California Apparel News

Leran Hadar and Marine Azria are partners in love and in business, and they recently opened a new boutique, The Piece Collective, on Abbot Kinney Boulevard, which has become one of Los Angeles’ most sought-after places to open a shop.

Their names should be familiar to many in the fashion industry. Marine Azria is the daughter of Max Azria, the founder of BCBGMaxAzria, the Los Angeles–based fashion house that recently celebrated 25 years of making fashion. Leran Hadar is the son of Lorenzo Hadar, the owner of pioneering boutique H. Lorenzo on West Hollywood’s Sunset Plaza shopping district.

Leran Hadar and Marine Azria have been a couple for a year, and their venture is something of a declaration of independence. They decided to start their first business venture independent from their prominent families. The duo has spent much of their working lives learning the retail and fashion business at their families’ respective shops.

In March, they took over the lease for a bungalow at 1629 Abbot Kinney Blvd. Since May 2013, the space was the address of Left House, a side project of H. Lorenzo, which showcased Japanese denim brand Kapital and also provided retail space to designers and retailers such as Venice hat maker Nick Fouquet and jewelry brands M. Cohen and H.O.W.L.

Hadar and Azria took over the front part of the 2,200-square-foot bungalow for their part of The Piece Collective. Apparel will comprise more than 40 percent of their shop floor, and the store will offer brands such as Kapital as well as Joie, Equipment and Current/Elliott, labels owned by Serge Azria, Marine Azria’s uncle. The remainder will be devoted to gifts. “We don’t want to go too deep with apparel even though it is our backgrounds and we love it,” Azria said. “But this street is oversaturated with apparel.”

Azria ran an online gift-buying business from 2009 to 2011, and The Piece Collective represents a bricks-and-mortar version of that venture, Hadar said. “She has a wonderful eye for what would be a great and meaningful gift,” he said. “Another great thing is that we don’t have to worry about seasons,” he said of the focus on gifts. Consequently, they don’t have to worry about clothes going out of style.

Later this year, they will introduce an e-commerce shop (www.thepiececollective.com). They also are serious about the name of the venture—their store is part of a collection of shops. The Piece Collective will host other retailers and restaurants. Nick Fouquet and H.O.W.L. will continue to do business at the spaces where they have done business since Left House ran the building. (Fouquet also is opening an atelier at a shop across the street from The Piece Collective, which was formerly called Mise en Scène. It is scheduled to open by the end of May.)

Jennifer Nicholson, a prominent Westside retailer, moved her Pearl Drop boutique to The Piece Collective. The Piece Collective also hosts artisanal chocolatier ZenBunni and organic café Another Kind of Sunrise.

While the business has made itself at home in Venice’s laid-back, “anything goes” scene, Hadar said that he and Azria have a formula for making the place work.

“We both have our strengths, and we respect each other,” he said. “It is the key to a good business and a good personal relationship.”