Apartment 3 Goes Downtown
Kristin Knauff’s destination shop for independent designers, Apartment 3, is on the move.
Knauff is relocating from her Los Angeles location on La Brea Avenue to a ground-level space in the Molino Street Lofts at 500 Molino St. in the downtown Arts District. The new store will open June 10.The larger space will host special events, trunk shows and fashion shows with a runway in the middle of the store. Knauff’s themed store events typically draw 100 to 300 people and generate sales of her merchandise.
“We’re just changing the format of our business,” Knauff said about the choice to move. “Rather than having a traditional, open-seven-days-a-week retail store, we’re going to focus more on designer events [and] the online store, and we’re going to go a little bit higher-end.”
Apartment 3’s offerings run the gamut from vintage clothing and accessories under $100 to independent designer labels such as Candice Held, Figmint and Knauff’s own line, Three-LA. The new store will be open Fridays through Sundays and by appointment.
The relocated Apartment 3 isn’t in your typical retail zone with high foot traffic. But Knauff is no stranger to being off the beaten path. Before she moved to her retail store on La Brea Avenue three years ago, she sold clothes from an apartment on the same street.
Apartment 3 will soon have some company. According to The Kor Group, the real estate company developing the Molino Street Lofts, Urth Caffeacute; is confirmed to open on Hewitt Street, parallel to Molino Street. Urth Caffeacute; has other Southern California locations in West Hollywood, Santa Monica and Beverly Hills.
A few blocks away, Steven Arroyo, the owner of the tapas restaurant Cobras & Matadors, with two locations in Los Angeles, said he will be opening a new restaurant called Church & State in the Biscuit Company Lofts on nearby Industrial Street this Labor Day. —Rhea Cortado
