Spring 2021
SONG BIRD
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IF OR NI
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PARIS JACKSON ROCKS ON
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PLUS SPRING FASHION / DRIES VAN NOTEN / ANGELA LINDVALL / NAOMI WATTS
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Spring 2021 STATEMENTS Actor/florist Abigail Spencer blooms in Gucci’s new collection......................................................... 49
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All hail Harris Reed, the L.A. designer with a gender-neutral line for MAC Cosmetics... 53
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Fendi and Loewe throw open the doors of their new stores at South Coast Plaza.............. 56
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Happy 60th to Birdwell, SoCal’s OG board-shorts company................................................................ 62 As Studio C opens in Playa Vista, we meet three brands taking center stage.......................... 66
FEATURES Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris on being a hippie, healing and making honest music........................................................ 72 Why Dries Van Noten loves L.A. so much he chose it for his U.S. flagship............................................................................................. 84 Where better than the desert for a portfolio of the hottest looks for spring?.................................................................................... 92
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How DISC Interiors redefined design for California............................................................................................................................................. 108
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DISCOVERIES Where to stay in carefree Careyes......................................................................................................................................................................................... 115 Three trailblazing new makeup brands born in the pandemic...................................................................................................................... 118 How Naomi Watts spends her zen time........................................................................................................................................................................... 120 The Miu Miu shoe that is hot to trot.................................................................................................................................................................................... 122
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PARIS JACKSON: DANIELLE LEVITT. LIVING ROOM: DISC INTERIORS: PORTRAITS OF HOME, RIZZOLI NEW YORK, 2021. DRIES VAN NOTEN: PAMELA BERKOVIC. ANGELA LINDVALL: PIA RIVEROLA. ROSES: FABIOLA ZAMORA, HER DIOR: MARIA GRAZIA CHIURI’S NEW VOICE, RIZZOLI NEW YORK, 2021.
A new tome celebrates Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri and female creatives................................... 58
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PARIS JACKSON: DANIELLE LEVITT. DECOR: DOUGLAS FRIEDMAN. PROFILES: THE UNLIKELY FLORIST STUDIO. TRAVEL: MERCHANT HOUSE HIGH DESERT. WELLNESS: MERRY JANE’S THE CBD SOLUTION, CHRONICLE BOOKS.
Cover star Paris Jackson, the daughter of the King of Pop, shares her musical inspirations
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Pink opal, guava quartz, emerald and diamond earrings, $35,000, shopstudio-c.com.
ETRO Rope cotton waist belt, $630, etro.com.
ON THE COVER
PARIS JACKSON. Photography by DANIELLE LEVITT. Fashion Direction by MARYAM MALAKPOUR . Hair by PETER SAVIC at Opus Beauty. Makeup by PATI DUBROFF at Forward Artists using Chanel. Manicure by EMI KUDO using Chanel Le Vernis. Jackson wears GIVENCHY dress and belt, and BULGARI and TIFFANY & CO. jewelry.
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ILLUSTRATION: DAVID DOWNTON.
efining who you are, taking stock of what is important to you now (which may be different from 12 months ago, let alone 12 years) and living in the most authentic way should be the goal, daily. With all of the complicated family dynamics that Paris Jackson was raised with, living her truth is paramount. She takes all of herself — the happy moments and the painful ones — and transfers it into her music. Her songs are haunting and beautiful, much like Paris herself. A California girl — striking, tattooed and deeply sensitive to all — she shines just as brightly as the sun, as evidenced in Danielle Levitt’s pictures, taken on Dockweiler Beach. Supermodel Angela Lindvall has decades as a fashion world darling under her belt, but it is a new chapter of health and wellness that she is turning to as she further defines who she is in this moment. Having opened up her home to friends for mindfulness journeys, she is now sharing all she has learned on her new site, Peace Begins in Me. We are thrilled that she came out of a self-imposed exile from fashion to shoot our 16-page portfolio in Desert Hot Springs, featuring the best of spring fashion. And speaking of the best in fashion, Dries Van Noten is at the top of his game. Normally elusive, he sat down with C Magazine to discuss his new U.S. flagship in L.A. The store is a fantastical folly on a strip of La Cienega that is otherwise unremarkable. The same cannot be said of Van Noten’s clothes; each piece is a truly remarkable work of art, just like his new L.A. base and its in-house shoppable archive. That he, in this moment, is rooting his expansion on these shores further proves the point that all things fashion find common ground here on the western front.
Slidy Viv’ sandals with Swarovski strass buckles, $1,325, rogervivier.com.
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Lenswoman Danielle Levitt photographed this issue’s cover star, Paris Jackson, for “She Rocks Our World,” p.72. The bicoastal talent has shot campaigns for brands including HBO and Nike, and her portfolio includes portraits of Issa Rae, Billie Eilish and Natalie Portman. MY C SPOTS • El Mercadito in Boyle Heights for margaritas and live dueling mariachi bands • Namaste Spiceland in Pasadena has amazing veggie Indian takeout • The flea markets in Long Beach and in Pasadena are my sanctuary
L.A.-based stylist Maryam Malakpour — who did the fashion direction for our cover story, “She Rocks Our World,” p.72 — has dressed the likes of the Rolling Stones and Margot Robbie. Her work has been seen in L’Uomo Vogue, Interview and Elle, and she is the co-founder and creative director of Newbark. MY C SPOTS • Far Meadow in Yosemite is a simple retreat for chic nomads • The Give Store in L.A. is the best hidden gift shop • Frogtown’s Spoke Bicycle Cafe is a mellow hangout spot
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PIA RIVEROLA
California-bred stylist Petra Flannery, whose A-list devotees include Emma Stone, Reese Witherspoon and Amy Adams, did the fashion direction for “Feel the Heat,” p.92, starring Angela Lindvall. MY C SPOTS • Motti Casa is a home store in Studio City with an artful curation. I never leave empty-handed • Don’t judge a book by its cover — SK’s Donuts has the best donuts in L.A. • West Hollywood-based SPRWMN is the cool-girl spot for leathers in all hues
Photographer Pia Riverola snapped Angela Lindvall for our spring fashion portfolio, “Feel the Heat,” p.92. Her client roster includes Google, Balenciaga, Architectural Digest, Harper’s Bazaar and Goop. Born and raised in Barcelona, she now splits her time between L.A. and Mexico City. MY C SPOTS • Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn is a great place to disconnect • Owl Bureau is a bookstore in Highland Park with real gems • Bar Bandini in Echo Park has the best wines and atmosphere
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DANIELLE: HARRY EELMAN. PIA: LUCY SANDLER. MARYAM: CLIFF WATTS. PETRA: NAJ JAMAI.
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Loewe
Flamenco clutch bag, 2021
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Opens This Spring in Playa Vista
Free Market, 12751 W. Millennium Dr., Ste. 180, Playa Vista, CA 90094; shopstudio-c.com
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Who better than an actor slash floral designer to showcase Gucci’s new collection of bold ’70s-era botanicals?
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CONTRIBUTORS KELLY ATTERTON ANDREW BARKER ANUSH J. BENLIYAN CAROLINE CAGNEY
ABIGAIL SPENCER wears GUCCI Epilogue dress, $3,800, belts, $980 and $1,400, socks, $185, flatform sandals, $1,190, and hobo bag, $2,400, and JACQUIE AICHE Dome ring, $1,650.
MARK GRIFFIN CHAMPION
KELSEY McKINNON JESSICA RITZ REBECCA RUSSELL FLORA TSAPOVSKY ELIZABETH VARNELL
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greatest liberation, which I lived through when I was a child, was the ’70s, which were really the golden years of the brand I work for, and I keep going back to them because, for me personally, they were the real seeds of change,” he notes. The patterns — sourced from Italian luxury fabric maker Mantero’s Ken Scott archives — make their way onto silk scarves, shirt dresses, evening gowns, fleeces, velvet blazers and down jackets. And who better than actor turned floral entrepreneur Abigail Spencer to try them on for size? Spencer’s pandemic pivot led to County Line Florals, a Los Angelesbased flower delivery service awash in the sort of blooms Michele mined for his new Epilogue capsule collection. “I understand Ken Scott’s constant and continual inspiration,” she says. “Great fashion takes its cues from nature, and what’s more inspiring than the earth laughing in flowers?” Spencer named her company after one of the breaks favored by her father, pro surfer Yancy Spencer, and stocks her mobile flower stand — a 1965 VW Transporter pickup truck nicknamed Betty — with an eclectic mix of oversize botanicals for home delivery and special events. As she preps to debut County Line Floral’s first retail incarnation (including a Florista Bar, plant garden and design studio) this spring at Free Market in Playa Vista, next to C Magazine’s Studio C boutique (see p.66), she adds, “It’s also so sweet to be at the epicenter of bringing joy.” countylineflorals.com; gucci.com. 2
Statement - Gucci A Gucci chain shoulder bag, $2,980, and hobo bag, $2,400 — both featuring archival KEN SCOTT prints — mingle with fresh seasonal blooms in COUNTY LINE FLORALS’ VW delivery truck , Betty. Right: Gucci coat, $5,500, and hat, $615.
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n the 1960s and ’70s, American designer Ken Scott spent a protracted stint in Milan. Florals and botanicals were a constant presence in his work and his life — he was nicknamed “the gardener of fashion”; he tended lush rooftop gardens at his house in Milan and fragrant fruit trees on the terraces of his French Riviera escape; and he covered the textiles he created with bold, large-scale flowers. Alessandro Michele, creative director of Gucci, has looked to those prints for a capsule range within his latest Resort collection. In fact, the era is one he often looks to for inspiration. “The period of
“Great fashion takes its cues from nature” ABIGAIL SPENCER
Words by ELIZABETH VARNELL Photography by MARK GRIFFIN CHAMPION Styling by REBECCA RUSSELL 50
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Interlude Home
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The heated pool at ARRIVE PALM SPRINGS.
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DIAMOND DIALS Time to serve face
1. CACTUS COOLER
2. LOUIS VUITTON x URS FISCHER nylon down jacket, $3,650, and Keepall Bandoulière 45, $3,250.
3. 1 Statement - News
Artist Urs Fischer’s penchant for irreverently reinterpreting everyday objects (giant cigarette boxes) or people (lifesize wax candle sculptures) generally raises the question of where his gaze will fall next. Now he’s taking on Louis Vuitton’s Monogram pattern. The Swiss artist, who splits his time between his Solano Canyon house and New York studio, devised a whimsical version of the design that began as a freehand sketch, morphing Georges Vuitton’s 1896 pattern — flowers and all — into floating motifs with puffy shapes that appear on bags (including Cabas, Speedy and Keepall special editions), shoes and apparel. An LV x UF silk square even references the silicone banana from Fischer’s 2019 Artycapucines bag for the brand, but this time there’s a cat sleeping inside the peel. louisvuitton.com. E.V.
1. VAN CLEEF & ARPELS Lady Féerie timepiece, price upon request. 2. HARRY WINSTON Emerald timepiece, price upon request. 3. JAEGER-LeCOULTRE Reverso One Duetto Jewelry timepiece, $49,700. 4. IWC SCHAFFHAUSEN Portofino timepiece, $6,200.
