Fashion Retail Beginning to Blossom East on Melrose
Until recently, Melrose Avenue’s fashion glitz stopped short of the east side of the intersection of Melrose and La Brea avenues in Los Angeles. However, since October, two fashion boutiques have opened east of that invisible border and increased the possibility that fashion retail will push east on Melrose.
Contemporary boutique Violetgrace opened at 7021 Melrose Ave. last month. On Nov. 8, the Patricia Junes boutique celebrated its grand opening at 6910 Melrose Ave.
(The east side of Melrose isn’t exactly a fashion wasteland. That section of the street also houses the Los Angeles offices of fashion public-relations company People’s Revolution.)
Patricia Junes owner Tammy Dunkley said her 1,500-square-foot boutique will devote significant space to new and emerging designers. In fact, the boutique’s front window will be devoted to one emerging designer each month.
The boutique’s first designer is Minneapolis-based Kjurek Couture, which has exhibited at the Pooltradeshow. Behind the new designer display is a 1960s-style bubble chair, giving the boutique a mod look. Dunkley wanted to juxtapose the new look with a much older style.
Black-and-white damask wallpaper—damask was a favorite look of the court of King Louis XIV—covers the back wall of the boutique. The antique-looking wallpaper is the backdrop to some of Patricia Junes’ first collections, which have a New York edge. They include labels Kara Janx, Richard Ruiz and Mara Hoffman, all based in New York, and North Carolina–based Stephenson Denim Finery. Price points range from $38 for tops to $200 for jeans and $360 for a Richard Ruiz dress.
Dunkley moved to Los Angeles from Charleston, W. Va., in 1990 with the aspiration of taking classes at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. Instead, she made a career in the logistics business, and for the past four years she has owned and operated Independent Logistics, which transports items such as film prints and marketing materials for Hollywood. Dunkley self-financed the opening of the Patricia Junes boutique to realize her original ambition.
Dunkley said she will manage both of her businesses from the damask-covered walls of her new boutique. For more information on the new designers program, e-mail tammy@patriciajunes.com.—Andrew Asch
