A “waterless” nail studio and an “athletic country club” in Clarendon are two examples of how the neighborhood has been evolving into a hub for self care and wellness.
Keen Self-Care, the studio, and Life Time, the athletic center, offer a fresh approach to both beauty and fitness. Life Time offers a range of amenities like coworking in addition to its workout area, seeking to cater to the many different ways people approach wellness.
“We want to be a place for everyone,” said Heather Wingfeld, the center’s general manager. “Whether you spend every day with us here, or come two and three times a week, we want to meet people where they are.”
At Keen, meanwhile, founder and CEO Samantha Moss sees her business as part of a larger cultural shift.
“There is such a movement to look inward and take care of yourself,” Moss said. “We are all just becoming so much more aware of what it takes to show up in the world and how important it is to carve out that time for yourself.”
Keen Self-Care
Moss hopped on the self-care movement after leaving a career in the local fashion industry and human resources. The goal, she said, was to combine sustainability with luxury service.
“I took a leap of faith and decided to jump in and create something where I thought there was a void for in the market,” she said.
Clients at Keen shouldn’t expect to soak their hands or feet before getting polished. Instead, the soaking process is replaced with homemade sugar scrubs, hot towels, cuticle sprays and other treatments.
“It’s more than just your manicure because we do so much more behind the scenes,” said Moss.
Employees at the studio seem to provide support and comfort to their clients. The business also has a philanthropic branch, Keen Cares, which partners with female-led nonprofits Napkin Network and Aliyah in Action to provide mothers with maternal and bereavement support.
Moss said everything at the location is chosen to make the clients feel valued and comfortable.
“We really care, and we’re trying to make a difference and pivot the industry to do something more,” she said.
Life Time
Wingfeld was placed in charge of Life Time in Clarendon in 2022, prior to its opening, after leaving her regional manager position at a boutique gym.
“What I liked about Life Time is that it felt grown up, elevated and luxury,” she said. “As you grow your career, everyone wants to level up.”
Wingfeld loves the numerous amenities the center provides for its members. Beyond the main fitness space and the coworking space, the four-floor, 113,000-square-foot facility includes rejuvenation suites, a kids academy, a spa and a cafe.
She believes the facility’s ability to service many kinds of people is what sets it apart from other fitness areas.
“You have to experience it to know what the difference is,” she said.
A neighborhood evolves
Clarendon has gone through a number of evolutions over the decades.
The convergence of railroad and trolley lines drew department stores and other retailers to the neighborhood starting in the 1930s, but the construction of large regional malls in the 1960s led to a decline.
Starting in the 1970s the neighborhood was known as “Little Saigon” as refugees from the Vietnam War poured into the area and set up restaurants and other businesses. The construction of Metro’s Orange Line, however, disrupted many of those businesses and led to many moving elsewhere, including to the Eden Center in Falls Church.
Clarendon in the 1980s and ’90s was characterized by quirky local businesses, as well as a bohemian and punk rock spirit. That started to fade in the early 2000s, as the neighborhood saw increased development and the arrival of higher-end national chains, leading to the slogan “Keep Clarendon Weird.”
That post-9/11 period also saw an influx of younger workers to the area, drawn by employment opportunities in national security and an overall growing regional economy. Those young professionals, of the Gen X and Millennial generations, sought to mix and mingle and Clarendon offered a growing bar and nightlife scene to accommodate them.
Other signs of the neighborhood adapting to the tastes of new arrivals included a period of time at the beginning of the 2010s when it seemed that every available Clarendon storefront would eventually be filled with a shop selling frozen yogurt, cupcakes, burgers, salad, or some combination thereof.
Now, the trend is distinctively towards wellness. In addition to Life Time, Clarendon is also home to fitness businesses Cut Seven, Pure Barre, Orangetheory, Gold’s Gym, Barry’s, SoulCycle, MADabolic, Clarendon Personal Training, and Urban Kempo. That’s in addition to spas, salons and other wellness businesses, including Keen, Urban Halo, Casals Salon Collective, Salon Lofts, The Beauty Clarendon, among others.
While Clarendon retains its status as a nightlife destination, there’s evidence that the neighborhood’s beer and bro era may be waning as some bars struggle to stay in business and as the previous era’s bar crawls have failed to make a comeback. Meanwhile, the neighborhood’s new prototypical denizen may be those frequenting gyms, toting yoga mats and seeking out self care.
The preceding was written by our departing spring intern, Savannah Taffe, with additional contributions from ARLnow staff