West Hollywood Magazine Sept/Oct 2015 by West Hollywood Magazine

Madam Mayor

Lindsey Horvath is Surprising Her Doubters (but not those who know her)

ART ON FOOT

The Design District’s Best Galleries

THE CUT

Undercuts, Fades, Pomps and Other Trends in Men’s Hairstyles

BACK TO WORK Stylish Office Looks

SEPT / OCT 2015

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C O N T E N TS TRADE SECRETS

Molly Luetkemeyer, the contemporary Bohemian

ARTWALK A tour of West Hollywood’s Design District galleries

THE ART GURU The man behind the city’s public art / 28 32

BARNEY’S BEANERY A local institution shakes off its cobwebs and evolves

REALITY AND ILLUSION

These men bring both to their interior and landscape design 40

HAIR TODAY The West Hollywood man’s latest styles

MADAM MAYOR

The 33-year-old leader of a 30-year-old city

LOCAL DESIGNERS Men’s wear inspired by L.A. and Paris; jewelry that’s bold and brash and natural / 58 66

BACK TO WORK Suiting up in style for Fall

SANTA YNEZ VALLEY

Skydiving, wineries and the Maverick Saloon

CAFFEINATED DESIGN Where both the style and brew are stimulating / 92

VIRTUALLY FAMOUS The Singer, the Cyclist and the Stylist / 94 96

LOOKBOOK The style on West Hollywood’s streets

BEDTIME STORIES Finding inspiration, and relaxation, in books

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PUBLISHER’S LETTER Henry E. Scott

By some measures, West Hollywood is getting older. The city was incorporated in November 1984, which means it’s now 30. And between 2000 and 2010, the percentage of residents ages 40 to 64 and over the age of 80 has grown. However the March City Council election reduced the average age of our City Council members by five years with the election of Lindsey Horvath, who recently turned 33. In April she was designated the city’s mayor and now sits in the middle of four other Council members, each of whom is at least 20 years older. A 33-year-old mayor for a 30-year-old city? As Kyveli Diener illustrates in her profile of the mayor, Horvath’s first six months in office have proved to doubters that a beautiful blonde woman can indeed be intelligent, talented and passionate about local and international causes, some of which have been on her agenda since college. That’s no surprise to her friends. So sexists, watch out. As activist Torie Osborne says: “This woman is God’s revenge on anyone who wants to repress equal rights.” So yes, Horvath is proof that looks aren’t everything. But in West Hollywood, they do count for a lot in certain circles, circles that aren’t just composed of women. We decided in this issue to take a look at the evolution of men’s hairstyles, which can be seen everywhere from the Starbucks on Santa Monica Boulevard and Westmount to Zinque on Melrose Avenue near Robertson to Harlowe’s on the city’s Eastside. Tim Chan takes a look at what is replacing the controversial “man-bun”, which seems to be disappearing as fast in West Hollywood as parking spaces on a Saturday night. Photographer Nate Jensen captured the latest cuts on 24 local men, with the assistance of some of their barbers and stylists. But there’s more to look at in West Hollywood than the guys. Tracy Pattin offers a tour of some of the city’s best art galleries and outdoor art installations, with suggestions of where to stop for coffee or lunch or drinks along the way. Gregory Firlotte profiles Andrew Campbell, the man considered by some to be the curator of one of the most impressive public art collections in California. And if you just want to get away for the weekend, Gabe Saglie offers a tour of Santa Ynez, where you can sample wine, dine with the cowboys and buy a few ostrich eggs.

PHOTOGRAPH BY MIKE ALLEN

PUBLISHER / EDITOR-IN-CHIEF HENRY E. SCOTT henry@WestHollywoodMag.net

Life in West Hollywood is worth smiling about.

CREATIVE DIRECTOR MATTHEW MORGAN matthew@WestHollywoodMag.net ADVERTISING DIRECTOR SKY WOROSZYLO sky@WestHollywoodMag.net FASHION EDITOR BRUNO LIMA bruno@WestHollywoodMag.net MARKETING/EVENTS DIRECTOR DANTE GENNARO JR. dante@WestHollywoodMag.net COPY EDITOR TERRY RANDAZZO CONTRIBUTING DESIGN EDITOR CHRISTOS PREVEZANOS

We know that the life you have is a result of working hard and being particular, not only about the quality of your surroundings, but also about the way you look. Now you can confidently express your life in your smile.

