Kill City: Purveyors of Punk
Kill City, the contemporary streetwear brand owned by Los Angeles–based Lip Service, hosted a grand opening for its new Kill City store on Los Angeles’ Melrose Avenue.
The party drew a mix of fashion and music insiders, who packed the 800-square-foot boutique and spilled onto the sidewalk out front and an outdoor patio area behind the store. A DJ set up in the front of the store, and tacos were served out back.
“We’re a class act,” said Drew Bernstein, founder of the Kill City and Lip Service brands. Bernstein deemed the party to be a great success. “There must have been 300 to 400 people who passed through,” he said.
Guests mingled and shopped, scooping up Kill City’s edgy fashions for men and women. Among the shoppers was designer Jeremy Scott, who was wearing a pair of Kill City’s “Bleached-out Junkie” skinny jeans that Bernstein gave the designer for his birthday.
The Kill City store is located on the hipster strip of Melrose Avenue, west of Fairfax, near Bathing Ape, Gstar, Fornarina, Agent Provocateur and Kid Robot.
Years ago, Lip Service had its own boutique on the edgier side of Melrose, east of Fairfax. Bernstein said he grew tired of running the store after discovering that “the manager was on drugs and the salespeople were closing the store to have sex with the customers in the coffin-shaped dressing rooms.” But, he added, “that’s Lip Service—sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll.” —Alison A. Nieder