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LIFE AQUATIC Big-wave specialist, pro surfer, photographer, filmmaker and model Danny Fuller’s new tome, Liquid Horizon: Meditations on the Surf and Sea (Rizzoli New York, $55), boasts more than 100 nocturnal seascapes — meditative photographs of the world’s most ferocious yet beautiful waves, captured using solely moonlight and slow exposures — which the multihyphenate took between 2007 and 2020. With a foreword by artist Julian Schnabel and an afterword by surf legend Gerry “Mr. Pipeline” Lopez, the new book is a must-have for art buffs and wave junkies alike. A.J.B. Untitled, 2019, archival pigment print by DANNY FULLER .
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FULLER: LIQUID HORIZON BY DANIEL FULLER, RIZZOLI NEW YORK, 2021.
ART ATTACK
Hot tub, check. Firepits, check. PingPong table, check. What more do you need from a Coachellaready Palm Springs hotel with 32 ample rooms kitted out in Egyptian-cotton sheets, marble-tiled showers and Malin + Goetz products? A 42-footlong swimming pool, that’s what. Arrive, a Palisociety midcentury hotel in the heart of the Uptown Design District, is designed as a base for exploration — whether you’re in town for Modernism Week, Desert X or just a spring weekend jaunting with the hotel’s complimentary cruisers to bask in the deep blue sky and the shade of those lofty, leafy palms. 1551 N. Palm Canyon Dr., Palm Springs, 760-2277037; arrivehotels .com/palm-springs. A.B.
Clockwise: The four-piece MAC COSMETICS x HARRIS REED collection, from $20. Renaissanceinspired packaging. The fashion designer, who describes their aesthetic as "romanticism gone nonbinary."
The Pearl 22-inch chandelier by ALISON BERGER for RH, from $6,446.
LIGHT THE WAY Tapping into her 20-plus years of experience as a master glass designer, Alison Berger recently joined forces with RH to create a series of five collections inspired by the ever-shifting nature of light and shadows. The West Hollywood-based artist — who has previously been commissioned by the likes of Hermès and Comme des Garçons, as well as RH for an ambitious installation of 120 handblown pendants at their New York City gallery — dreamed up sculptural metal-and-glass tables that evoke ice; mirrors adorned with swiveling magnifying lenses that play on dimensions; and, of course, three lighting ranges inspired respectively by rain, pearls and antique scales. rh.com. A.J.B.
Statement - News 2 TRUE COLORS On the heels of a Gucci fragrance campaign and graduation from Central Saint Martins college of art and design, Harris Reed — the Los Angeles-bred, London-based fashion designer known for glam-rock creations that have been worn by the likes of Harry Styles and Solange Knowles — has partnered with MAC Cosmetics on a limited-edition makeup collection. Curated by Reed through their gender-fluid lens, with inspirations that run the gamut from the Renaissance to David Bowie, the eye-catching new range comprises a lipstick trio (including a hue called No Place Like LA), a metallic kohl eyeliner, a ’70s-inspired eye-shadow palette of nine hues and a cream cheek-tint duo called Embrace Your Duality. And in a nod to Reed’s hands-on approach to the collaboration, the products are all meant to be applied with fingertips. maccosmetics.com. A.J.B.
ALEXANDER McQUEEN M QUEEN
LANVIN
CAROLINA HERRERA
JACQUEMUS
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PUFF LOVE Balloon sleeves are in full bloom
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TAKE ON ME The ’80s are calling with asymmetrical, Sottsass-esque statement pieces
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Flexform
www.flexform.it
MODERNISM WEEK's lineup includes a film on architects A. LAWRENCE KOCHER and ALBERT FREY's 1931 Aluminaire House (below), $15/ticket.
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KEEP IN TOUCH Two of LOEWE's new leather Shell totes, $2,750 each.
CASE STUDY
For its latest knitwear collection, Brunello Cucinelli focused on the notion of timeless mementos and personal belongings. The Neverending Stories men’s range trades trend-driven designs for long-lasting modern classics — fine sweaters and cardigans in soft silhouettes — made from cashmere and natural wool and silk fibers using old-world handcrafting techniques. The ethos of the collection goes hand
Loewe designer Jonathan Anderson says his spring collection for the Spanish house “glorifies the hand-embroidered, the handwoven, the handmade,” and his voluminous designs, including the line’s new undulating leather Shell tote bag, breathe new life into those enduring techniques. Anderson’s newest bag is inspired by sculptural pots thrown by the 19th-century American ceramist George Ohr (whose works now reside in a Frank Gehry-designed museum). The bags join the modern universe Anderson has created for Loewe, all of which will be newly installed this February in Costa Mesa at the house’s new 1,500-square-foot boutique — its first in Southern California — alongside paintings, sculpture, furniture and objects from its vast collection, all curated by Anderson. South Coast Plaza, 3333 Bristol St., Costa Mesa; loewe.com. E.V.
A shot from BRUNELLO CUCINELLI's Neverending Stories campaign.
Statement - News 3
HOUSE PARTY Assuming the situation in California is under control, a slightly later-than-usual Modernism Week will be one of the first in-person events of 2021, with ticketed, socially distanced programming. The roster includes small group tours of architectural gems such as Ray Kappe’s final opus and L.A. architect Sean Lockyer’s latest, the Desert Palisades project — two feats of design that are equally as impressive outside as in. The double tour ($60/ticket) runs April 8 through 18 as part of a larger Palm Springs-based calendar. modernismweek.com. A.B.
in hand with the brand founder and namesake’s ongoing initiative (through the Brunello and Federica Cucinelli Foundation) of restoring and preserving the medieval Italian hamlet of Solomeo — producing something precious that can be passed down from generation to generation. brunellocucinelli.com. A.J.B.
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ISABEL MARANT
PACO RABANNE
BURBERRY
BALENCIAGA
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SILVER LININGS Metallic is having a moment
MODERNISM WEEK ALUMINAIRE HOUSE: MICHAEL SCHWARTING.
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Clockwise from top: POP xxxxal, 2xxx6, by CXXXX WXXXXX.. Ut asinvel ignatibus doluptas end a dolorer ectinctiat dis et rectend estrunt quatus volorit incium quassi imus corisim.
ALILA MAREA BEACH RESORT ENCINITAS opens March 17.
HIGH TIDE
FENDI's new men's store at SOUTH COAST PLAZA.
TURNING A NEW LEAF With its walls and ceilings papered in a leafy green print, Costa Mesa’s new 603-square-foot Fendi men’s boutique has the lush look of an outdoor garden. A bright yellow facade yields to gold-hued shelves and racks holding Silvia Venturini Fendi’s stripped-back men’s collection of deconstructed spring looks. The softer aesthetic is a nod to rigorous workmanship under surreal circumstances. Relaxed suits evoke the blue skies Fendi glimpsed through the
windows of her Roman house during lockdown; soft embossed knits hang beside pants printed with the shadowy images of tree branches seen through billowing drapes. Jute-covered tables and green benches hold new-for-spring musthaves for men like sling-back boat shoes and T-bar sneakers, plus classics like the Peekaboo bag — all above a beige rug evoking the house’s striped Pequin motif. South Coast Plaza, 3333 Bristol St., Costa Mesa, 714-751-1111; fendi.com. E.V.
The Alila hotel portfolio, with 14 properties across six countries, is a carefully curated collection of five-star hideaways from Bali to Goa. In 2014, the Hyatt-backed conglomerate acquired Ventana Big Sur, its first U.S. property; and this spring, the Alila Marea Beach Resort Encinitas bows just north of San Diego as its second. Spread out over 4.3 acres, the eco-focused 130-room Marea (which means “tide” in both Spanish and Italian) takes cues from its breathtaking surrounds and Encinitas’ classic surf culture. Designed by Joseph Wong Design Associates, the resort invites visitors to experience wellness activities (including a partnership with surf legend Rob Machado) from surfing to beachside yoga before capping off the day in the infinity-edge hot tub as the sun sets. From $599/ night. 2100 N. Coast Hwy. 101, Encinitas, 800-5549288; alilahotels.com. K.M.
Statement - News 4
The redwood-clad CALIFORNIA BRANDY HOUSE.
NEW WORLD CRUSH Considering that brandy has had a presence in The Golden State for over four centuries, California Brandy House has stories to tell. The new downtown Napa tasting room and bottle shop offers three five-part flights highlighting varieties from the relatively new Argonaut label and the heralded Germain-Robin brand, both based in Sanger. Try exclusive barrel samples while learning about the liquor’s storied past, from the Mission era to the present. 1300 1st St., Ste. 309, Napa, 707-732-1200; californiabrandyhouse.com. J.R.
KILN ME SOFTLY For Berluti’s first-ever ready-to-wear creative collaboration, Belgian creative director Kris Van Assche tapped Los Angeles-based sculptor Brian Rochefort for a men’s capsule collection. To translate Rochefort’s multicolored volcano-inspired ceramics, Van Assche took three distinct approaches: printing close-up photos of the works onto silk shirts, handknitting multicolored sweatshirts in a medley of yarns and interpreting playful combinations of glazes through Berluti’s traditional patina techniques on leather goods. berluti.com. A.J.B. BERLUTI printed silk shirt, $1,310, from the KRIS VAN ASSCHE x BRIAN ROCHEFORT collection.
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TRAILBLAZERS A striking new tome honors Dior’s first female creative director through the powerful lenses of today’s leading female photographers
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himamanda Ngozi Adichie’s visionary essay “We Should All Be Feminists” points out the ways in which cultures evolve while notions of gender don’t. Then it begins to describe Adichie’s hopeful belief that people can “remake themselves for the better.” This is also the defining vision of Dior’s newest anthology, Her Dior: Maria Grazia Chiuri’s New Voice (Rizzoli New York, $95), which launches just before International Women’s Day (March 8). Its cover image is of a T-shirt designed by Chiuri, the house’s creative director, and emblazoned with the title of Adichie’s work. Inside the volume,
images of Chiuri’s collections shot by 33 women — including Tierney Gearon, Cass Bird, Nan Goldin, Maya Goded, Bibi Borthwick, Zoë Ghertner and Lean Lui — endeavor to depict the plurality of women. Chiuri’s support for women artists who continue to push the evolution of perception is clear. “These images — and seeing them all together now has made me realize this — have crucially contributed to valorizing my clothing range and sharpening my intentions, translating the way I wanted my fashions to connect with today’s women,” Chiuri writes. The multiplicity of visions she embraces shows the creative power of the female gaze, and neatly underscores the book’s title. dior.com. 2
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HER DIOR: MARIA GRAZIA CHIURI’S NEW VOICE, BY MARIA GRAZIA CHIURI, WITH TEXT BY MARIA LUISA FRISA, RIZZOLI NEW YORK.
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Clockwise from top left: YEMI OKESOKUN photographed by JODI BIEBER , DIOR Cruise 2020. ANSLEY GULIELMI photographed by VANINA SORRENTI, Spring/Summer 2019. SELENA FORREST photographed by ZOË GHERTNER , Fall/Winter 2017/2018, first published in i-D. Her Dior: Maria Grazia Chiuri’s New Voice, by MARIA GRAZIA CHIURI, with text by MARIA LUISA FRISA. Opposite, from far left: NATAŠA VOJNOVIC photographed by TALIA CHETRIT, Fall/Winter 2018/2019. SARA ESPARZA photographed by FABIOLA ZAMORA, Cruise 2019.
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““My My dream, my aspiration is that we women should look at each other with our own eyes” MARIA GRAZIA CHIURI
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From left: KIRSTEN DUNST with her mother, Inez, at Toluca Lake. California Elegance: Portraits From the Final Frontier, by portrait photographer FREDERIC ARANDA and writer CHRISTINE SUPPES.