CONTRIBUTING ART DIRECTOR REAGAN MARSHALL EDITORIAL ASSISTANT DANNY MANJARREZ CONTRIBUTING WRITERS CHRISTOPHER BLOMQUIST KYVELI DIENER JASON GIBBY GREG FIRLOTTE DOMINIC PRIORE GABE SAGLIE CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS MIKE ALLEN WILLIAM CALLAN NATE JENSEN IAN MORRISON CASSANDRA PLAVOUKOS MAGUIS SOSA NAOMI YAMADA CONTACT US hello@WestHollywoodMag.net ADVERTISING (323) 454-7707 advertising@WestHollywoodMag.net FOLLOW US WestHollywoodMag.net Facebook.com/WestHollywoodMagazine Twitter @WestHWoodMag Instagram @WestHollywoodMagazine

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“Many of my patients are exceptionally talented people who know what they want in life and have dedicated themselves to achieving their goals. Despite being able to achieve their dreams, many don’t have the smile they want due to dental fear.

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Explore The Wallis. 2015/2016

Artistic Advisor Denzel Washington An Evening with Denzel Washington

Love Letters U.S. Tour starring Ali MacGraw & Ryan O’Neal

SEASON

Twyla Tharp

Artistic Advisor Patti LuPone Far Away Places

Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Guys and Dolls

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O U R C O N T R I B U TO R S JOHN ARSENAULT

Clients for John’s unscripted and unusual work range from The New Yorker, TOMS, Volkswagen, Goldman Sachs and Out magazine. His work has been exhibited internationally and is included in several permanent collections. His first book, “Barmaid”, will be published in Fall 2015. Instagram @johnarsenaultphoto

CHRISTOPHER BLOMQUIST

Christopher is a journalist who has written about style and apparel/accessories brands for publications such as Nylon, Surface, Sportswear International, MR and WeSC magazine. He contributes a weekly column on Mondays to the online men’s lifestyle site TheManual.com in which he interviews designers, retailers, fashionindustry insiders and dapper celebs. Instagram @svenquist

TIM CHAN

KYVELI DIENER

Instagram @mrtimchan

Instagram @kyvelisophia

GREG FIRLOTTE

JASON GIBBY

NATE JENSEN

IAN MORRISON

Instagram @inn8creative

Instagram @imorrison

CASSANDRA PLAVOUKOS

CHRISTOS PREVEZANOS

Tim Chan is the founder of the arts and culture publication, Corduroy, and a regular contributor to magazines and newspapers around the world. A native of Toronto, Canada, Tim has also worked in Montreal and New York, both as a writer and creative consultant for emerging fashion and lifestyle brands. He currently lives in Los Angeles.

Firlotte’s West Hollywood design career began in 1981 as an editor of Designers West magazine. He’s gone on to have his work featured in Architectural Digest, Veranda and West Hollywood Magazine, interviewing such luminaries as Helmut Newton, Ed Ruscha and Richard Meier. Firlotte also served as marketing director for J. Robert Scott and Phyllis Morris, and has served on various local boards.

Born and raised in the Midwest, Nate was eager to explore the world from a young age. He studied in Rome before moving to LA where his photography career took off. Both his personal and collaborative work have international visibility spanning advertising campaigns of fashion labels and luxury hotels to Hollywood’s A-listers.

Cassandra is an L.A.-based photographer with a lifelong passion for the visual and performing arts. Her study of the formal, athletic and whimsical nature of movement is integral to her commercial work and portraiture. Instagram @cplavoukosphotog

Santa Monica native Kyveli Diener launched her journalism career in the San Francisco Bay area in 2008 as a general assignment reporter for the Bay Area News Group and Bay City News Service. She currently lives in Hollywood and writes for Al Jazeera America, RYOT News, and West Hollywood Magazine.

Gibby draws heavily from John Carpenter and the cyberpunk genre. Camp also informs his work, allowing him to playfully comment on the realities of urban life. As a native Angeleno, the perpetual motion of the Los Angeles landscape keeps on its toes.

Ian became interested in photography during high school in suburban Seattle. His passion is shooting portraits of people, be they models, neighborhood regulars or inhabitants of places he visits. Morrison lives in Los Angeles, where he regularly shoots for designer Thomas Wylde and Flaunt magazine.

Christos began his design career in the fashion industry, producing runway shows for avantgarde designers in New York. Translating creative direction to interiors, Prevezanos headed west and trained with influential designers Brad Dunning, Ruthie Sommers and Kelly Wearstler. He practices interior design at his L.A.-based Studio Preveza. Instagram @cpreveza

DOMINIC PRIORE

GABE SAGLIE

MAGÜIS SOSA

NAOMI YAMADA

Domenic has written about L.A.’s youth culture during the 1960s, with a special focus on the Sunset Strip. His Riot on Sunset Strip: Rock’N’Roll’s Last Stand in Hollywood (Jawbone Press, 2007) chronicles the appearance of rock on the Strip in 1956, and then its sudden decline as a rock ‘n roll center.

