On a champagne-soaked Thursday evening last week, Gale Parker’s Clothespin opened with cheerful laughs and a multi-generational crowd perusing her new store. The upscale West Hollywood locale on Melrose Avenue is Parker’s first store, but the New Yorker is far from being a novice in fashion. The designer once served as model/muse for the likes of Valentino and Yves Saint Laurent, as well as the design director for Ralph Lauren women’s collection.
Parker’s vibrant printed dresses, blouses and skirts looked like items girls would steal from their mother’s closets on a warm summer day. It’s easy to picture a wispy surfer girl walking down Abbot Kinney in a Gale Parker design, or a Malibu mom lounging by the playground in the loose comfort of Clothespin’s feminine wares.
“My mother and Teen Vogue’s blogger Jazzi McGilbert both came in here and wanted everything. Can you believe it?” said Noelle Valdivia, a member of the Clothespin team.
Stores may be closing all over town, but last night Melrose Place got a little love with the opening of Dana Davis’ pop-up store. The store, which took over the old Lambertson Truex spot, right next to Frederic Fekkai’s new salon, will be open until Dec. 3, selling shoes from Davis’ fall-winter collection.
Celebrities and socialites, including Anjelica Huston, Paris Hilton, Crystal Lourd, Jerry Bruckheimer, Liane Weintraub and Jamie Tisch, came to support their designer pal and fellow social fixture. Davis’ mother Barbara was also in attendance before dashing out to attend a concert.
Davis was inspired to create her line of ultra-comfortable shoes when she was having trouble standing for long periods of time due to foot pain caused by her diabetes. She and her family have raised over $75 million for diabetes research, with the Carousel of Hope ball fund-raiser being founded in her honor. She developed a shoe with an orthotic sole that’s as cushion-y as any Easy Spirit, but far more fashionable. In fact, Davis has figured out how to increase the heels on pumps to almost 6 inches, while still maintaining the comfort of the built-in orthotic. Those heels will be offered for spring and are sure to be seen on any celebrity who cares about comfort while walking the red carpet.
The Dana Davis pop-up store is open now until Dec. 3 at 8459 Melrose Place, L.A. Hours: 11am – 5pm. Closed Sundays and Thanksgiving, Nov. 25 – 29.
-- Melissa Magsaysay
Photos: Top: Anjelica Huston, Barbara Davis and Dana Davis, Bottom: A wall of Davis' shoes/John Shearer Wire Image
L.A. street wear brand Blood Is the New Black is celebrating five successful years in the rag trade with an exhibition of works from its artistic collaborators at Junc Gallery.
Founder Mitra Khayyam was one of the pioneers of using artists' work on T-shirts, before big brands such as
RVCA and Quiksilver got in on the game.
And since launching in 2004, the label has evolved from a two-artist, 16-piece
collection to a fashion-art collective featuring the work of two dozen accomplished designers, illustrators and
photographers, including photographer Dan Monick,
illustrator Travis Millard and fashion designer Brian Lichtenberg.
Original and never-before-seen artwork from the brand's growing stable of artists will be on display from today through Dec. 14. The brand and gallery are hosting an invite-only opening party today featuring a Blood Is the New Black pop-up shop for tonight only.
Gen Art's Fresh Faces in Fashion event returned to the Petersen Automotive Museum this season, presenting the Spring 2010 runway collections of Leyendecker, Seneca Rising, MG Black Label menswear, Valerj Pobega and Rory Beca.
The most memorable among them was Pobega's "Bondage collection," which added a layer of Japanese bondage influence to her 1920s-meets-punk culture aesthetic, with deconstructed kimono dresses, silk charmeuse cocoon coats and irregular circle skirts, hand-dyed, stained and screen printed to look rust-flecked, rope-wrapped and ink-dripped.
