six months in Khartoum, before passing the Foreign Service Exam and being assigned to Guatemala. She loved Guatemala so much that she convinced her father and brother to buy farms there near the Pacific coast. During the Cold War years, she worked for the CIA in Mexico City with labor unions.

Marriage brought her to Northern Virginia, where she settled in the Mount Vernon area and raised two daughters, Brenda and Cynthia. With the help of her husband, who died after 54 years of marriage, she built her boutique business in Old Town and kept it going for more than six decades.

Long before “shop local” became a slogan, Lasker was doing the work: opening the doors, making the windows sparkle, listening to customers, taking risks, traveling for inventory, and giving Old Town something no chain store could duplicate.

Global Gossypia

Gossypia’s reputation stretched well beyond its corner of Cameron and North Royal streets. The Washington Post was writing about Lasker as early as 1980, noting in a story called “Weaving Mayan Magic” that she traveled to Guatemala several times a year to select textiles and returned with handwoven cottons, indigenous clothing, and pieces of backstrap weaving.

By 2012, the Alexandria Gazette Packet noted that Lasker had already been in her Cameron and North Royal location for 44 years, specializing in clothing and jewelry imported largely from Latin America. In 2016, the Old Town Crier called Gossypia “Old Town’s Most Eclectic Boutique”, describing the shop as a source for Latin American folk art, “arty clothing,” and one-of-a-kind jewelry.

Alexandria Living Magazine also captured Gossypia’s role in the independent retail ecosystem when it covered the Old Town Boutique District Warehouse Sale in 2018, noting that Lasker, a Louisiana native, had been in business in Old Town since 1968 and that her life in Mexico and other places south of the border inspired her offerings.

That is exactly what made the store so hard to categorize and so easy to love. Gossypia was never just a clothing shop. It was never just a jewelry store. It was a place where shoppers could find a linen blouse, an antique silver necklace, a Mexican candelabra, a handwoven textile, a wedding dress, a silk scarf, or a piece of folk art that looked as though it had arrived with its own passport.

The Zebra Press featured Lasker and Gossypia on its November 2025 cover, celebrating the shop’s “six decades of style, culture, and charm.” Even then, Lasker hinted that retirement might be somewhere on the horizon.

“I’m thinking of retiring but I just don’t know when,” she said with a smile and a wink. “I’m not getting younger! But I really love what I do.”

Now, the “when” has arrived.

Charlotte Hall, former executive director of the Old Town Business Association, said Lasker was one of the female pioneers of Old Town retail.

“When I came to town 35 years ago, Amanda was one of several female pioneers in the retail community in Old Town,” Hall said. “It was these talented women, these determined women, these women who were involved in committees and commissions. These women were involved in what was good for the retail community and what was good for Alexandria.”

Inside the shop, Lasker’s longtime assistants helped carry the spirit of the place. Tony Chinellato, from Italy, said Lasker’s mind and style are reflected in every corner of the store.

“She is a very interesting person. Very intelligent. Very eclectic — which is reflected here,” Chinellato said. “She’s into so many things and she is the one who chooses everything here — because she knows her customers!”

Liliana Ilich, from Serbia, who joined the staff in 1999, put it simply.

“She was a success from Day One,” Ilich said. “She was born with this talent to create a unique and exceptional store. It is her love.”

That love is now being offered back to Alexandria in the form of one final sale.

Time to Say Goodbye

For longtime customers, this is the moment to come say goodbye, buy the piece you always meant to buy, bring home something beautiful, and thank Lasker for helping make Old Town feel like Old Town. For new shoppers, this is the last chance to discover why Gossypia has inspired such loyalty for so many years.

At 40 percent off jewelry and 70 percent off everything else, the retirement sale is not just a clearance. It is the closing chapter of a remarkable Alexandria life in business.

Lasker has spent more than six decades bringing the world to Cameron Street.

Now Alexandria has one month to come through her doors one more time.