Cristina Angarola
Cooper Design Space Suite 400 (213) 489-0072
Looking for all the world like a French salon–cum–dream closet, Cristina Angarola’s new showroom at the Cooper Design Space is an expansive pale-pink and chocolate confection. Angarola moved her eponymous showroom from the California Market Center (where it had been for eight years) to the Cooper Design Space in June and more than doubled its square footage—the old location was 1,600 square feet and the new location is 4,100, she said.
“I opened my showroom in 1997 at the California Mart with only two lines in a 350-square-foot space,” said Angarola, who started small because she was worried she wouldn’t be able to pay her rent. She need not have feared.
The move to the Cooper Design Space was just another step in the showroom’s growth.“My lease was up and at the same time I was being offered some larger lines to represent and was considering expanding into menswear,”Angarola explains.“Moving to the Cooper meant I could take on enough space and explore my options.”
To turn the fourth-floor space into the perfect showcase for her hip, upscale and always edgy lines, Angarola hired an interior designer. “I couldn’t do all this by myself,” she said.The owner, seated on a custom-made chocolate- brown banquette with a high back, gestured toward the pink shabbychic chandeliers that dangle from the ceiling. Pink brocade benches piled with silk pillows line the walls, airy white space dividers create nooks for the showroom’s various lines, and strategically placed tables laden with tip sheets are surrounded by overstuffed chairs for doing business in comfort.
For all its charm, the deacute;cor doesn’t detract from the showroom’s high-end contemporary lines, which include Smashing Grandpa (novelty T-shirts for men and “groupie” T-shirts for women), Ynnub (reconstructed vintage for men and women), J & Company (premium denim for men and women), Joystick (embroidered skirts, sweaters and blazers), Prep League (preppy T-shirts for men and women), Sky (heavily embellished party tops and dresses), Kowboys (T-shirts for poker-playing hipsters), Blood, Sweat and Tears (streetwear for 20-somethings) and Countyline Industries (streetwear focusing on masculine embellishment).
When choosing lines for her showroom, Angarola said she looks for key elements: “great design, manufacturing know-how and a collaborative sensibility.” Her showroom is “a place where [buyers] can find amazing product in a comfortable environment,” she said.“We pride ourselves on having a great room, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously. It’s just clothing.” —Erin Barajas
