Tokidoki Opens Newest Boutique on Melrose
In just five short years, tokidoki creative director Simone Legno took his admiration for Japanese pop culture to create artwork that soon transformed into a popular lifestyle brand, with its adorable characters harnessing a tough edge—often shown touting skulls, lowriders, guns and sunglasses.
The brand celebrated the opening of its newest boutique, located at 7965 ½ Melrose Ave. in the Melrose Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, with an opening-night party. The Melrose store is the brand’s third retail location, alongside boutiques in Milan and New York.
On the encouragement of his business partners Ivan Arnold and Pooneh Mohajer-Arnold, Legno transplanted from Rome to Los Angeles, where the City of Angels now serves as muse for his latest designs. Legno said while tokidoki was born in Italy, he was excited to see the brand take off in L.A.
Nestled on a stretch of Melrose that is a stone's throw away from other branded streetwear and character-driven boutiques, such as Bathing Ape, Kid Robot and Paul Frank, the 750-square-foot space houses tokidoki’s assortment of women’s, men’s and kids' clothing, hats, bags, watches and accessories, including recent collaborations with Hello Kitty for her 35th anniversary and Karl Lagerfeld reimagined for the tokidoki world. The store will also sell gear, such as shout-out to L.A. hats and T-shirt, exclusive to the Melrose location.
During last night’s soiree, partygoers ventured through a hidden door in the store’s back wall mural to an outdoor tent space where they were greeted by a large cherry-blossom display. The outdoor space flashed projected tokidoki imagery and contained an X-Box avatar generator and a self-service fro-yo station provided by tokidoki collaborator and treat dispensary Yogurtland.
Tokidoki mastermind Simone Legno
