Notes from Los Angeles
W’s market editor spent the weekend in LA, exploring the fashion scene, hip new neighborhoods, and exciting cuisine. Here, some highlights from her trip.
Eat Chef Roy Choi, who runs Commissary, one of two restaurants at the Line Hotel in Koreatown, used to visit the hotel for weddings and other celebrations back when it was a non-descript chain hotel. Now, the hotel has been renovated with bare cement walls and acid-colored carpets and Choi has brought his Korean-fusion food truck cuisine indoors. Well, almost—the restaurant is located in a greenhouse.
See LACMA’s Hollywood Costumes exhibit—which features hundreds of ensembles from blockbuster and Oscar Award-winning films as well as video interviews with directors, actors, and costume designers—is a must. Mary Poppins’s carpetbag, Marilyn Monroe’s iconic white dress, and Dorothy’s ruby slippers were just a few of the highlights. Appropriately, the exhibit was held only a few steps away from the future space of The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the new museum dedicated to all things film, which is due to open in 2017.
Shop It wouldn’t be a trip to L.A. without some shopping. I went to What Goes Around Comes Around for vintage clothes and Shelter a Half and A+R for household knick knacks, but found my biggest score—the perfect pair of round-rim sunglasses—at Garrett Leight.
Walk The industrial streets of Downtown L.A. are bursting with energy. Many fashion labels, including multi million dollar brand NastyGal, call this neighborhood home, in addition to galleries and organic cafés. I started my day with a coffee at Zinc Café before talking to writer Melissa Magagasay, who recommended coming back on Thursday nights for ArtWalk, a weekly neighborhood crawl during which galleries stay open late and serve food.
Watch After being bicoastal for the past few months, Ruffian designers Brian Wolk and Claude Morais decided to move their Spring 2015 show to Los Angeles for a change of pace. Friends like Jaime King, Rose McGowan, and Decades’ Cameron Silver attended their L.A. debut at the Gavlak Gallery. The new setting was appropriate, as the city inspired their new collection. Wolk and Marais even used real Angelenos—like stylist Elizabeth Stewart and actress Teri Hatcher’s daughters—as the models.
Browse The Fabric Shop, La Brea’s answer to New York City’s Mood Fabrics, supplies many designers, including Ruffian, with all the materials they need to produce a collection.
Relax There’s nothing like a horseback ride through the Hollywood Hills to make you feel like you’re on vacation. At Sunset Ranch, I was paired with an adorable steed named Chief. After settling into the saddle, we headed through Griffith Park. It was such a tranquil ride, providing us with the most beautiful views of the city and the Hollywood sign.
