California Apparel News

Melrose Avenue’s fashion retail is pushing west. The street’s up-and-coming fashion hub is Melrose Village, a short drive west from fashion neighborhoods Melrose Place and Melrose Heights.

Boutique owners Darren Gold and Unjoo Moon each moved into the Melrose Village neighborhood in 2004 with the hunch that this strip of Melrose would eventually blossom into a thriving fashion street. The burgeoning hub of boutiques is located near the intersection of Melrose Avenue and Huntley Drive, between La Cienega and San Vicente boulevards.

Both retailers were proven right. But it took time. The street is dominated by the Pacific Design Center, and it was once best known as a destination for furniture and design shops. However, in 2008, fashion arrived in force. (The moniker Melrose Village is still the unofficial nickname of the street. The city of West Hollywood formally calls it the Avenues of Art and Design Business Improvement District, which includes parts of Beverly and Robertson boulevards.)

In March, French fashion house Balenciaga opened a gracious, mysterious boutique at 8670 Melrose Ave. Its interior deacute;cor was inspired by spaceships. There is no street sign announcing its presence.

An emporium for Italian design house Alberta Ferretti is scheduled to open on the street in September.

Plumbing and bath-products manufacturer Waterworks opened a 10,000-square-foot store at 8580 Melrose Ave. in July. High-profile Robertson boutique Kitson will open a 7,000-square-foot store adjacent to Waterworks in November. It will offer men’s and women’s fashions, said Kitson owner Fraser Ross. “It will have Kitson flair, but it won’t be as hectic as Robertson,” Ross said.

A new generation of fashion retailers is putting down stakes on the street, but the place has long had the right ingredients for a fashion neighborhood. The popular Urth Cafeacute; restaurant attracts people from all over the city. The district has steady pedestrian traffic. People from the neighborhood take strolls up and down the street, as well as people looking for some relaxation at places such as the Zen garden of Dr. Tea’s, a Melrose Village cafeacute;.

Also, fashion boutiques have succeeded on the street in the past. Influential Los Angeles retailer Diane Merrick ran a self-named fashion boutique for 35 years before moving to 7407 Beverly Blvd. in 2006. Merrick left Melrose because her building was demolished to construct a new place. In 2008, a square foot of commercial space costs $10, according to Chuck Dembo of Beverly Hills–based Dembo & Associates. In 2005, a square foot of commercial space cost $5. In comparison, on the premier strip of Robertson Boulevard, a square foot of commercial space costs $27.

The future of the street might still be unwritten, according to Gold, who co-owns Alpha, located at 8625 Melrose Ave., with Christos Garkinos. He anticipates Kitson will bring new shoppers to the neighborhood. “But we don’t know exactly how it is going to change the street,” he said.

Gold said he hopes the Melrose Village moniker will register on shoppers’ radar screens. The street’s new valet service will make it easier to park in the area. At his menswear and gifts shop, top-selling apparel brands include reversible, long-sleeve, striped rugby shirts from Splendid Mills, which retail for $82. New York–based basics label Save Khaki makes khaki pants that retail for $90. T-shirts with flocked lettering by Kinetix are popular and retail for $65.

Moon opened her Sheila boutique at 8568 Melrose Ave. in 2004 as a place to champion Australian fashions with a contemporary edge. Since then, she has changed the store’s merchandise direction away from some of the stylish Aussie cocktail looks to dresses that could be worn during day or evening. Popular labels include Aussie label Minkpink. Retail price points range from $75 to $150 for Minkpink’s dresses and tops. A dress for Melbourne-based Metalicus sells well at Sheila for $174. Los Angeles designer Rachel Pally also is popular at the boutique, Moon said. She said the new retail hub has already developed a unique character that might be endangered if national retailers move onto the street. “Every store is unique,” she said. “People still see it as an undiscovered neighborhood.”

Melissa Richardson saw this strip of Melrose as a spot best for contemporary retail with high-fashion sensibility. She opened Beckley on May 19 at 8620 Melrose Ave. Against the store’s backdrop of curved walls, popular fashions here include high-waist, wide-leg shorts from the Malandrino label, which is made by French designer Catherine Malandrino. The shorts retail for $391. Other popular items include a pleated cowl dress by London-based label Le Petit Salope that retails for $851. Clothes from New York–based label Laila Azhar are popular, and her retail price points range from $200 to $500.

With natural-foods restaurant Urth Cafeacute; and New Age bookstore Bodhi Tree located across the street, Magda Rod thought she had found the right place to open Visionary, a mini department store for environmentally friendly products at 8568frac12; Melrose Ave. Along with sustainable cleaning supplies, books, candies and accessories, she sells hats by Topanga, Calif.–based Livity Outernational. Retail prices are about $42 per hat.

Other popular fashions include bamboo jersey dresses by The Battalion ($225). Battalion also makes organic T-shirts for $52. Also popular is Linda Loudermilk’s eco-luxury line. Loudermilk’s jeans, constructed out of bamboo material, cost $275. A men’s white collared shirt by Loudermilk, made out of seaweed-based Seacell fabric, retails for $393. Her men’s trousers constructed out of eco-fabric Sasawashi retail for $521. Rod, who calls herself a buyer/activist, said she hopes Melrose Village will also be a soapbox. “I want everything here to tell a story and raise awareness,” she said.