Plus Belstaff’s downtown depot and Dôen lands in Montecito
Words by ELIZABETH VARNELL
Belstaff blazes into the latest Bike Shed Moto Co flagship
London’s community-driven emporium devoted to Moto culture, Bike Shed Moto Co, just opened a new location in Downtown Los Angeles’ Arts District, housing Belstaff’s first West Coast boutique. BSMC initially launched as Dutch van Someren’s blog over 20 years ago, leading to meetups and events dreamed up by him and his wife, Vikki, followed by a London cultural hub in Shoreditch in 2015. Newly launched stateside, the Los Angeles emporium is stocked with a selection of Belstaff’s luxury waterproof and protective outerwear and durable waxed cotton jackets. Also inside the 30,000-square-foot warehouse, built in 1945, is a Bremont watch boutique alongside Orange County-based Super73 electric bicycles, plus Indian Motorcycles, Ducati models, Royal Enfield bikes, an outpost of the British retailer Urban Rider, Bike Shed Moto Co apparel and gear, a restaurant, barber shop, tattoo studio and members-only bar. 1580 Industrial St., L.A., 213-465-7661.
Louis Vuitton debuts new eye-catching summertime accents
Louis Vuitton’s silk squares and oversized sunglasses are the season’s ultimate day-to-evening multitaskers. Precisely knotted scarves — screen printed and hand rolled in France and Italy — protect necks from midday rays and shelter lush locks from convertible-driven gusts. Once the sun sets, the brightly hued accessories, awash in monogram patterns with chains and cords, luggage tags, hot air balloons, or vintage trunks, can be elegantly wrapped around wrists or bag handles for a night on the town. Available in three sizes, the silks pair seamlessly with the house’s new oversized square, rectangular or cat-eye frames in black or cream acetate rimmed with metal carved with monogram flowers — a nod to a similar pattern emblazoned on the Coussin bag’s chain. True to form, the bold shades cut the glare both poolside and underneath neon city lights.
Verandah’s travel-ready spring designs are inspired by India
Brightly printed slip dresses, tunics, kaftans, pareos, swimwear, kimonos, shirts and skirts comprise Verandah’s spring travel separates made of artisanal fabrics with intricate hand work and hand-illustrated prints from India. “The collection is joyful, full of print and color, inspired by the sights, smells, and contours of India,” says Anjali Patel Mehta, the line’s founder and creative director. Designs are cut from soft, fuss-free fabrics including cupro crepe (plant-based vegan silk), Ecovero (sustainable cellulose fiber), Tencel (wood pulp) and cotton muslin hand-spun in Western India. Inspired by the resumption of wanderlust, the line also includes candles and an ivory-hued hand-knotted macrame bag. Patel adds, “People just want to feel joyful and live life to the fullest and bring happiness back into their lives.”
Is Versace by any other name still Versace?
Fashion’s collaborative landscape is filled with creative mashups, but role swaps are fewer and farther between, making the long-awaited Fendace launch this month a standout. The Versace by Fendi collection designed by Kim Jones and Silvia Venturini Fendi and the Fendi by Versace looks dreamed up by Donatella Versace — all of which debut in a Los Angeles pop-up open from May 12 to June 19 — comprise a fresh blending of house codes. Logomania, safety pins, Baroque silk prints, Medusa head-emblazoned totes, plenty of interlocking F designs, short hemlines, pink and silver gowns and a more-is-more interpretation of Baguettes and Peekaboo bags are all on offer. The designers spun through the Italian houses’ respective archives to devise personal takes on brand staples and tapped Steven Meisel for still images and Alex Maxwell to create accompanying videos set at the Fendace nightclub whose bouncers are none other than Kristen McMenamy and Naomi Campbell. 323 N. Rodeo Dr., Beverly Hills, 631-308-9593.