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When Athena Hewett cured her own cystic acne using an oil-based formula she had blended at home, she knew she was onto something. “I realized that our skin’s acid mantle should always be left intact when cleansing,” says the San Francisco-based esthetician and founder of Monastery, a botanical skincare line favored for its natural, results-oriented ingredients. “After that, I was also able to completely heal my clients’ acne, which was a big moment.” Now fans can head to her brand's new boutique and spa in Noe Valley, where they can scoop up favorites like the Attar Floral Repair Concentrate, a nourishing, age-defying balm made with Sambac jasmine and Indian tuberose. Also on offer are four facials — we love the SuperGlow, a bespoke treatment which incorporates derma-planing or AHA peels, microcurrent and collagenremodeling gua sha. 4175 24th St., S.F., 925-9795892; monasterymade.com. C.C.
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GOLDEN STANDARD
Six years after Electric Fashion, the story of her 30-year adventure in the world of high fashion, collector and connoisseur Christine Suppes has again teamed up with portrait photographer Frederic Aranda. Through 80 interviews and 500 photographs, California Elegance: Portraits from the Final Frontier (Rizzoli New York, $80), released this spring, offers a richly layered visual diary of The Golden State. “Frederic and I started out with an idea to profile elegantly dressed people up and down the state. We quickly realized that what makes California so much more elegant than clothes is its diversity,” says Suppes. There are celebrities (Kirsten Dunst), politicians (Gavin Newsom and Willie Brown) and Nobel laureates (Caltech physicist Barry Barish) among firefighters, caregivers, farmers and intellectuals. Each story offers a new perspective: Queen Sugar novelist Natalie Baszile explains, “I couldn’t have written the book had I not been a Californian,” and amid a plume of smoke in his cottage deep in the heart of the Emerald Triangle, Swami Chaitanya ruminates on how “cannabis is bigger than the wine industry.” Suppes is candid about issues including economic disparity, immigration and wildfires; but in the end, she is steadfast that “California remains the most beautiful and most exciting place on earth.” K.M.
JOLLY GOOD BUN Known as the “Gypsy Chef,” Michelin-starred chef David Myers operates restaurants across Dubai, Japan and Singapore. But when the pandemic hit, he was grounded for the longest stretch he has ever spent at home in Venice. “Exploring my city again made me really appreciate what an awesome place I live in,” he says. It also precipitated the opening of his first stateside eatery since Hinoki & the Bird in 2013: Adrift Burger Bar. The legendary DM Burger, which Myers perfected at his former brasserie Comme Ça, would make anyone want to settle down and stay awhile. 1025 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, 424-238-5753; adriftburgerla.com. K.M. After a successful pop-up period on Abbot Kinney this past winter, chef DAVID MYERS is extending the ADRIF T BURGER BAR concept indefinitely.
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DUNST: FREDERIC ARANDA, CALIFORNIA ELEGANCE: PORTRAITS FROM THE FINAL FRONTIER, RIZZOLI NEW YORK, 2021. ADRIFT: JOSH TELLES. GOODBODY: AUBRIE PICK; STYLING BY BIANCA SOTELA; BRANDING BY THE IDEA GIRL. DITROIT: ARACELI PAZ.
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The SAN JOSÉ MUSEUM OF ART's 1995 exhibit Andy Goldsworthy: Breath of Earth. From left: GOODBODY in Oakland. S.F.-based husband-and-wife studio HOMEWORK designed the interiors.
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“The idea was to create something beautiful for women with deeply textured hair,” says Brittany Barnes, the owner of GoodBody, a new hair salon in Oakland. Opened in October, just two months before a statewide shutdown, GoodBody was conceptualized to impress, delight and welcome everyone — especially women of color, who usually “don’t experience places being created for
them,” Barnes explains. Services are focused on textured hair and honor traditional Black hairstyles; offerings range from Bantu knots to cornrows, and the treatment menu includes everything from relaxers to cuts designed for curls. Brow and lash services will be offered once close physical proximity is fair game again. 430 W. Grand Ave., Oakland, 510-879-6486; goodbody.co. F.T.
After five decades of custodianship of West Coast modern and contemporary art, the San José Museum of Art is continuing its goldenanniversary celebrations with a special open-access digital publication that encourages the dissemination of collections and resources. The multimedia project 50X50: Stories of Visionary Artists From the Collection spotlights the works and musings of 50 artists from the museum’s permanent collection, including Californian visionaries Ruth Asawa, Mildred Howard and Joan Brown, as well as other American and international talents like Firelei Báez and Rina Banerjee. Interview extracts, artwork close-ups, curator notes and archival photographs and videos promise hours of endless discovery and inspiration. 50x50.sjmusart.org. A.J.B.
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Pozole (a seasonal winter offering) from DITROIT.
STREET STYLE Chef Enrique Olvera, of Mexico City’s lauded Pujol restaurant, quietly debuted Damian in Downtown L.A. last fall. But due to the pandemic, he and head chef Jesus “Chuy” Cervantes put their menu of uni tostadas and tamales with chicatana ants (a Mexican delicacy) on hold and opened a casual offshoot in the back alley. The taqueria, dubbed Ditroit, melds Mexican street-food specialties with California’s seasonal bounty, serving up delectable fish flautas, tamales with mole negro and three types of tacos, all to go. 2132 E. 7th Place, L.A.; damiandtla .com; 2117 Violet St., L.A.; ditroitdtla.com. A.J.B.
NET WORTH Woven bags to carry you through spring
1. LONGCHAMP Filet Le Pliage net bag, $95. 2. KATE SPADE NEW YORK Catch wicker crossbody, $358. 3. MAJE M basket bag, $215. 4. TOD's brown leather macramé tote, $2,645.
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The beloved surf brand celebrates six decades of unparalleled Californian craftsmanship and enduring style
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ixty years ago, Oklahoma-born Orange County transplant Carrie Birdwell Mann started making board shorts for the lifeguards of Newport Beach in her living room. With the help of her husband and son, she conceived a short made of two-ply nylon that would withstand the rigors of daily paddle-outs and riptide rescues; as the orders piled up, at one point all seven of her children were involved in her burgeoning must-have made-inCalifornia brand. Fast forward to 2014, and Matt Jacobson — one of Facebook’s longest-serving employees (alongside Mark Zuckerberg himself), with a background in fashion marketing and a collecting hobby which includes architectural gems and vintage watches — decided to make an approach to acquire the Birdwell Beach Britches brand: “I grew up surfing every day and have worn Birdwell’s indestructible board shorts my whole life,” he says. “The brand was nearly dormant but had everything you could ask for — unparalleled quality and utility, an incredible heritage and a factory in Southern California with a skilled team of craftsmen.” He promised the Birdwells he would preserve the integrity of the family-owned business while bringing it to its full potential, and a deal was struck. By his side is Brett Reynolds, president and one of the co-COOs of the brand, and together they have instilled a Silicon Valley-style ethos, making Birdwell a predominantly direct-to-consumer brand with just a few wholesale accounts (including C Magazine’s concept store Studio C). They have grown the ready-to-wear offerings and introduced hype-worthy collaborations with Greg Lauren, Noah and Mr Porter to broaden the appeal beyond just the “diehard surfer” to “a like-minded clientele of city dwellers, adventurers and world travelers who all have an appreciation for style over fashion,” adds Reynolds. As the brand turns 60, on the road map are new product categories like knitwear, pants and tops and a focus on expanding womenswear, but never forgetting the classics — such as the 311 short, which this season will feature an invisible monstera print, only appearing when the shorts are wet. birdwell.com. 2
“There are very few brands with Statement - Birdwell a legacy like Birdwell’s” Clockwise from top: A squad of surfers show off their BIRDWELL BEACH BRITCHES in Newport Beach, 1969. Aloha shirt scholar DALE HOPE, wearing Birdwell, and his teammates paddle an outrigger canoe off Waikiki, HI. The Baja Fisherman’s sweater, $200. A 1964 Surfer Magazine Birdwell ad. A colorful range of handmade 310 board shorts, from $80.
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MAKING STRIDES Slip into something sleek
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2. ALL AFLUTTER “I just start taping [blank canvases], and miracles happen,” says artist Donald Robertson, describing the method behind his brilliantly witty and often madcap creative vision. Weekend Max Mara tapped the artist — and his penchant for colorful gaffer tape — to create the Technicolor stripes, elongated female figures and fluttering butterfly prints that enliven its Spring/Summer 2021 Signature capsule collection. The vibrantly named Flutterflies range takes flight in Lotusland, where Los Angeles native Sofia Richie wears the designs amid fern groves, sprawling lawns and succulents — just the sort of places where iridescent creatures might alight. us.weekendmaxmara.com. E.V.
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Humberto Leon, the cocreator of fashion house Opening Ceremony, was just a babe in arms when his mother, Wendy Leon, opened the first iteration of Chifa in Lima, Peru. The family immigrated to L.A. and Leon became ensconced in the world of high fashion, but after an eightyear stint as co-creative director of Kenzo and the sale of Opening Ceremony last year, he debuted Chifa 2.0 in Eagle Rock with his brother-in-law, John Liu, as executive chef and Wendy in the kitchen churning out traditional Peruvian and Chinese dishes. The whimsical dining room, designed by Leon, is clad in mint terrazzo floors and zebra-inspired wallpaper (available for sale). “With Chifa, I look at it as something similar [to fashion],” Leon says: “a place to invite conversations and push boundaries.” 4374 Eagle Rock Blvd., L.A., 323-5613084; chifa-la.com. K.M.
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From top: SOFIA RICHIE in WEEKEND MAX MARA's Flutterflies collection. Artist DONALD ROBERTSON.
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1. CH CAROLINA HERRERA Initials Insignia loafer, $440. 2. HERMÈS Colette loafer, $1,075. 3. SANDRO leather loafer, $370. 4. VINCE suede Fauna loafer, $325.
ABOUT FACE Celebrity makeup artists debut products for the perfect California glow
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NIKKI DeROEST
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The Blunder Cover hybrid concealer/ foundation contains healing botanicals like edelweiss. $52, monikablunderbeauty .com.
DeRoest collaborated with MyBeautyBrand on a lip oil that blends with your pH to create a personalized hint of color. $25, mybeautybrand.com.
The Jamie Makeup Blighlighter is a no-fuss blushmeets-highlighter that doesn’t require a brush. $34, jamiemakeup.com. K.A.
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MENTONE: ALYSSA TWELKER. GHISALLO AND BROOKLYN: JAKOB LAYMAN. REVOLVER: SUNDAE CEREAL. SHERALD: AMY SHERALD, A BUCKET FULL OF TREASURES (PAPA GAVE ME SUNSHINE TO PUT IN MY POCKETS... ), 2020, OIL ON CANVAS, 54 x 43 x 2 1/2 IN., COURTESY THE ARTIST AND HAUSER & WIRTH, PHOTO BY JOSEPH HYDE.
CHIFA's take on chicha morada, a Peruvian purple corn brewed beverage with pineapple and pomegranate.