Shepard Fairey has had a roller-coaster year. The Echo Park-based street artist reached a career apex when his Obama “Hope” poster was inducted in the Smithsonian, followed by a survey of his work at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, but lately Fairey has been dealing with the fallout over a public battle with the Associated Press regarding propriety of the “Hope” image.
Overshadowed by all the hoopla, Fairey has headed a clothing label called Obey for eight years. And Obey has partnered with Levi’s for a collaboration of affordable jeanswear debuting today at Levi’s flagship store on Santa Monica’s 3rd Street Promenade (select pieces are available online on both Levi's and Obey websites).
Items range from a skinny black 511 jeans ($128) to a distressed denim jacket (left, $148) with a built-in black terry hood, both come festooned with Obey patches.
The Obey x Levi's graphic T-shirts combine Fairey’s trademark Andre the Giant logo fused with Levi’s batwing ($34.50).
Corey Lynn Calter amped up Los Angeles Fashion Week by hosting one of its most refined gatherings last night. The L.A. contemporary designer -- who's known for her whimsical prints and flirty silhouettes -- hosted a fashion presentation, followed by a sit-down dinner, in the form of a roving short film.
Meeting Flavie and Clayton Webster, the husband-and-wife design team behind Cerre, in their new retail space in Hollywood, it’s easy to see how their personal style influences their subtle and classic collection of leather goods. She’s got a Jane Birkin-esque spirit, with piecey brown hair and heavy bangs. He’s got long hair and hollow cheeks reminiscent of the CK One ads from the early '90s. They both have impossibly sinewy frames, smoke thin cigarettes and drink water from wine glasses, making for a very chic face to their collection of buttery leather.
The former models met while working in Paris (for designers such as Olivier Theyskens). They honed in on starting their own line and quickly learned skills from being on the inside of the fashion industry. Aiming to build a classic accessories-based brand such as Hermes or Gucci, the two began creating a small collection of bags and small leather goods. For spring 2010, they’ve branched out into clothing, with a line of leather and linen pieces. The predominantly ivory and black collection is light, airy but simple in silhouette. Their trademark leather touches add weight and a little edge.
Their new store in Hollywood is constructed of reclaimed wood giving the long and narrow space a rustic feel. An impressive rack of vintage finds hangs among their collection.
The store is definitely worth a look. And if you’re in the area, it’s also worth stopping by a few other new places popping up in the center of Hollywood, including the new home of Scout, Space Fifteen Twenty and Cavern.
Cerre, 1647 N. Las Palmas Ave. Hollywood, CA. 90028. (323) 960-0700
On Tuesday, five days before her scheduled Los Angeles fashion show, two sets of designer Julia Clancey's entire Spring/Summer 2010 collection were stolen from in front of her Marina del Rey apartment unit, forcing the designer to cancel the show, a scenario reminiscent of Clancey's March 2008 runway show at Smashbox Studios, which was nearly derailed after that collection was detained by U.S. Customs.
On Thursday, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, a portion of the collection was recovered after an employee of the cleaning service hired by the Dolphin Marina Apartments on Panay Way allegedly confessed to stealing the box of designer clothes. The Sheriff's Department said Sara Avigal Herrera was booked on suspicion of grand theft.
Thursday, Clancey told All the Rage she'd invested six months in creating the collection, which had been designed here and manufactured in Mumbai, India, placing the value -- including lost sales to L.A. boutiques and exposure to potential buyers -- at roughly $300,000.
Friday she said only seven of the 40 pieces, valued at about $20,000, had been recovered. "I think the rest are probably in a landfill somewhere," she said.
Clancey said that the clothes had been sent by a Mumbai-based courier, which contracted with Federal Express to courier the single box containing the clothes to her Marina del Rey home.
"That courier didn't ask Federal Express to require a signature so the box was left in front of my apartment, where it went missing sometime between 10:15 a.m. and 1 in the afternoon," Clancey explained. "The company in India is going to have to make me another whole set but it's not going to help me now. I was already late having this show and the buyers at all the boutiques won't have any money left to spend."
