California Apparel News

Even Rodeo Drive, the ritziest shopping street in Beverly Hills, Calif., needs a cosmetic make-over from time to time. And the high-fashion thoroughfare is about to get one.

The world-renowned city, which is home to some of Southern California’s wealthiest residents, is preparing to spend millions of dollars to give the famous lane a more spacious look. Some of the proposed improvements include widened sidewalks, new palm trees, a touch of art and a “Walk of Style” honoring the best and the brightest in the fashion-design business.

It seems only natural that Rodeo Drive should become a pantheon for fashion design. The street is filled with some of the world’s most luxurious boutiques, ranging from Gianni Versace to Polo Ralph Lauren.

But Rodeo Drive retailers have been seeing more competition as an increasing number of high-fashion boutiques have been opening in shopping malls, such as South Coast Plaza in Orange County, Calif. The recent opening of The Grove at Farmers Market, a highly stylized open-air shopping mall created to look like an old-fashioned main street, has also added another level of competition to the area.

“We need to compete with other venues that have aesthetics that are appealing,” said Ali Soltani, whose family owns David Orgell, a gift and jewelry store that has been on Rodeo Drive since 1958. Soltani is also president of the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce.

“We need to have those aesthetics,” he said. “We haven’t had a major renovation in a long time, and this will be noticeable.”

The last beautification project on the street was in 1991 when Two Rodeo Drive, which resembles a European lane, was added at the corner of Rodeo Drive and Wilshire Boulevard.

The city and property owners, through a 25-year assessment period, are planning to spend $18 million over the next two years to upgrade five streets in the area known as the Golden Triangle District. The city will widen the sidewalks, plant new trees, and add new lighting to Rodeo Drive, Canon Drive, Beverly Drive, Brighton Way and Dayton Way.

The city, which will be asking for construction bids soon, will begin the renovations on Rodeo Drive and Beverly Drive in the next few months and finish in November, said David Lightner, Beverly Hills’ deputy city manager.

The first phase of the project will widen Rodeo Drive’s sidewalks from 15 feet to 18.5 feet, replace the street’s ficus trees with palm trees and add more streetlights to the thoroughfare. The street’s medians also will be widened to 8 feet. Beverly Drive will get new palm trees and new pedestrian- and streetlights.

The second phase, which will occur next year, will encompass the other three streets in the Golden Triangle.

First honoree: Armani

Italian designer Giorgio Armani will be the first designer honored on the “Walk of Style”—a concept similar to Hollywood’s “Walk of Fame.” The concept is the longtime dream of Fred Hayman, the man behind the Giorgio boutique that became Fred Hayman Beverly Hills.

Hayman elevated Rodeo Drive, which was just another retail road in the 1960s, to a world-class boulevard frequented by famous stars, international travelers and moneyed sheiks.

Since becoming a founding member of the Rodeo Drive Committee more than 30 years ago, Hayman has been lobbying for a “Walk of Style.”

“This is really a major move forward,” said the white-haired Hayman, who at 77 is still actively promoting the street.

The Rodeo Drive Committee, which represents Rodeo’s merchants, has decided to honor a famous clothing designer twice a year.

Armani is scheduled to accept the award on March 19.

Hayman noted that the designer is the perfect first recipient of the award because he is a style legend who united the worlds of fashion and entertainment.

A 2-foot by 2-foot bronze plaque with a quote and signature from Armani will be laid in the sidewalk of Rodeo Drive’s 200 block. More plaques will follow as the committee presents more designers with awards.

“Over time, there will be a small number given out—not thousands like the Hollywood ’Walk of Fame,’” said Howard Ruben, a Beverly Hills spokesman.

The committee will present the awards in March, right before the Academy Awards, and again in September, before the Emmy Awards. The idea is eventually to line the fashion street with plaques that will be viewed by tourists and locals alike.

A nominating committee, made up of 32 people from the fashion media and entertainment industries, was asked to name three people they felt should win the award. Some of the committee members included Rosemary Brantley, chair of the School of Fashion Design at the Otis College of Art and Design; Peter Bart, editor in chief of thetrade publication Variety; Elizabeth Daly, dean of the School of Cinema at the University of Southern California; Marylou Luther, former fashion editor of the Los Angeles Times and a fashion consultant in New York; and Robert Rosen, dean of the School of Theatre, Film and Television at the University of California Los Angeles.

To add an artistic touch to the “Walk of Style,” the Rodeo Drive Committee commissioned Los Angeles artist Robert Graham to create a 14-foot carved aluminum sculpture, called “Torso,” that will be placed in the median of Rodeo Drive’s 200 block. The committee will unveil the sculpture on March 19, the same day that it presents Armani with his award.

Graham, who is married to actress Anjelica Huston, created the 25-ton, sculptured brass doors at the recently finished Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles.

Rodeo on the rebound?

Rodeo Drive has been going through periods of boom and bust. The lack of international tourists, particularly Japanese and Middle Eastern visitors, has hurt retailers. In the first quarter of 2002, annualized sales tax revenues on Rodeo Drive—the latest figures available at press time—were down 6.5 percent from the same period in 2001.

That hasn’t kept high-fashion boutiques off the street. Bulgari just expanded to a 9,300-square-foot flagship on Rodeo Drive and Wilshire Boulevard. And Prada is constructing a 15,000-square-foot store designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas.

However, the 25,000-square-foot retail space once occupied by Tommy Hilfiger has been vacant for years.

While store owners on Rodeo Drive welcome the redesign, some wonder whether wider sidewalks and a “Walk of Style” will really boost retail sales.

“It might bring a crowd to Rodeo Drive, but I don’t know if they are going to shop,” said one retailer, who wished to remain anonymous.