SECOND LIFE
SLICE, SLICE, BABY There’s a crop of new pizzerias across California proving that a perfect pie remains the ultimate takeout. In Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights, chef-owner Mario Christerna is paying homage to his Chicano heritage at Brooklyn Ave. Pizza Co. (brooklynavepizzaco.com) with such menu items as mole pizza. Across town, Santa Monica’s Ghisallo (ghisallo.la) is serving up wood-fired Neapolitan-style pies (eggplant parm on pizza, anyone?) and large slices. At Revolver (revolversb.com) in Santa Barbara, chef-owner Nick Bodden offers a limited menu of just four New York-style pizzas, two salads and a beverage program focused on beer and natural wine. Meanwhile, in NorCal, San Francisco’s Square Pie Guys (squarepieguys.com) is debuting an Oakland outpost in March that will serve their Instagram-famous Detroit-style square pan pizzas alongside debut to-go cocktails. And Mentone (mentonerestaurant.com) — Michelin-starred Manresa chef David Kinch’s newest restaurant, in Aptos — is putting a California spin on Rivierainspired wood-fired pizzas. A.J.B.
Clockwise from top left: The Pizza Funghi at MENTONE is loaded with locally grown mushrooms. BROOKLYN AVE. PIZZA CO.'s La Blanca pie. SQUARE PIE GUYS' signature thick-crust pizza. The classic pepperoni pie at REVOLVER. GHISALLO's speck and ricotta Campesino pizza.
The one-off designs in Mother’s striking new capsule collection are meticulously crafted from overstock, excess fabric, scraps, past designs and even vintage pieces from local Los Angeles rag houses. Called 60% Mother, the 21-piece line lays bare the way in which fabrics are given a new life: the marbling and creasing of discarded but perfectly worn-in materials are visible in patchwork shirts, jeans and sweatshirts, as well as a skirt, jumpsuit and jacket. Scarves are crafted from softened 1960s bandannas; painter’s pants and vintage bank bags become oversize totes; even labels are made of recycled satin and felt. The ongoing possibilities are vast, according to Mother’s creative director Tim Kaeding, who sees this project as the first of many. motherdenim.com. E.V.
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The Four Corners scarf, $175, from MOTHER's 60% Mother line.
PORTRAIT OF A NATION Amy Sherald drew international accolades when her painting of Michelle Obama was revealed at the National Portrait Gallery in February 2018. Since then, she’s continued to rightfully command attention, as her achingly beautiful portraiture speaks to the moment while addressing the painful complexities of American history. The Baltimore-based artist’s Vanity Fair cover image of Breonna Taylor catalyzed more crucial conversations, and now her first solo show on the West Coast is coming to Hauser & Wirth’s DTLA Arts District complex. “Los Angeles is a city that is full of life and color,” Sherald says. “I’m excited to be showing this work in a place that is so central to the American imagination.” “Amy Sherald: The Great American Fact,” on view March 20 through June 6. 901 E. 3rd St., L.A.; hauserwirth.com; amysherald.com. J.R. A bucket full of treasures (Papa gave me sunshine to put in my pockets...), 2020, oil on canvas, by AMY SHERALD, on view at HAUSER & WIRTH.
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MAKER’S MARK As C Magazine opens its latest brick-and-mortar concept store, meet three California brands you will find inside
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his spring, C Magazine opens the doors to its latest brick-and-mortar Studio C concept store in Playa Vista’s new Free Market retail hub, stocking conceived-in-California brands. The premise is simple: curating the Golden State’s most talented fashion, beauty, home and accessories labels under one roof. Here we hear from three creatives bringing their wares to the new store about the stories behind their brand. Free Market, 12751 W. Millennium Dr., Ste. 180, Playa Vista; shopstudio-c.com.
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Santa Barbara-born designer DONI NAHMIAS puts a luxury spin on men’s sportswear with high-end materials such as silk and cashmere. Opposite: The soon-to-debut FREE MARKET PLAYA VISTA will welcome the latest outpost of STUDIO C.
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NAHMIAS Sporty Menswear from Santa Barbara When Doni Nahmias needs inspiration for a new collection, his first move is to look back at his Santa Barbara youth and the formative years he spent busing tables, skateboarding, playing basketball and surfing Rincon. This season’s collection, titled Dawn Patrol, takes its name from the slang term for waking up before the sun to scope out the surf — but in a broader context, it’s about “the idea of getting up every morning and doing what you love and pursuing whatever it is that you want to do,” says Nahmias, who now lives and works in Los Angeles. The 28-year-old started his line after years of hustling and a clutch internship with designer Mike Amiri. The 3-yearold brand is now beloved by celebrities and athletes, including Justin Bieber, for its elevated street-style silhouettes — basketball shorts, hoodies, tracksuits and trucker hats are reinvented in luxurious materials and emblazoned with powerful language and symbolism. This season, pieces are adorned with the words “patience” and “miracle,” following last season’s now-iconic “Summerland” hoodies. “I think most people don’t even know that [Summerland is] a real place, I think they think of it as a dream state,” Nahmias says. The designer recently presented his fall collection at New York Fashion Week, calling it “hands down my favorite work.” A short film he produced for the collection features female models alongside the men — underscoring the unisex nature of the designs, but also hinting at what’s to come: “I am definitely going to move into womenswear soon, and I’m excited for it!”
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JILLIAN DEMPSEY A-List Makeup in Santa Monica For the past 30 years, celebrity makeup artist Jillian Dempsey has painted the faces of A-list stars from Kate Winslet, Emilia Clarke and Leslie Mann to her most loyal client, her husband of 20 years, actor Patrick Dempsey. But with much of Hollywood on hold during the pandemic, Dempsey decided it was time to launch Fyfe, a tutorial and shopping app she has been working on for years, where she and other beauty-industry experts spill the secrets of their craft. The app gives viewers an up-close look at Dempsey’s namesake beauty line in action. With surgical precision, she wields her 24-karat Gold Sculpting Bar,
a pulsating, Japanese-made wand that she explains can “move and sculpt your face into the position you’d like. You can scoop the jawline, contour cheekbones, iron out sleep wrinkles and tech neck and de-puff your eyes — I could go on and on.” The evolving collection, which Dempsey playfully calls “lazy girl makeup,” also includes a hair pomade, intensely hydrating prebiotic eye masks, cheek and lid tints and waterproof kohl pencils — “I’m a dye-hard eyeliner girl. I will never not be wearing eyeliner.” She’s in the process of rolling out a new hair product, her first complexion launch and more, and assures us that everything is being humanely produced, citing a farm near her house in Malibu where she keeps her beloved goats, pig,
PREVIOUS SPREAD, STOREFRONT: TODD RICK ALLEN.
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donkeys, bunny, roosters and chickens. (Her 200-pound tortoise Clover lives in her front yard.) “I see them on the weekends,” says Dempsey. “Don’t worry, they are very well taken care of. I take cruelty-free to the next level.”
NINAKURU Milliner Magic in Ojai When Jennifer Moray talks about her ethical hat company Ninakuru, you quickly realize that there’s more to it than headpieces. “The purpose came first and then came the hats,” says Moray, who founded the fair-trade company as a way to empower Ecuadorian artisans whom she knows on a first-name basis. After college, the born Midwesterner packed up and moved to her mother’s native Ecuador, where she spent the next 14 years as a flower broker (Ecuador is also famous for its roses). On the side, she made clothing and accessories for herself and formed relationships with local artisans and handicraftsmen. When she moved back to the States in 2014, she started Ninakuru (which means “firefly” in the Quechua language) as a way to “break the cycle of exploitation” she had witnessed while living abroad. On most days, Moray can be found in her backyard studio at the base of the Topatopa Mountains in Ojai, finishing authentic, tight-weave Panama hats that she imports directly from Ecuador. (Despite the misnomer, the Panama hat originated in Ecuador.) She’s introduced crocheted agave bags and cruelty-free, hand-shaped wool felt hats (sourced directly from artisans) that are perfect for California’s chilly nights. “There’s something intangible about the quality of our products,” she says. “And it comes from treating people with dignity and with respect. That’s reflected back in the work. It’s the real deal.” X
“The purpose came first and then the hats” J E N N I F E R M O R AY
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From top: A vignette of Panama hats, cotton tassels and straw inside NINAKURU’s Ojai atelier. Milliner JENNIFER MORAY. Opposite, from top: Celebrity makeup artist JILLIAN DEMPSEY in her Santa Monica studio. A mood board for the new NAHMIAS collection.
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Malibu Village SHOP CONTEMPORARY DESIGNS, ICONIC BRANDS, AND VINTAGE FINDS. Open-air collection of boutiques, restaurants, services, and amenities. Curbside pickup and drive-thru options available. @ MALIBUVILLAGE
Cross Creek Road at Pacific Coast Highway Learn more at MalibuVillage.com
SPRING 2021 ANGELA LINDVALL wears BRUNELLO CUCINELLI silk organza dress, $7,495. DIOR Abbesse sandals, $950. BUCCELLATI necklace, $26,000, and cuff bracelets, from $12,500.
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PARIS JACKSON FINDS HER VOICE WHY DRIES VAN NOTEN LOVES L.A. DEEP IN THE DESERT WITH THE HOTTEST LOOKS OF THE SEASON
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HOW ONE SILVER LAKE STUDIO REDEFINED INTERIOR DESIGN California Style & Culture 71
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As the most famous musical progeny on the planet, Paris Jackson is following in her father Michael’s footsteps with an album of deeply personal songs. Lifelong family friend K athy Hilton speaks to her about healing, her inner hippie and making “honest” music Words by STEPHANIE RAFANELLI Photography by DANIELLE LEVITT Fashion Direction by MARYAM MALAKPOUR 72
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BALENCIAGA slip top, $3,960. BULGARI Serpenti Viper necklace, $19,600, Serpenti Viper bracelet, $7,800, Serpenti bracelet, $26,400, and B.zero1 bracelets, from $4,600. TIFFANY & CO. Tiffany T1 T gold bangle, $5,600, and diamond bangles, from $9,500, Tiffany T necklace, $6,400, and Tiffany HardWear wrap bracelet (worn as necklace), $8,500. All other jewelry Jackson’s own. Jewelry seen throughout.
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VERSACE dress, price upon request, and flatform sandals, $1,125. Opposite: GUCCI twill silk shirt, $1,400, wool skirt, $1,500, and sunglasses, $505.
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CHANEL silk jumpsuit, $3,650.
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GIVENCHY dress $5,130, and calfskin belt, $875. JIMMY CHOO Seka 100 suede pumps, $2,450.