According to a news release issued Friday afternoon by the Marina del Rey Sheriff's Station, detectives in the area are still trying to locate the outstanding stolen property. Clancey said that might never happen, since the clothes might have been stuffed down a trash chute at the complex and the trash has since been trucked away.
"When this first happened people were saying some horrible things on FaceBook like I was only doing this for publicity," she said. "At the very least they should have egg on their face that I didn't make this whole thing up."
-- Adam Tschorn
Photos: Some of the pieces of designer Julia Clancey's Spring/Summer 2010 "Tutti Frutti" collection, two sets of which were stolen from the designer's doorstep Tuesday, causing her to cancel her Los Angeles Fashion Week show which had been scheduled for Sunday. Credit: Julia Clancey
Yotam Solomon has been busy this fashion season. The 22-year-old L.A.-based designer showed his Spring 2010 collection during a Downtown Los Angeles Fashion Week presentation at the MOCA Geffen Contemporary space last week, followed by a full-blown cocktail party and roving fashion presentation for the same collection on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont.
[UPDATED 11:26 a.m. Oct. 28: A previous version of this post spelled the designer's last name Soloman]
In both cases, he eschewed a traditional runway show. "I think a presentation is a more modern way to show collections," he explained at the Chateau Marmont event. "And this way, I get to be out here with everyone, instead of [hanging] around backstage like an idiot."
Guests at the Chateau Marmont soiree, which was hosted inside a private bungalow, were encouraged to interact with the clutch of willowy models swanning gracefully around the room.
"Stop them if you want to see something closer -- that's the point," instructed the designer.
Most outfits only took a minute to take in -- the ultra-feminine collection was all about the super-short: abbreviated cocktail dresses jutting away from the body, marrying '50s taffeta fabrications with an '80s party feel; short bandage-like skirts paired with bejeweled tops; and a few form-fitting '80s-inspired frocks that were beyond short and tight and that felt, regrettably, a little too much "working girl."
But there was magic in the details -- sewn-on glass beads and gemstones (sometimes wrapped in fabric, sometimes exposed) on intricately detailed tops and dresses. “This collection is about playing with light and shining through the economy," said the young FIDM graduate. "And the glass beads on the dresses are so thick, they don't break. I’ve tested them.”
"The traditional runway show isn't very current," said Emily Brandle, co-designer of L.A. brand Smoke & Mirrors and an alumna of "Project Runway." "You see things coming down the runway and think, 'That's amazing, but I can't have it for six months.' "
Brandle -- along with her business partner Michelle Chaplin and fellow L.A. designers Nony Tochterman of Petro Zillia and Karen Zambos of Karen Zambos Vintage Couture -- turned the idea of a traditional runway show (which shows collections months before they hit the stores), on its ear last night.
The designing women staged a group runway show, dubbed "Here and Now," at the Petro Zillia store, with models dressed in current-season looks from all three brands (mixed with jewelry by Noir and shoes by Sigerson Morrison.)
The resulting ensembles were the picture of present-day L.A. style -- full of the kind of contemporary pieces hip gals around town are wearing right now. Among the stand-outs were kicky printed mini-skirts, louche jumpsuits, roomy tank dresses, flowing tunics tops, flirty dresses (worn with chunky-knit cardigans) and a sharp sequined, wear-with-anything blazer.
"Everything you see on the models is styled the way we would wear it," said Brandle, "and it's all for sale in the store. Doesn't that make sense?"
Models walked a taped-off runway that circled the store before posing fiercely on a stoop leading out to the boutique's grassy outdoor area, where guests -- a largely female group -- were perched on white folding chairs.
The friendly, shopping-driven event had me wishing more L.A. designers would jump on the idea of showing "immediates" in a no-frills store setting. Not only was it a good time, but if you're not going to get heavyweights from Saks Fifth Avenue and Barneys New York coming to your show, why not set it up to make a few bucks?
