Rock Star Irene Neuwirth
Although Irene Neuwirth’s Abbot Kinney studio contains a queen’s ransom of precious gems and spectacular pieces at various stages of completion, the jeweler herself is adorned with nothing but a simple chain from Mexico. “My life turned around and got really great when I put it on,” she explains, “so I haven’t taken it off... More
Eye Spy
For Paola Russo, style is all about the mix. “I like to mix culture, art, fashion, different textures…” says the Tunisian-born, French-bred, Los Angeles-based retailer who made her name as a buyer for cutting edge West Hollywood retailer Maxfield and is now the visionary force behind Just One Eye, L.A.’s current cult fashion obsession. An... More
Bag Lady
How do you make simple things interesting and chic? This is the question bag designer Clare Vivier asks herself each time she sits down to create a new piece, and it has guided the evolution of her line since she first fashioned her own leather laptop case, finding no stylish options available. Since launching in... More
Florence Welch: Songbird
Since she was discovered, as the story goes, singing Etta James while drunk in the loo of a London nightclub just a few years ago, the flame-haired singer Florence Welch has ascended to superstardom with a sureness and swiftness that feels almost pre-destined. When her band, Florence + the Machine, releases its second studio album,... More
Back to School
When Hurricane Irene rained all over the planned Southampton screening of Tatiana von Furstenberg and Francesca Gregorini’s coming-of-age boarding school drama, “Tanner Hall,” the duo — best friends since their own teenage years at Brown — decided to move the festivities to Los Angeles. Pulled together in three days by Von Furstenberg, last Tuesday’s low-key... More
Putting the Spark in Arcade Fire
For Arcade Fire devotees, Regine Chassagne’s sparkly dresses — gold stripes and disco stardust at the Grammys, tarnished sequins atwirl on “Saturday Night Live” — are as much a signature as the band’s exuberant sound; even from the cheap seats, Chassagne shimmers. Get a little closer, and the finely wrought frocks, designed by the Montreal-based... More
She’s a Rainbow
In the artist Alia Penner’s eyes, everything looks better covered in rainbows. Not girly, pastel rainbows, but brilliant acid hues that bring to mind Peter Max and Sonia Delaunay. When the California-born artist isn’t painting rainbow-framed portals into alternate universes, she brings her pop psychedelic sensibility to album covers and posters for L.A. bands and... More
Authenticity Before Glamour
W hen Ann Roth was designing the costumes for 1975’s “The Day of the Locust,” set in the late 1930s, her commitment to historical accuracy made her an anomaly. “Hollywood made dream costumes” then, says Roth, now 79. “They didn’t do what I do.” Today the industry has caught up with Roth, and this year... More
Gregory Parkinson’s Winning Style
In 2008, at the peak of the financial crisis and with the disappointing sales figures of his last collection hanging over him, Los Angeles-based fashion designer Gregory Parkinson went for broke, using rare fabrics from his archive to create his most spectacular collection to date. Presented in actress Shiva Rose’s garden one spring afternoon, the... More
Shareen Mitchell’s Rags to Riches Tale
Anyone who has set foot in Shareen Vintage, a vast downtown warehouse space lined with endless racks of sparkly cocktail frocks, gauzy, ankle-grazing hippie robes and everything in between, will hardly be surprised to learn that the shop’s owner, Shareen Mitchell, is starring in a new reality show, “Dresscue Me,” premiering Tuesday on Discovery’s Planet... More
Closet Visit gives readers a peek inside
For women, one of the fastest ways to get to know a new friend is to look through her closet. Sifting through the layers of silk, sequins, cotton and wool, we can learn about our new acquaintance’s past, her obsessions, her quirks and the things we have in common.Los Angeles artist, photographer and fashion lover... More
Los Angeles Dispatch: Will Lemon
Most makeup artists consider the skin their canvas, but William Lemon III takes the idea more literally. Lemon, who is also a musician and painter, created a water-based acrylic body painting technique called skin printing, and he has used it to cover Marc Jacobs’s naked body with hot pink Stephen Sprouse/Louis Vuitton logos, and to... More