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aris Jackson doesn’t like labels. If she had to pick, she’d prefer to describe herself as a “musician” and “activist.” More than words, though, she wears herself on her skin: her intense 22 years of life inscribed in over 50 tattoos all over her body, for those curious enough to read past her last name. Today, she sits on the floor between ethereal white drapes, all blue eyes and cheekbones, like an intricate human sketchbook. A bright sunflower on her forearm speaks to sunny times; seven chakras from her sternum to her navel, to healing; and reportedly nine tattoos dedicated to her beloved father, Michael Jackson — whom she lost when she was 11 — to both joy and grief. “Queen of my heart” is scribbled on the side of her left wrist in his handwriting. Jackson — a singer-songwriter whose bohemian spirit is reminiscent of Joni Mitchell, Janis Joplin and Joan Baez — might be most at ease seated on the floor barefoot with her acoustic guitar. But in her public life she is known for taking a stand. In the last few years she has spoken out to her 3.6 million Instagram followers in support of her “fellow LGBTQ+” community, climate action, Native American rights and her friend Paris Hilton, for breaking the code of silence around abuse in her 2020 YouTube Originals documentary This Is Paris. Jackson is a true 21st-century woman: publicly baring her body hair, her scars and her soul, being searingly honest about her mental health struggles as a 15-year-old and her spiritual path to recovery. This outspokenness is all the more impressive given that she grew up amid scandal and controversy in the cloistered world of Neverland Ranch (recently sold to supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle) with her brothers Prince (now 24; like Jackson, the child of Debbie Rowe) and Bigi (now 18, perhaps better known by his childhood nickname, “Blanket”), their privacy and identities fiercely guarded until they stood blinking in the spotlights at their father’s 2009 memorial concert at the Staples Center, which drew an estimated 2.5 billion viewers. Since moving out of her grandmother’s Calabasas home at 18, Jackson has made a cautious debut, dipping her toe back into the spotlight once again as the face of Calvin Klein, making guest TV appearances
and performing around L.A. with her then boyfriend Gabriel Glenn in folk duo the Soundflowers. But it was the release of her haunting solo album Wilted last November, detailing the renewed wave of grief of their breakup, that singled Jackson out as an authentic talent: a melancholic artist unafraid to carve her own off-kilter space in the world. Few could be prouder of her than Kathy Hilton, mother of the other Paris and proxy mama to this one. The “friend of” cast member on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills was a close friend of Michael Jackson — they met at school in the 1970s. A fellow night owl, Hilton, 61, interviewed the L.A.based Jackson via Zoom with C Magazine one evening, talking sound baths, Greta Thunberg, horror and the uplifting power of “disturbing art.” Paris Jackson: What’s up, mama? Kathy Hilton: Not much, little mama. I’m having a little wine. What’s going on? PJ: I’m just drinking sparkling water. But I have two vapes. I have issues with nicotine. KH: What time is it there? PJ: It’s early, like 9:30 p.m. I go to sleep around 6:30 a.m. I think maybe it’s because my heart belongs in Europe. I live permanently on European time. KH: I’m the same way.
PJ: I even have the Union Jack [tattooed] on my lower back. All of my best friends are in the UK, so [nighttime here is when I talk to them]. My music taste is British. Radiohead is my number one, and so are the Beatles. C Magazine: So how do you ladies know each other? KH: I’ve known Paris since she was born. She was the most beautiful little baby. And we had the opportunity to spend time together in New York, when Paris [and Michael were] living at the Waldorf Astoria for about six months. And also [when they lived in] Bel Air. She’s always been such a smart young woman, way beyond her years. And I’m just so proud of the independent woman that she’s become, being able to make music but stay in her own lane. C: When was the last time you saw each other? PJ: It was in L.A., right before the [pandemic]. I came over to Kathy’s place. KH: Sometimes she’ll just call and we’ll get together and just sit around and talk. Paris has really helped me when I’ve been down. She’s a real helper. She’s got a big heart. You’ve been very busy since… PJ: I think a lot of people who are creative have been able to take this time to really create. I got really into painting as well. I like abstracts in acrylic and oil, but lately I’ve just been doing watercolors of animals, trees, landscapes. C: Kathy, legend has it that you, Michael and La Toya made a pact at school that you would all call your first daughters Paris. Is that true? KH: Well, the name Paris was something that we joked about and played around with when we were little. C: Are you close to the other Paris, Paris? PJ: I absolutely adore her. I admire her strength. She’s insanely smart, insanely funny. It’s really nice having someone there who has been around the block. She’s done this for a long time and she’s clearly so good at maneuvering her way through the industry. It’s nice to know that I can call her when I hit a crossroad. We have a lot of similar experiences. C: You supported her when she came out about the emotional and physical abuse she suffered at her reformatory boarding school in Utah. PJ: I went through some very, very similar experiences with those kind of teen places. I went to another [reformatory] school
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SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO off-the-shoulder jumpsuit with ostrich feathers, $1,990.
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in Utah. She’s been through a lot and it’s amazing to see her come out of the other end … a diamond. [She’s taught me] the importance of setting a good example as a strong woman, and being able to uplift other women. We don’t really have as great a head start as some men. KH: In the past, if a woman spoke out, she was judged. Now, the people that judge? Shame on you. What is so great about Paris is she doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks the walk. A lot of young people just say what they think is cool to say of the minute. She really cares. PJ: I don’t really see the point of having such a [big social media] platform, if it’s just going to be about me, me, me the whole time. I want to leave this place a better world than when I came into it, use my platform to uplift causes, whether it be the environment, animal rights, human rights, feminism. … I want to play my part. C: Do you think that your resolve as an activist was made stronger under the Trump presidency? PJ: I’ve always been this way, even before the last presidency. I was going to protests before 2016, getting up on stage barefoot and talking about the things that are important to me. C: How do you feel about the coming of a new presidential era? PJ: I am definitely celebrating the [executive order canceling the Keystone XL] pipeline. If anyone has spent any time getting to know me over recent years, they known I am very passionately anti-oil pipelines. Anything proenvironment, I will definitely celebrate. C: Are you a fan of Greta Thunberg? PJ: I’m a fan of anyone who dedicates their life to preventing extinction. C: Do you spend time in the wilderness? PJ: I love camping. I love Joshua Tree. I love being outside. … I enjoy being surrounded by nature and trees. I’m always moving around. C: As a tranquility lover, how’s it been for you with the increased exposure of releasing the album? PJ: I’ve been [an object of media interest] since I came out of the womb, so it’s not really new. Thankfully, I’ve been getting better at maneuvering and being able to handle it and finding ways to stay at peace outside of my career and public life. Meditation and prayers are very important to me. Spending time with people who I uplift and they uplift me: people who I can be
weightless with. If I’ve got that on lock, I can pretty much handle anything. KH: Do you still do the healing? PJ: Of course. KH: A couple of years ago you were going to take me down to Malibu, you had someone really cool there. PJ: I can call you later about that. KH: I’ve been doing these sound baths. I found them to make me emotional. Paris [her daughter] and I did one together. I really loved it. C: Do you still do tarot cards? PJ: I gave a reading to my friends two nights ago. KH: If you had a choice which era would you live in? The ’60s, the ’70s? PJ: Sometimes I think the 1960s, because of Woodstock and the music and the civil rights movements. People call me a hippie and I don’t mind that. I take it as a compliment. KH: She’s an old soul. PJ: But I think right now. I am happy to be alive during this time of human rights and feminism. I feel like we are on the brink of a huge awakening. I’m also alive at the same time as my musical heroes, and I got to work with them on this album. C: You collaborated with Andy Hull from [rock band] Manchester Orchestra on Wilted. PJ: They are my heroes. They’ve changed
my life for the better. I first listened to them when I was 13 or 14, but in the last few years I was able to dive into their discography. It’s really been the soundtrack to my healing. It’s gotten me through some tough times. I think Andy is the Bob Dylan of our generation — him and Conor Oberst from Bright Eyes. KH: What inspires you to write music? PJ: Everything inspires me. Nature. My friends and family. … I like to see my family as much as possible. Me and my older brother are so close in age, we’ve always been very close and supportive of each other. … Happy experiences inspire me. Traumatic experiences inspire me. C: On Wilted, the pain is almost visceral. PJ: The music that resonates with me the most is honest. Personally, I can’t ever see myself in the future making music that isn’t honest. [Making that album] was an extremely healing experience: to get it all out there and have such a positive response. C: There’s a Gaelic tone to your singing. I know you lived in Ireland with your father for a while. Have Irish bands like the Cranberries influenced you? PJ: I do like Irish music, but I think my sound is a combination of all my influences. For this record, I was going for a Radiohead/Manchester Orchestra vibe. But on a more subconscious level, I think I am still being influenced by my dad’s music, the music I grew up on: Motown, R&B, soul, the Beatles, classical, jazz. … I used to sing all the time [as a kid]. C: The video to “Let Down” is pretty gory. You literally have your heart ripped out. Would your father let you watch horror films as a child? PJ: Yup. The very first horror film I watched was the original House of Wax [1953], with Vincent Price. I like gore. KH: She was really exposed to some cool, old-school stuff growing up. C: Speaking of dark, what is it about the melancholia of Radiohead that uplifts you? PJ: I think that true art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. All of my favorite visual artists have done that too: Van Gogh. Modigliani. Pollock. Basquiat. The art that I like the most is the disturbing kind, that makes me feel comforted. C: Do you do much on the L.A. art scene? PJ: Before the pandemic, yeah. I love underground exhibitions and supporting local artists. For my last two projects I’ve used art by [lesser-known] artists. continued on p.121
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“I think I am still influenced by my dad’s music I grew up on” PA R I S J A C K S O N
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SALVATORE FERRAGAMO Floating Strings sweater, $1,350, and skirt, $1,890. JIMMY CHOO Mixon 100 crystal, suede, and mesh boots, $3,295.
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Production by LAUREN SCHUMACHER . Prop styling by DANIEL HOROWITZ. Hair by PETER SAVIC at Opus Beauty. Makeup by PATI DUBROFF at Forward Artists using Chanel. Manicure by EMI KUDO using Chanel Le Vernis.
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Designer DRIES VAN NOTEN at his women’s Spring/Summer 2020 show at the Opéra Bastille, Paris. Opposite: Looks from the Spring/Summer 2021 men’s and women’s look book .
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PORTRAIT: PAMELA BERKOVIC. LOOK BOOK: VIVIANE SASSEN.
“There is a freedom in L.A. that you don’t have in New York or London. I love the food, the art scene, the Feature - Dries architecture, nature, the climate. It is a very spontaneous city.” Locked down in his native Belgium, designer’s designer Dries Van Noten reflects on the allure of Los Angeles and why he chose the city for his first U.S. store Words by STEPHANIE RAFANELLI 85
“People need to fall in love with fashion and understand clothes again” D R I E S VAN N OTE N
a steadying dose of realism to the wistful romance of Belgian paintings and brocades in his home. “There’s abundance, lots of color, lots of flowers, but I also spend a lot of time working on the bones of the garden, planting trees, thinking about its future. I don’t do just decorative. My clothes are not purely frivolous. I always think about construction, ideas that go to the very bones of fashion, pushing fashion forward.” From his mien and his home, it would be easy to mistake Van Noten for a traditionalist rather than a man still driven by his avant-garde beginnings. Given the opulent (yet restrained) maximalism of his work, his legacy of rule breaking and a creative method that is likened to David Bowie’s, he is improbably reserved and unassuming. In the words of Iris Apfel, “He’s not your typical fashion character.” He is “a man of little ego and big ideas,” said The New York Times in 2014. Of late, in his magical garden, he’s been thinking a lot about the future, especially during last spring’s lockdown. “On the one hand, it was fantastic; we could really enjoy the garden, and we had a new dog to
The brand’s U.S. flagship on La Cienega, which took over the site previously occupied by Opening Ceremony. Opposite, clockwise from top left: Men’s Spring/Summer 2021. A photograph depicting SERGE LUTENS’ makeup for the Fall/Winter 2020 women’s collection hangs inside the new L.A. outpost’s “Big House.” Women’s Spring/Summer 2021.
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EXTERIOR: JIM MANGAN. INTERIOR: JEFF FORNEY. LOOK BOOK: VIVIANE SASSEN.
