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A Gypset crowd gathers at Des Kohan

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On Thursday in the window of the mid-Wilshire boutique Des Kohan, flashes of strong color and bold ethnic prints stood out among the body-conscious and deeper-toned Azzedine Alaia, Preen and Helmut Lang items the store has become known for.

The brightly hued shift-style dresses were from writer Julia Chaplin’s new clothing line Gypset, named for her 2009 book (“Gypset Style”) which chronicles the equatorial holiday destinations of some of history’s most interesting and creative jet setters.

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The New York based Chaplin is herself very much of the Gypset crowd, listing during the evening a few exotic locales (Kenya, Venice and Idra, a small island in Greece) she plans to visit this summer.

Her collection is filled with five styles of dresses and a few sarongs, all of which are done in wild shades of orange, green, blue and yellow, one style even trimmed with crispy strands of raffia at the shoulders. Needless to say, everything in the line either makes you want to take a vacation or reminds you of somewhere sunny and warm you have visited.

To break up all the intense color and pattern on the Gypset dresses, store owner Des Kohan commissioned YSL accessories designer Annie Costello Brown to create deep-chocolate-colored leather wrap belts that paired nicely with each dress. And while the evening was meant to spotlight the Gypset debut, Kohan also had Alaia’s summer collection flown in just in time for the event, adding another drool-worthy rack of clothes for guests to shop -- which they did. Fifteen per cent of the night’s proceeds went to benefit the Jane Goodall Institute.

In Los Angeles, the Gypset line is exclusively at Des Kohan and ranges from $120 for sarongs to $275 -- $350 for dresses.

-- Melissa Magsaysay

Photos, from top: The Gypset line in the window at Des Kohan; Kohan and Julia Chaplin. Credit: A. Wyman/WireImage

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