Preview items from Kin Los Angeles’ sport collection
KIN BOUTIQUE IS GROWING UP
Kin Los Angeles Opens Bel Air-Area Shop, Debuts Men’s Line
Darrel Adams' Kin Los Angeles boutique is growing up.
Opened in 2004 at 8555 W. Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood, Calif., Kin Los Angeles outfitted hipsters in designer fashions for wild nights on the town.
In March, he opened a second location in the decidedly more settled Bel Air area of Los Angeles.
Tucked away in Glen Centre, at 2950 Beverly Glen Circle, Adams sells fashions to an exclusive, older consumer. As his retail locations expand, his business model is diversifying, too. He recently previewed his own line of men's clothing, also called Kin Los Angeles, at his two stores.
"We're not a mom-and-pop place anymore. We're becoming a brand," he said. His goal is to merchandise half of his stores with the Kin Los Angeles brand and the other half with designer labels such as Acne, Alexander Wang, Derek Lam, Vanessa Bruno and Raquel Allegra.
The preview collection of Kin Los Angeles offers 17 pieces. The garments are divided into three sub brands: Kin Sport, Kin ECO and Kin's main line.
Kin Sport is made up of baseball caps and T-shirts bearing the Kin label and is designed in colors of popular teams such as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Oakland Raiders.
Kin ECO offers T-shirts and sweats made from sustainable fabrics sourced from Japan and manufactured in Los Angeles. The main brand's preview look is composed of polo shirts, which substitute Kin's logo, an arched doorway, for the polo horse, alligator or myriad of brand logos that typically go on the upper-left-hand side of polo shirts.
Eventually, the main line will offer a full collection of men's clothes, featuring blazers, chinos and woven shirts.
Designer brands get equal treatment at Kin. Recently, top-selling items for women at Kin at the Glen Centre have been coats to deal with Bel Air's cool nights. Raquel Allegra's French-terry coat in dark wash retails for $645. It's a lightweight, button-up robe coat.
For men, the top-selling item is Seattle-based Filson's "The Weekender" cloth coat. The coat has a waxed finish, which provides protection from the elements. While the coat is made for the rainy Pacific Northwest, Kin's local customers like it because the venerable workwear brand isn't made for skinny hipsters. "A lot of guys like it because they can fit in it. A lot of workwear has the classic fit."