Van Cleef & Arpels opens inside San Francisco’s storied Sachs building
French jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels just opened its first stand-alone San Francisco boutique steps from Union Square in the florid beaux arts Sachs building. The 3,000-square-foot space, built in 1908 and designed by Lansburgh and Joseph, Architects, with telltale green terracotta columns, now houses the maison’s fanciful baubles inspired by wild blooms, bouquets, butterflies and enchanted gardens. Murano glass chandeliers and gold-leaf-painted walls illuminate Frivole emerald-encrusted earrings and necklaces, similar sets with rose gold and rubies, and a ring mixing a nosegay of both stones. Also on hand are the whimsical Two Butterfly designs now available in a rich turquoise stone with yellow gold and diamonds. Each piece seems ready to alight on all of the natural-world-inspired, diamond-encrusted flora inside the boutique. 140 Geary St., S.F.
Gabriella Karefa-Johnson creates a vibrant Max Mara Weekend capsule
“Everything was about color, print and shape,” says editor and stylist Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, describing the 1970s, the decade she found herself gravitating toward while designing a vibrant, print-defined Weekend Max Mara capsule in collaboration with the Italian house. The collection of separates and accessories, called Family Affair, took shape as Karefa-Johnson — who views her relatives’ style as an endless archive of inspiration — flipped through pages of photo albums containing images of her mother and diplomat grandparents wearing “pieces that sing” as they traveled the world or casually gathered over a weekend. “I often say style is my inheritance,” she says. Her clashing prints on cotton dresses and pants, interchangeable silk-twill skirts and shirts, silk scarves, wooden clogs, washed denim baker boy hats and damier macrame cotton versions of the house’s Pasticcino bag were captured in portrait-style photographs for the Signature Collection campaign by California-raised model Gigi Hadid.
Dôen comes home to the Montecito Country Mart
For sisters Margaret and Katherine Kleveland of Dôen, a new brick-and-mortar location housing their light-as-air, prairie-printed frocks, blouses, pants and sweaters at the Montecito Country Mart is a homecoming. “Our collections are heavily inspired by a California of decades past, and growing up in Santa Barbara planted seeds for our creative energy,” says Katherine. “Seeing the colors of the ocean daily, smelling orange blossoms and being surrounded by old oak trees as a child offered us a magical landscape that lives on daily in our minds.” The collectively owned, women-run, online apparel label again collaborated with L.A. design team Nickey Kehoe to create its second shop, inspired equally by the area’s Spanish Revival architecture and midcentury design. Refreshingly simple organic cotton staples, including gingham dresses, printed shorts and poetic shirts, round out summer offerings inside the earthy space. 1014C Coast Village Rd., Santa Barbara, 877-756-7353.
Gabriela Hearst collaborates with Bolivian artisans
Named after musician and activist Nina Simone, the handbag series (based on a round pouch that unfolds from a turn lock closure with structured top handles) that Gabriela Hearst designed for her eponymous label — the Nina bag and a smaller Demi version — is being reimagined in the hands of Bolivian craftswomen this spring. New hand-crocheted cashmere versions of the bag (with leather interiors), created in collaboration with Madres & Artesanas Tex, are based on one of Hearst’s hand-drawn patterns. The intricately ornate bags are available in four color schemes: Fire, Neutral, Phoenix and Mineral, all created by groups of women who specialize in macrame, crochet and knitting. The self-administered mini businesses in the organization are each led by a woman who guides, teaches and supervises a group who work on their own producing individual pieces that combine to form each stunning handmade design.
Cesare Casadei’s sharp capsule collection celebrates his most vertiginous heel
A striking spring capsule collection — headlined by transparent vinyl boots and sandal booties in white and black — marks the decade-long reign of Cesare Casadei’s Blade heel. Fittingly, photographer Ellen von Unwerth shot the new designs, each complete with the Italian house’s trademark sky-high stainless steel stems. Over the years, a cadre of devotees have donned the high-altitude footwear including Zendaya, Gwen Stefani, Jennifer Lopez, Hailey Bieber and Cara Delevingne, and the leg-elongating shapes in new styles and colors seem poised to push stilettos front and center this season.
May 3, 2022
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