Cover Look Photo Corps at Pearlridge Downtown will close June 25 after 23 years in business.

The glamour photography company opened in 1988, about a year after competitor Headshots at Ala Moana Center. Both stores popularized the mall-based glamour photography business initially frequented primarily by women and girls, but whose clientele soon expanded to include families and couples. Cover Look outlasted Headshots by many years, though an exact number could not be determined.

The closure represents a sort of retirement for owner and co-founder Marsha Forsythe, whose earlier career involved modeling and pageant production. She also had worked as an assistant to local television producer Phil Arnone.

"The lease was expiring and instead of renewing … I have some other opportunities," she said.

Forsythe said the opportunities are in Hawaii and on the mainland but it would be too premature to discuss them because they’re still in the discussion stage.

She also said she has some traveling to do, and has a home in Redmond, Wash., and a condominium in Hawaii, "so I can enjoy the best of both worlds."

The store’s last picture-taking day will be June 25 to give the crew time to clear the store by June 30. Specials are being offered on the company website in the meantime.

Forsythe has been an "ideal tenant" and has become a friend, said Fred Paine, general manager of Pearlridge Center. "She’s well-liked by everybody."

"What stands out for me with her is, she’s always had a very positive influence on her employees," he said.

He has met former employees who worked at the store 15 to 20 years ago and many have told him Forsythe had a bigger influence on them than anyone else.

"She has maintained her ties and I think that’s more important than anything about owning your own business, is having an influence on others," he said.

Forsythe always has been "grooming her employees for bigger and better things. She’s a great woman … she will be missed," Paine said.

Forsythe speaks proudly of her nine part-time employees as if she were their mother. "They’re all in college," many in nursing programs, and their "average GPA is 3.5 or higher. Most are closer to 4.0," she said.

Makeup artist and hairstylist Donna Locquiao is a nursing student at Hawaii Pacific University and speaks of working "respectfully with people from many backgrounds and different ethnicities," and "as I enter my nursing career, I will take optimism, determination and passion, things I learned at Cover Look, with me."

Hermalyn Preposi, manager, senior makeup artist and hairstylist, will be able to use the skills she learned "my whole life," she said. Preposi is a counseling psychology student in the Master’s program at Chaminade University.

Michelle Santos, a makeup artist, hair stylist, receptionist and computer expert at the store, said, "My co-workers are like sisters to me and I am glad to have met educated and motivated young women. We will be friends even after Cover Look."

The store was opened by Forsythe and partners Ron Hochuli and Diane and John Rowe, whom she bought out in 1997. She opened a Cover Look in Redmond, Wash., in 1999, which closed in 2005, and Star Shots in Japan, which opened in 1992 and is still going.

An undisclosed tenant is preparing to move in to the roughly 1,500-square-foot Cover Look space. Despite the recession, "I’m so lucky … we’ve been able to attract good merchants to the mall," Paine said.