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ries Van Noten is a man who lives by seasons. The cult Belgian fashion designer, lauded over the last 35 years for his confident command of color, clashing prints and lavish textiles, divides his time between his waterfront office in Antwerp — dreaming up artistic collections in a former museum warehouse — and the 54-acre gardens of his neoclassical mansion in nearby Lier, which flourish with orderly riots of lupines, roses, dahlias and 50 types of hydrangea. At 62, in Wellington boots and a Barbour jacket, his hair as smooth and silvered as birch bark, he tends daily to his blooms — narcissus in February, peonies and rhododendrons in May — efficiently pruning wayward sprigs and dressing the horse-height stone fireplaces and antique tables inside. “I think about my garden in the same way as I do my fashion,” he says via Zoom. Now dressed conservatively in navy cashmere, he is so cleanly shaved and neatly scissored that he could pass as a gentle banker with immaculate taste; his Flemish accent adds
house-train.” (Harry — his and his partner Patrick Vangheluwe’s beloved Airedale terrier — had died the previous September.) “But we had all these worries. We were shipping out the last pieces of our [Spring/ Summer 2020 women’s] Christian Lacroix collaboration and they were all blocked in customs and being returned. How were we going to cope with everything closed? How would we make a new collection?” The answer: in easy-to-find cotton and organza, rather than his trademark jacquards — and via Zoom calls. The Spring/Summer 2021 collection emerged as a collaboration with the estate of 1930s New Zealand surrealist artist Len Lye, a friend of Man Ray, who scratched and painted psychedelic images directly onto celluloid film. “We didn’t have the possibility to do all the prints we wanted, so it was little like going back to the beginning, to the essence of fashion.” It was also time for ruminating on the relevance and very nature of the industry itself, an over-delivering dysfunctional behemoth that has lost consumers’ awe and respect. “From before the COVID crisis, people were saying, ‘It’s much too fast, it’s too much, it’s ridiculous, it’s only about logos and profit, people flying all around the world just to see fashion shows. It’s not sustainable, it’s sending out the wrong message. Fashion has become so careless. Why does a certain garment cost 1,000 euros and then one month later, it goes on sale for 500?’” In response, joined by the likes of designers Thom Browne, Erdem and Gabriela Hearst
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“There’s a very open, creative mentality in L.A.” D R I E S VAN N OTE N
and a consortium of retailers, he wrote an open letter to the fashion industry bidding it embrace the enforced restraint of the lockdown as a permanent positive change. (He reduced the size of his own collection by about 30 to 40 percent.) The forum called for slower, more sustainable fashion, an emphasis on lasting value and the realignment of delivery with the seasons, fixing the disequilibrium that spawned Black Friday discount culture. Van Noten adds, “People need to fall in love with fashion and understand clothes again.” He also pondered the encroaching death of brick-and-mortar retail, hastened this past year by lockdowns. His counterintuitive conclusion was considered rather high-risk. In the middle of the pandemic, he decided to open an 8,500-square-foot retail space, less a store than a curated multidisciplinary creative salon, in the former Opening Ceremony building in West Hollywood. (That brand announced the closure of all its stores last January around the same time as Barneys New York; both were Dries Van Noten stockists.) “At the beginning, everyone was quite surprised,” he laughs. “But I thought there was a positive message, that we still believe in bricks and mortar. It seemed a good time to experiment.” And a good place. “There’s a very open creative mentality in L.A. Every artist makes music and every musician makes art and acts. L.A. is a very spontaneous city. It’s also a city which allows you trial and error.”
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L.A. artist ADAM TULLIE paints a mural for the new store.
Van Noten’s instincts have rarely failed him. In the fashion world, he is regarded in the same light as Rubens, Brueghel and van Eyck: a Flemish master who paints in color, print, embellished textiles, and whose final masterpiece is his runway show — a beautiful moving painting, often one of the most memorable of Paris Fashion Week. By 2017, he had clocked up 100. At his Spring 2005 runway show, marking the brand’s 50th collection, models paraded along a dining table-turned-catwalk that seated 500 dinner guests. For Spring 2015, models lounged like subjects in a Pre-Raphaelite painting on a mosslike carpet woven by Argentine artist Alexandra Kehayoglou. But for his Len Lye-inspired Spring/Summer 2021 men’s and women’s collection, the showcase took place virtually last fall via a film by Dutch artist Viviane Sassen. “I thought it was going to be terrible not having a runway show,” he says. “But people really loved it.” Since Van Noten debuted his first menswear collection in 1986, as one of the sensational Antwerp Six (who graduated from the Belgian city’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts, the alma mater of Vincent van
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“Fashion has to be difficult-pretty. Beauty Feature - Dries with a question mark ”
SHOES AND HANDS: GARETH KANTNER. INTERIORS: JIM MANGAN. LOOK BOOK: VIVIANE SASSEN. PORTRAIT: JOHN DOLAN. PREVIOUS SPREAD: JIM MANGAN.
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Gogh), he has always produced work of strange and surprising beauty underpinned by a cerebral and complex range of influences from art, music and film. In 2014, an exhibition of more than 400 works of art — including items lent by museums and collectors to Paris’s Musée des Arts Décoratifs — dedicated to his inspirations was a testament to his artistic gravitas. Like an exquisite, artisanal gem in comparison to the showy celebrity chefhelmed restaurant groups represented by certain luxury conglomerates, Van Noten has always trodden an unconventional path with a singular, independent vision, becoming an exemplar of the commercially successful independent designer. And since he controversially sold a majority stake of
his company to the Spanish firm Puig in 2018 (parent company of Carolina Herrera, Jean Paul Gaultier and Paco Rabanne), little has changed. He has never had advertising campaigns or courted celebrity (Dries-heads like Cate Blanchett reportedly pay for their coveted cloth). He has never overexposed or overstretched his genius with precollections or diffusion ranges. In the cheap age of influencers, Van Noten has preserved an air of mystery about himself and his label, coupled with a deep respect for craft and for fashion as cultural code. “Dries clothes have a transformative effect: the wearer becomes a more interesting, enigmatic, intriguing person,” Simon Doonan, former creative director of the late Barneys New York, told The New York Times in 2008. “If Virginia continued on p.121
Clockwise from top left: Women’s Spring/Summer 2021. The designer. Rings by jeweler ALAN CROCETTI are showcased on a wall-mounted sculpture by Czech artist RICHARD STIPL. Opposite, clockwise from top left: Artwork by Portland’s BENJAMIN EWING and a mural by L.A.’s JAN GATEWOOD. Women’s Spring/Summer 2021. A 1928 Steinway sits at the entrance of the archive room. A window display of shoes and accessories.
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BOTTEGA VENETA top, $1,350, pants, $990, earrings, $430, and bracelet, $1,900.
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In Desert Hot Springs, supermodel Angela Lindvall steps back in front of the camera to sport the sleekest looks of the new season
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Photography by PIA RIVEROLA Fashion Direction by PETRA FLANNERY
HERMÈS lambskin dress, price upon request. CARTIER Juste un Clou bracelet, $37,700. Opposite: MONCLER JW ANDERSON quilted satin bolero, $610, and skirt, $705. POMELLATO Iconica bracelet, $24,000, and Iconica ring, $3,510.
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GIORGIO ARMANI silk blouse, $1,950, and skirt, price upon request. Opposite: LOEWE coat, $9,850. MANOLO BLAHNIK Jada shoes, $650. BUCCELATTI earrings, $16,000.
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Feature - Angela
MAX MARA BRAND NAME silkHERE dress, dress, $1,540. Artists $10,500. MANOLO BLAHNIK VHERNIER Galits earrings,$695. sandals, $15,400. POMELLATO Hair by SYLVIA WHEELER Iconica earrings, at Forward $10,800. Artists using Bumble and CARTIER Panthère Bumble. deMakeup Cartier by KATE LEE$36,700. bracelet, at The $10,500 Opposite: using Chanel. Manicure BRUNELLO CUCINELLI by MILLIE silk MACHADO. organza dress,Forward $7,495. Artists DIOR using Abbesse sandals, $950. BUCCELLATI necklace, $26,000, and cuff bracelets, from $12,500.
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Feature - Angela
PRADA coat, $3,700, turtleneck , $1,120, dress, $1,910, and slingbacks, price upon request. POMELLATO Iconica rings, from $2,970.
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VALENTINO BRAND NAME dress, HERE $5,500, dress,and Artists $10,500. Valentino Garavani VHERNIER sandals, $850. earrings, $15,400. POMELLATO Iconica Hairnecklace, by SYLVIA WHEELER $6,950, pendant, at Forward $5,900, Artists and using Bumble Nudo Maxi andring, Bumble. $5,800. Makeup CARTIER by KATE LEE Trinity de Cartier at The $10,500 ring, $970. using Chanel. Manicure Opposite: FENDI dress, by MILLIE $1,690, MACHADO. and pumps, $1,050. Forward POMELLATO Artists using Iconica bracelet, $24,000, and Iconica Maxi ring, $3,510. CARTIER Pasha de Cartier watch, $14,300.
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Feature - Angela
DIOR dress, price upon request, Tribales earring, $520, and D-Cameo necklace, $1,200. CARTIER Clash de Cartier rings, from $2,120. BUCCELLATI cuff bracelets, from $12,500. Opposite: MICHAEL KORS COLLECTION Jamison dress, $1,990. CARTIER Juste un Clou bracelet, $37,700, Panthère de Cartier bracelet, $36,700, and Clash de Cartier bracelets, $8,750 each.
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ETRO shirt, $570, shorts, $800, and sandals, $830. CARTIER Love necklace, $13,800, and Clash de Cartier ring, $3,050. POMELLATO Nudo Maxi ring, $5,800, and Iconica rings, from $5,500. Production by LAUREN SCHUMACHER . Hair by IAN JAMES at The Wall Group. Makeup by MYLAH MORALES at SixK .LA.
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“I took a deliberate break because Feature - Angela I felt this kind of calling”
hese are very strange times,” says Angela Lindvall, speaking from her home in Topanga Canyon on the eve of the presidential inauguration. “I swear I don’t have any fingernails left, with all the anxiety. It’s reminded me of the importance of my daily practice. With so many things going on in the outer world, that connection and going inward is critical.” The practice Lindvall is referring to is Kundalini yoga — a method that she has been a devotee of for over 20 years and credits as the source of her own inner healing and transformation. Best known as the face of brands such as Chanel, Versace, Dior and Louis Vuitton, the Oklahoma-born Lindvall was spotted at age 15 at a Kansas City fashion show. Now 42 years old and a mother of two, the supermodel is so committed to Kundalini that she stepped away from the catwalk to host yoga and meditation workshops and retreats on her 7-acre estate, dubbed Greenleaf Oasis. “I took a deliberate break for almost a year because I felt this kind of a calling,” she says. “I tried to ignore it, but it wouldn’t go away, so I made the decision that I really needed to focus on this.” With the lockdown in effect, however, Lindvall had to shift her focus once again. “I was very reluctant to move into digital before,” she says. “Now it’s the only option, so I started filming and getting comfortable teaching meditation and yoga online. I miss those in-person women’s circles, but this forced me to realize that I can reach so many more people.” The new offering of digital
AN G E L A L I N DVAL L
classes will roll out on her website Peace Begins in Me (peacebeginsinme.com) over the next few months, with plans for eventual live sessions in the works too. “The timing for my new project feels really pivotal,” she says. “I look forward to sharing the tools and resources that can help support people through these difficult times.” The shutdown also prompted an actual physical shift for Lindvall, who sold her home of 15 years to downsize. “I had a beautiful compound where I was able to host my yoga and workshops, but I decided to get a smaller space in Topanga,” she says. “I’m enjoying separating my home from my work, and when we can gather again I know there are
spaces where we can do that. I’m looking into land in Colorado or New Mexico where we can host retreats and workshops.” A self-confessed hermit, Lindvall has been happy cocooning with her teenage sons William Dakota and Sebastian over the past year, Marie Kondo-ing her closet, planting a new edible garden and making self-care a priority. “I wake up and turn on the barrel sauna in my yard, which honestly is one of best investments I’ve ever made,” she says. “While I’m sitting in there I’ll double up and do my meditation. Then I take a cold shower to stimulate the system, have some tea and get on my mat.” Getting dressed has also become a ritual of sorts for her. “I think like all of us working from home with nowhere to go, you can end up living in pajamas,” she laughs. “But I was like, ‘You know what? This doesn’t feel good.’ So part of my morning ritual is grooming myself and dressing well, because it does have an effect on the way you feel.” In another unexpected turn of events, Lindvall has found herself ready to get back in front of the camera as a model after a hiatus, and re-engage with the fashion world in her first editorial shoot since her self-imposed pause. “Taking a break gave me a whole new appreciation for the work I do,” she says. “I mean, I’m not saving the world or anything, but it is a beautiful form of expression, and I really love the people and the creatives I work with in the industry. We rely on creative people to get us through tough times and show us new ideas. It will be really great to come back together.” X
Words by RACHEL MARLOWE 107
DISC DRIVE For the past decade, two friends have quietly redefined California decorating with earth-hued interiors to stand the test of time
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Words by KELSEY McKINNON 108
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A cozy DISC INTERIORSdesigned media room in Hancock Park features tone-ontone drapery, a vintage rug from MARC PHILLIPS RUGS, a coffee table by CASAMIDY and BRUNO MATHSSON’s Pernilla leather lounge chair.
