It's a familiar scenario that independent retailers such as Lisa Kline, who opened her first namesake store in 1995, and Harrari, which left this fall to make way for Intermix, hoped would never happen when Robertson Boulevard first starting having a impact in the Nineties.

Kline and other Robertson merchants such as Kitson's Fraser Ross said that what made that street special — the milieu of homegrown contemporary boutiques and celebrity spotting — is being eroded.

Critics of the big names argue that the Robertson Boulevard customer base has radically shifted toward tourists as local clientele scurry to other up-and-coming shopping streets such as South Beverly Drive or Abbot Kinney Boulevard, where there aren't hordes of paparazzi and independent, multibrand boutiques — Kline opened on Beverly, and eCookie and Pamela Barish are on Abbot Kinney — still reign.

"In the long run, I think it hurts our business and jacks up the rent because [the designer brands] are on double, triple and quadruple mark-ups,'' Ross said. "They give the street a certain elitism."

Kline took a more pragmatic view.

"Those high-end national stores are OK because they are not direct competition to my business,'' she said. "Those stores improve the street, and the customer who shops there would shop at my store, too." She added that the Chanels of the world "would improve the street over a multibrand [store, as] there is enough of that here already."

In June, Kline re-signed the lease at her women's store on Robertson — she also has kids' and men's units on the street — for five years at triple the previous rent.

With only three blocks of retail space and a low turnover rate, it's possible that the Robertson boom may outgrow its current boundaries of Third Street on the south and Beverly Boulevard on the north.

The result would be for retail on Robertson to move past Beverly Boulevard and toward Melrose Avenue, which is experiencing a renaissance of its own on its western end, where it meets Robertson.

Robertson Boulevard, between Beverly and Melrose, is home to art galleries and fashionable interiors stores such as Armani Casa and Fendi Casa, as well as newer tenants like Dominique Cohen jewelry, Ken Pavés salon and Shabby Chic.