Magüis was born in Mexico City and moved to L.A., where she took a fashion-styling course and studied interior design. Her passion for cool cities, coffee shops and stylish people led her to create Melrose Place Diaries, a lifestyle blog. Her focus is on Southern California fashion, lifestyle, design and up and coming talent. She currently lives between L.A., Mexico and New York City. Instagram @melroseplacediaries

Gabe Saglie is senior editor for Travelzoo and has appeared as a travel expert on CNN, NBC’s Today Show and FOX News, as well as news programs in major markets such as New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. He also writes a travel column for ABC News. Gabe has been a wine columnist for 15 years and is based in Santa Barbara, where he lives with his wife, Renee, two sons, Gabriel and Greyson, and newborn daughter, Madelyn. Naomi is a photographer and illustrator based in Los Angeles who has worked as an art historian at the Getty Museum. Her interest in photography and painting led her to build her own studio where her work emphasizes the natural beauty of life by using an analog approach or medium. Instagram @naomiyamada

City of West Hollywood California 1984

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TRADE SECRETS Meet the girl next door (who is a whole lot more.) Interior designer Molly Luetkemeyer combats design sameness with personality and her sense of humor.

INTERVIEW BY CHRISTOS PREVEZANOS PHOTOGRAPHS BY MIKE ALLEN Trade Secrets is West Hollywood Magazineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s look at prominent local designers and what inspires them about life here.

“

The design world is exploding with such talent and imagination right now. I feel very lucky to be a part of it.

”

Where are you from?

Do L.A. designers approach interiors differently?

Baltimore, Maryland.

Most L.A. designers want to capitalize on the great climate and work to unify interior and exterior space. Myself included!

What were you like in high school?

Opinionated. Not much has changed. In tenth grade, I left an all-girls school for a coed boarding school and was over the moon—so much so that one of my teachers dubbed me “swivel head” because I was always looking at the boys behind me in class. Other than that, I was an enthusiastic student and heavily into theater and photography.

What approach or aesthetic do you see becoming more popular?

When did you move to L.A.?

What is West Hollywood’s best-kept secret?

1997

Koontz Hardware. It’s a place where they actually know how to fix everything and are happy to show you how. I go there sometimes just to walk the aisles.

I am seeing more and more handmade, artisanal products in the marketplace. I think it’s a backlash against the “sameness” you see from the big box store offerings as well as a renewed interest in quality and uniqueness.

How did you get into interior design?

I came to L.A. to work on the film Primary Colors as Mike Nichols’ assistant. When the film ended, it was a wrap for our working relationship as well. I realized I didn’t want to be in the film business but had sublet my apartment in New York for the next six months and promptly had an early mid-life crisis. A dear friend said that every time I came to her house, all of the furniture and art ended up in different places and always looked fresh and inspired so why not try interior design? I responded that interior design was something older women did when their kids left home, and she argued I was wrong and should take some classes. I enrolled in UCLA and my mind was blown. I fell madly in love with this creative profession. Within three weeks of enrolling, I met Kelly Wearstler at a party and she further debunked my previous ideas of who an interior designer was. I started interning with her and it was off to the races!

What is the biggest misconception about West Hollywood?

That it is an exclusively gay enclave. While the gay population certainly keeps it chic—Thank God!—straight people are welcome, too. What profession would you take a stab at other than your own?

Therapist, although that’s a large component of what I do as an interior designer. Dominatrix? Is there anything you wish would come back in style?

Personality and a sense of humor in design. Everybody plays it safe as hell these days, and I find it incredibly boring. What was your first job?

Swim instructor. Man, was it cold those first few weeks in June. What other designers do you admire?

So many people! Steven Gambrel, Kelly Wearstler, Piet Boon, Commune, Hugh Newell Jacobsen, Jane Hallworth, Adam Blackman and David Cruz to name just a few. I could go on and on. The design world is exploding with such talent and imagination right now. I feel very lucky to be a part of it.

What do you think West Hollywood lacks?

Mature trees. But I could say that for the whole city... What are your favorite go-to spots in West Hollywood?

Soho House, Laurel Hardware, Roseark, Alfred’s, Harbinger, Hollywood At Home, Nathan Turner

How would you describe your own aesthetic?

Contemporary Bohemian. My projects are all very eclectic and reflect the needs of the client. That said, there is a strong through line of pattern, lots of color and a mix of furniture styles from the ‘20s to the ‘70s to contemporary pieces.

What do your doodles look like?

A Yayoi Kusama installation. Somehow, I always end up playing with polka dots. Where in West Hollywood do you take an out-of-town guest?

Shopping on La Cienega and Melrose Place. The concentration of chic shops is mind-blowing and you can walk (a rare and wonderful thing in L.A.)!

What is something most people don’t know about you?