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ramatic storylines are the lifeblood of Los Angeles. But not every storyteller in the city relies on theatrics and fantasy to capture an audience. For the past decade, Krista Schrock and David John Dick, the friends, founders and principal designers behind the lauded firm DISC Interiors, have won the hearts and minds of creative clients — and the design world at large — by doing just the opposite. At their core, they see themselves as visual raconteurs, using finishes and fabrics, objects and textures to paint a picture of their clients. “At first, it doesn’t really make sense,” Schrock says. “You see it but it’s kind of a vague idea to the client and it is not fully formed. The more you work at it, develop it and layer it, the better it gets.” This spring, to commemorate 10 years since the launch of their firm, they are sharing the story of their own evolution in a debut tome, DISC Interiors: Portraits of Home (Rizzoli New York, $65). It’s the tale of a slow burn — there are celebrity clients (it is Hollywood, after all), but no big breaks; instead, their success came from steady growth via word of mouth and a purity of vision. The pages constitute a visual diary of 10 projects across Los Angeles, from a Hollywood Tudor to a traditional Spanish perched above the Silver Lake Reservoir. There are through lines connecting the projects, from an abundance of Belgian linen window treatments and sofas, white-oak cabinetry and furnishings, bold marble and zellige tile, to a general modernist bent. Schrock and Dick have an aversion to glossy finishes, busy patterns and pieces that are too precious — indeed, there’s nary a bright white couch to be found — but the true hallmark of each project is a shared sense of realness. “Rooms that feel overdesigned and trying too hard feel inauthentic to me,” Dick says. In these projects, earthy palettes and rich textures mix with furnishings that proudly bear the passage of time. “Design can’t be just about what looks good in a photograph,” he says. Like all great storytellers, Schrock and Dick have developed an uncanny ability to edit. In Hancock Park, a French Provincialstyle manse (by the trailblazing architect Paul R. Williams) juxtaposes traditional dentil molding and herringbone parquetry
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From top: The entryway of a traditional 1930s Holmby Hills house is a vision of calm thanks to a collection of vases by EMILIE HALPERN, a sconce by APPARATUS STUDIO and a vintage table. A quiet moment in the dining room of a Swedish-inspired modern farmhouse-style home with a vintage chair from OBSOLETE and sconce from GALLERY L7. Opposite: In Brookside, a custom curved sofa in salmon-hued velvet by LARSEN FABRICS is offset with a vintage rug, a CHARLOTTE PERRIAND coffee table and a PAUL MARRA side table.
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with a vibrant contemporary art collection. A few blocks away, an exquisite Spanishstyle home was modeled after a European country house. In Holmby Hills, there’s a family-friendly take on a 1930s colonial and a concrete, glass and steel contemporary in Rustic Canyon. A modern traditional farmhouse in Brentwood — the kind that are so pervasive on L.A.’s Westside of late — is injected with well-worn rugs and vintage lighting fixtures to give it a sense of soul. And in Miracle Mile, to hide an unsightly view of the neighbor’s house, the pair designed a stained-glass window inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright and antique Italian glasswork. “Necessity breeds invention, even in interior design,” writes Dick. Indeed, each page is the sum of its many parts. “Not all pieces in a room need to be the star, and by that I mean selecting pieces for a home is sometimes like selecting the cast of a film,” he says. “There are leading roles and supporting roles. I am always telling clients that not every piece in a room needs to be a star!” The behind-the-scenes work takes place at the DISC office in Silver Lake, nestled into a green hill — a second home where their team of five operates out of an industrial space designed by architect
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From top: A record player “nook” in the living room of a 1930s PAUL R . WILLIAMS house in Hancock Park features a ROBERT JAMES COLLECTION cabinet, a vintage chair from DENMARK 50 and mirrors from DDC. The traditional details of the Williams-designed home are juxtaposed with the client’s contemporary artwork , including this painting by ERIK THOR SANDBERG. Opposite, from left: A Mediterranean-style home’s canvas of herringbone floors and hand-finished surfaces blends harmoniously with DISC’s neutral palette of bone, sand, clay, leather and wood. DAVID JOHN DICK and KRISTA SCHROCK , founders and principal designers of DISC Interiors.
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interior-design program. The pair met through an industry connection — Dick was also doing some freelance design writing, and Schrock at the time had recently launched an interiors magazine — and they instantly clicked. “I used to find it odd that we have a certain sense of designer ESP that happens, but now I find it comforting. And we respect each other. We’ve created a circle that, I think, allows us both to feel very creative. We rarely disagree inside the circle,” Dick says. The pair insist on keeping their office small, only taking on about 10 projects a year, so that they can maintain a close connection to their clients. But they are expanding in different ways. In 2017, they debuted their in-house line of furniture that appears throughout the book — their affinity for designing serene bedroom spaces is evidenced by the fact that they’ve designed no fewer than nine nightstands in their small collection, in addition to ottomans and swivel chairs. They are currently working on a collection with Lawson-Fenning (the pair decorated Glenn Lawson’s Los Feliz home in the early days of their partnership) that will launch this year, along with a follow-up rug collection for Marc Phillips. Recent projects have also taken them beyond California’s borders, including Nashville and Colorado. While this leg of the journey has been recorded, the story is far from over. “Our goal as a firm I feel hasn’t changed in the past 10 years,” says Schrock. “It simply is to create beautiful homes for our clients, that function and age gracefully.” X
DISC INTERIORS: PORTRAITS OF HOME, RIZZOLI NEW YORK, 2021.
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Wes Jones. The top floor functions as a large design library where wood, textiles, wallpapers and metal samples are arrayed across large wooden conference tables for various projects. Dick and Schrock’s offices occupy the first level, and unlike many design partnerships, they’ve maintained a very close collaborative process since the beginning. Schrock, who has a background in graphic design, grew up in western Pennsylvania — “Amish country,” she says — before moving to Los Angeles and cutting her teeth at Nickey Kehoe and with designer Jane Hallworth. Dick, who grew up in Tennessee, hadn’t considered a career in interior design until his mid-30s. He studied glassblowing, psychology, even spent a few years in the wine industry, before enrolling in UCLA’s
“Not all pieces in a room need to be the star” DAVI D J O H N D I C K
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f one holiday destination feels like the truest pandemic antidote, it’s Careyes in Jalisco, Mexico. A three-hour flight from Los Angeles to Manzanillo plus an hour’s drive up the coast brings you to the Edenic private resort, a wonderfully accessible getaway for Californians (the Jenner sisters vacationed there in January). The pristine stretch of Pacific Ocean encompasses 8 miles of beaches offering meditative solitude, as well as lush jungles dotted with whimsical, polychromatic villas, casitas and tropical castles — plus visiting sea turtles. Italian visionary and banker Gian Franco Brignone purchased this land in Costalegre (Spanish for “coast of joy”) in the late ’60s and conjured up Latin America’s answer to Portofino, Capri, Positano and San Gimignano all in one. The original boldly hued architecture, idyllic atmosphere and uninhibited spirit proved an instant siren call to an international flock of aristocratic playboys and bohemians, plus models and creatives — think Cindy Crawford and Herb Ritts. Today, visitors run the gamut, from Talita von Furstenberg and director Lee Daniels to Naomi Campbell and the descendants of Colombian painter Fernando Botero.
The fantasy is fueled by an extra level of privacy: forget bustling hotels; accommodations take the form of shapely palapa-topped villas with extravagant infinity pools. Imaginative attractions such as the Copa del Sol (or “cup of the sun”), a hemisphere more than 88 feet wide perched atop a jutting cliff, offer memorable locations for watching a sunset or joining a meditation and sound-healing session. Indeed, dinner parties where twentysomethings happily mingle with chic octogenarians are as prolific as temescal sweat-lodge ceremonies. At the condo-style accommodations of the El Careyes Club & Residences (with five infinity pools), daily yoga is taught by visiting practitioners including Californians Andrew Sealy and Shayna Hiller, while the secluded five-bedroom Casa Torre villa has a 24-foot captained Boston Whaler available for excursions. The Brignone family still shapes the scene, with 94-year-old Gian Franco even now occasionally indulging in leisurely lunches at the fuchsia open-air Playa Rosa Beach Club. This de facto social hub is
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PLAYA ROSA BEACH CLUB is open day and night.
The pristine stretch of Pacific Ocean encompasses 8 miles of beaches offering meditative solitude Clockwise from above: The beach at PLAYA ROSA. CASA TORRE’s fuchsia tower, designed by renowned architect DIEGO VILLASEÑOR. The pathway at Casa Torre leads to a secluded beach. Casa Torre’s pool and gardens, which were designed by Montecito-based ERIC NAGELMANN. OCEAN CASTLE SOL DE ORIENTE, where the Jenner sisters recently stayed.
where, in the ’70s, fresh seafood was purchased from local fishermen using pages torn from Playboy as currency. Gian Franco’s sons have also made their marks. Filippo founded the Careyes Foundation, which supports local communities as well as protects the four types of sea turtles that lay their eggs on Careyes’ Playa Teopa (guests can help collect the nests and release the hatchlings during golden hour). Giorgio’s passion for polo is evidenced in the two regulation Bermuda grass fields, the slew of ponies and horses (guests can book beach rides) and the spate of matches throughout the year. At Careyes, virtually every moment is spent in fresh air: paddleboarding, snorkeling with sea creatures and exploring secret beaches or dining, drinking and dancing with new friends. As devotees know, it’s not called the coast of joy for nothing. careyes.com. 2
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WHERE TO EAT See and be seen — beside an idyllic sandy cove — over mounds of guacamole and ceviche at Playa Rosa Beach Club. For Argentine beef and impossibly thin pizzas there’s Punto Como in the village square. And Pueblo25 offers intimate tasting meals devised by visiting chefs who draw inspiration from local produce and seafood.
