Octavio Carlin’s Westside Boutique
Call Octavio Carlin a Westsider now.
Los Angeles’ high-fashion ateliers are mostly on the Westside, but Carlin, who has often been part of the runway lineup at Los Angeles Fashion Week, has long made a statement for the city’s Eastside. From 2006 to 2009, he ran a studio for the gowns and the cocktail dresses of his Octavio Carlin label in the bohemian Los Feliz neighborhood.
But that Eastside stance has changed. Recently, he opened a new self-named atelier at 309 N. Kings Road, at the corner of Beverly Boulevard and Kings Road, just a short drive from Westside landmark Beverly Center.
For business partner Romey Carlin (no familial relation), the move was a good choice. “We had a problem of getting people to our store,” she said of the former Los Feliz studio, located on Vermont Avenue. Its lease ran out in 2009, and the partners chose to take a long time to scout new sites. The label still runs a design studio and sample-making workshop in Los Feliz.
Octavio Carlin estimated that 70 percent of his clientele lives on the Westside, and he and Romey often found themselves making house calls to Westsiders when their store was located in Los Feliz. Now their clients drive to the Kings Road store.
Octavio and Romey designed the 700 square feet of the Kings Road atelier with a graceful but minimalist art deco look. Octavio also will display and sell pieces from a new furniture line. Eventually, he hopes to showcase the looks of other designers in the space.
As for an upcoming Los Angeles Fashion Week, Octavio has not been contacted by any show producers, nor has he made any plans. He might organize a fashion-week event at the store, where he plans to produce frequent parties. —Andrew Asch