WHERE TO DRINK The spicy-smoky mezcal jalapeño cocktail at Casa de Nada — the name means “house of nothing,” apropos of Careyes’ pervasive sense of whimsy — stands on its own, but it’s even more intoxicating when sipped barefoot on the beach with a canopy of stars above. The passion fruit margarita at Playa Rosa also can’t be missed.
WHERE TO SHOP The chicly bohemian Temple Mexico boutique, at El Careyes, is the place to stock up on floaty caftans and coverups from the eponymous label, as well as gauzy beach dresses from Kasia Kulenty, fringed Daniela Bustos Maya frocks and traditional Huichol beaded accessories that complete every Careyes ensemble.
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I S C O V Clockwise from left: THIRTEEN LUNE is dedicated to supporting Black- and brown-owned beauty brands. The site stocks more than 20 labels and counting. Thirteen Lune founders NYAKIO GRIECO and PATRICK HERNING.
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and your sweet face to enjoy. All our products are dermatologist-tested, vegan, hypoallergenic, fragrance-free and EWG-verified,” notes Koshy. And One of One has teamed up with TerraCycle to make the recycling process free and easy. Famed Los Angeles-based tattoo artist Dr. Woo recently put his spin on skincare, launching Woo Skin Essentials (projectwoo.co). “Our brand was created for all skin types, with a specific focus on ensuring our clean formulas had extra benefits for those with tattoos or without,” he explains. Drawing from Woo’s decades of tattoo expertise — his clients include A-listers Justin Bieber and Zoë Kravitz — the products are simple, clean and healing. The line, which is minimalist yet
The brands to know that were born in the pandemic
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espite the many challenges of this past year, California beauty has faced the moment head-on, with three notable startups demonstrating the kind of innovation the state is known for. All three were launched by seasoned pros: one an actor and online superstar; one a renowned tattoo artist favored by Drake and Miley Cyrus; and the other inspired to create an innovative and timely e-commerce site in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. What’s more, they all embrace clean beauty.
In the fall, YouTube superstar, actor and comedian Liza Koshy became a beauty-brand creator, debuting One of One, a capsule range within the larger C’est Moi brand (cestmoi.com) aimed at Gen Z. Koshy says, “Our One of One skin and makeup collection focuses on multipurpose products for multidimensional people.” Bringing Koshy’s signature love of bright colors and sunny positivity, the products pop with punchy pigments, bold packaging and playful names like Resting B* Face calming mask and Give ’Em Lip (& Cheek) tinted balm. “We did the dirty work to create a clean line for you
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“We did the dirty work to create a clean line for you” LIZA KOSHY Clockwise from left: WOO SKIN ESSENTIALS gentle cleansing soap, $18/set of two. In-demand tattoo artist DR . WOO. After/ Care moisturizer, $25. LIZA KOSHY KOSHY. The actor/ comedian poses with the Give ‘Em Face Mask artist set, $42, from her ONE OF ONE x C’EST MOI collection. Think Twice eyeliner pencils, $12 each.
Wellness effective, includes coconut oil-based cleansing soap, shea butter-based moisturizer and a hydrating lip balm infused with Japanese mint, yuzu and cherry blossom essences. “We’re really excited about the path forward for this brand,” Dr. Woo shares. “We’ve just extended our line into sun protection and are working on additional skincare innovation, focused on clean, everyday usage.” Thirteen Lune (thirteenlune.com), a new online beauty destination co-founded by beauty- and fashionindustry veterans Nyakio Grieco and Patrick Herning, is designed to inspire the discovery of Black- and
brown-owned beauty brands and champion the creators behind them. Grieco, who is also the founder of Nyakio Beauty, explains, “As a Black female beauty founder who came into the game when there were very few of us, I’ve gained valuable experience and want to inspire, educate and continue on my growth journey alongside powerful entrepreneurs.” While the majority of Thirteen Lune brands are by Black and brown founders — like Gilded Body, Dehiya Beauty and AfroPick — Grieco says that they will also carry a few brands by white founders “who are speaking authentically to the Black and brown consumer.” 2
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LIHA BEAUTY IDAN OIL
U BEAUTY THE SCULPT ARM COMPOUND
Made with cold-pressed coconut oil and infused with tuberose flower (which is said to have natural warming and aphrodisiac qualities), this moisturizing oil is perfect for head-to-toe use. $47, thirteenlune.com.
Powered by a tech-driven formulation that de-puffs the skin with anti-inflammatory probiotics and hydrates with vitamin C, this dream product visibly tightens and contours the arms. $98, theubeauty.com.
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BEAUTYCOUNTER THE CLEAN DEO This refillable, aluminum-free deodorant soaks up sweat with ingredients like cornstarch and baking soda while hydrating with nourishing shea butter and coconut oil. $28, beautycounter.com.
BOSCIA ENZYME EXFOLIATING BODY CLEANSER This energizing gel cleanser moisturizes and resurfaces, using papaya and pomegranate fruit enzymes and AHAs for smooth and glowing skin. $35, boscia.com.
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JOSIE MARAN WHIPPED ARGAN PRO-RETINOL BODY BUTTER
WILDLING AURA STONE
This all-over body butter is infused with a pro-retinol derived from pink algae to nourish, hydrate and protect skin without irritation. $46, josiemarancosmetics.com.
Fabricated from mineral-rich Bian stone, this gua sha tool helps stimulate lymph flow, release muscle tension and smooth fascia in dimpled areas. $65, wildling.com.
ZEN MOMENT NAOMI WATTS A child of the ’70s, actor Naomi Watts has long been aware of the benefits of clean living. “My mother was anti processed foods,” she shares. “As a result, I crave healthy foods, as well as healthy living, exercise and mindfulness.” These days, Watts has reassessed what’s most important to her. “I gave up spending money on jewelry and clothes,” she says. “I’m more interested in my skin, mind and health.” A co-founder of Onda Beauty, Watts is addicted to a Cali cult skincare favorite, Vintner’s Daughter Active Botanical Serum. She has various ways of coping with stress: “David Lynch introduced me to Transcendental Meditation, which certainly helps.” For exercise she favors streaming Taryn Toomey’s The Class. She’s also hooked on neuroscientist Sam Harris’s Making Sense podcast. Her latest project on Netflix, Penguin Bloom, a universal story of hope and resilience, reflects her attitude about life. “I learned early on to keep myself from looking too far ahead,” she says. “I take all the tiny wins I can get.”
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continued from p.82 PARIS JACKSON For my next project I’m supporting a friend who’s an underground L.A. artist. C: Your upcoming film Habit sounds pretty art house too. You play Jesus? PJ: I’m not actually playing Jesus Christ. I’m playing a hallucination of him which comes from this girl’s trauma with her mother. C: Do you plan to pursue music as a full-time career? PJ: I do think that music is my destiny. This is where I’m meant to be. The more I do music, the more I feel myself, the more I find myself and create myself. But I still don’t know what route I’m going to [take]. I want to try new genres: hard rock, soft rock … maybe even pop one day. I want to keep exploring. I think that’s what life is about. I certainly haven’t figured it out. I’m just going with the flow, listening to my heart. This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity. X
continued from p.91 DRIES VAN NOTEN
L.A.’s Devendra Banhart; The Little House, an art exhibition space in an ivy-covered adjoining bungalow; blooms from botanical artist Azuma Makoto; and of course a tropical garden. (An eatery is coming — Van Noten famously serves food at all his shows, adding a further dimension to his experiential runway collections.) He designed the space remotely last summer, adding vintage furniture and blocks of sunny narcissus yellow. With concrete floors, the midcentury building has a more raw aesthetic than the flea-market Baroque that his friend Gert Voorjans gave his stores in Antwerp and Paris (two of seven standalone stores worldwide). “I was working on collections all day, and during the night I was on FaceTime with people in L.A. saying, ‘Show me this corner, show me the ceiling,’ then going shopping for the plants for the garden. ‘Can you stand in front of that palm tree so I can see how tall it is?’” Gardening tools specially commissioned in Japan are also available for purchase, and staff have been trained in textiles. Van Noten’s respect for his materials has its roots in Antwerp’s historic wool trade, art and garment traditions. His grandfather and father were both tailors, and his father also owned a high-end fashion emporium; both collected paintings, and his mother amassed vintage lace and linens. “I was educated as a Jesuit in a very, very bourgeois family. I had a very [traditional] upbringing.” He was expected to take over the family business, but he was fiercely independent from early on. “The moment I went to the Royal Academy to study fashion, I explained to my father that I was completely uninterested in taking it over. I wanted to make my own collections.” Like the Japanese designers Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo and Kenzo Takada, the Antwerp Six (who included Ann Demeulemeester and were preceded by Martin Margiela and followed by Raf Simons) were hailed in Britain in 1986 for their groundbreaking designs, which circumvented the dogmas of Paris and Milan. It is perhaps the outsider spirit of Antwerp that Van Noten recognizes on the Los Angeles fashion scene. “There is something fresh about L.A., a freedom that you don’t have in New York or London.” He’s looking forward to throwing an opening party (if permissible) and meeting all his FaceTime collaborators. “I love the food in L.A., the art
scene, the architecture, nature, the climate.” L.A.’s flea markets are also beckoning. He and Patrick are regulars at the “marchés aux puces” in Brussels and Paris, collecting things both beautiful and beautifully ugly. Van Noten has only one complaint: “I think it’s so strange that everybody isn’t cycling in L.A. It’s such an ideal bike city. You could go on longer rides with electric bikes, it would be much more sustainable.” For now, he has been working on the Fall 2021 collections. “For some reason talking about summer was easier — it’s easier to talk about T-shirts, cotton and jersey over Zoom than a mohair or cashmere sweater. I really miss that you can’t touch everything. And it’s not the same, doing fittings with models in masks; you don’t see their expressions. On female models we do tests with lipsticks. With a mask? Forget it.” But there are some ways in which masterminding collections is more accommodating than his hours in the garden. “In fashion, if you want it to rain for a fashion show, we can organize it inside. But in nature you wait, you can’t control the climate.” He laughs again, his accent still coming off a little stern. “Gardening makes you humble.” 451 N. La Cienega Blvd., L.A., 310-880-6125; driesvannoten-la.com. X
Shopping Guide
Woolf or Isadora Duncan were alive today, they would be flying to Antwerp to buy Dries.” Van Noten’s modus operandi and his battle cry — “evolution rather than revolution” — have always been an antidote to the ailments of fashion and its exhaustively recycled tropes. He has spent more than 30 years experimenting with the meaning of beauty. “It has to be difficult-pretty,” he says now. “Beauty with a question mark. I think fashion can’t be too easy for the eye.” The prints for his 2019 womenswear collection were derived from botanicals from his garden: “It was end-of-season flowers with [mildew and bugs] and holes in the leaves.” His Fall 2009 womenswear collection was inspired by his own emotional reaction to the “horrible beauty” of Francis Bacon, translated in shades of shrimp pink and mauve. Pieces from these collections and others can now be bought and sold at the shoppable archive in the new flagship on La Cienega Boulevard, which soft-launched in October. The artistic laboratory includes an evolving mural painted by local artist-musician Adam Tullie; a vinyl room curated by musicians like
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Miu Miu
STEP IT UP Stay home in style in Miu Miu’s bejeweled sling-back heels
MIU MIU block-heel sandals, $1,100.
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C CAL I F O R N IA ST YL E & C U LTU R E
SPRING 2021