I am a Luddite. I need help with most computer equipment and long for the days when there were four TV channels and one remote. What changes have you seen or would you like to see happen in the design business?

Favorite coffee in West Hollywood?

Alfred’s.

I mourn the loss of so many wonderful design publications. When the national shelter magazines are whittled down to single digits, I think we all lose the opportunity to be inspired by a wide range of styles and projects. I hate that everything looks the same these days.

Where was your last cocktail in West Hollywood?

Flora Dora at the Soho House. Best place to get a gift in West Hollywood?

Book Soup.

1. GRACIAS MADRE

W A alk r t

8905 Melrose Ave. (323) 978-2170 graciasmadreweho.com Before you start your art stroll, sit among the olive trees on Gracias Madre’s festive patio and sip a glass of natural beer or wine, a cocktail, a sparkling lemonade or a horchata latte at this unique all vegan, organic Mexican restaurant.

D es ign

D ist ric t

Hours: Open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekends.

“The Creative City” was a term coined decades ago, when West Hollywood was first incorporated, to promote economic development and tourism. Fast forward to today, when this familiar slogan has carved a deep footprint in the city’s landscape. The Creative City now means much more than promoting development; it’s a place where being yourself is welcomed with open arms. No wonder creatives from all walks of life flock to West Hollywood to shed their inhibitions and brave their artistry, whether it’s writing a novel or a screenplay, starting a rock band, testing out a stand-up routine or stroking a paintbrush across a canvas.

2. M+B 12 N. Almont Dr. (310) 550-0050 mbart.com

The return of autumn is a great time to go out and enjoy the street life in West Hollywood, and what could be a more fitting and pleasant way to spend a fall afternoon in this very walkable city than a tour of its unique and diverse offerings of art galleries with stops at various bistros and bars. With that in mind, we’ve put together this handy self-guided “art walk” through the Creative City’s Design District along west Melrose Avenue.

Housed in a repurposed 1949 bungalow on Almont Drive, the focus at M+B is on the constantly evolving nature of photography. In September and October, M+B presents a solo exhibition of new works by Los Angeles artist Matthew Brandt. Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Alex Prager Untitled (Parts 2), 2014 signed, dated, titled and numbered verso archival pigment print 48 x 32 inches edition of 6 plus 2 artist’s proofs (AP.11.005.48)

©Alex Prager, courtesy of M+B

BY TRACY PATTIN PHOTOGRAPHS BY STEPHEN HERNANDEZ & CASSANDRA PLAVOUKOS

Located on Melrose across North Almont Drive from Louis’ gallery, the George Stern Gallery has specialized for over 40 years in California art from 1890 to 1950. “This art is so enriching,” says Stern. “It’s a window to the past. When you look at these paintings, you can see what drew so many to California from back east and Europe.”

3. LOUIS STERN FINE ARTS 9002 Melrose Ave. (310) 276-0147 louissternfinearts.com

4. GEORGE STERN FINE ARTS 8920 Melrose Ave. (310) 276-2600 sternfinearts.com

Hours: Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Follow Almont Drive south one block from M+B to Melrose Avenue and you’ll find a pair of galleries owned by brothers Louis and George Stern. Sons of an art dealer, the French Morocco-born brothers were immersed early on in the art world. After choosing different career paths—George became an attorney, and Louis went into the wine business—both brothers returned to their artistic roots after their father passed away. (Their brother Jean is the executive director of the Irvine Museum). The focus at Louis Stern Fine Arts Gallery is on mid-20th century West Coast abstract painting, sculpture and photography. On exhibit from Sept. 24 to Nov. 7 is the work of Uruguayan sculptor Cecilia Miguez, who uses found objects, bronze castings and wood carving to create figures that hover in the realm between mythology and reality.

5. 101/EXHIBIT 8920 Melrose Ave. (310) 271-7980 101exhibit.com 101/EXHIBIT showcases emerging and established international artists, with a focus on narrative painters who work in figural and gestural painting. A good example of this is the work of Stefania Fersini, whose hyper-realistic oil paintings depicting crumpled pages from fashion magazines have been described as commentary on the fleeting nature of youth and beauty in the fashion industry. See her work at 101/EXHIBIT from Sept. 12 through Oct. 17.

Hours: Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Art is in the eye of the beholder, and in West Hollywood there is so much to see.

6. DE RE GALLERY 8920 Melrose Ave. (310) 205-7959 deregallery.com Next door to George Stern Fine Arts, the De Re Gallery provides what it calls a “vibrant destination” for emerging artists intersecting with known masters from Europe, New York and Los Angeles. From Sept. 10 through Oct. 10, De Re features an exhibition of works by Pop minimalist Mauro Perucchetti, whose “Modern Heroes” sculpture is on display nearby in West Hollywood Park (number 11 on our map). From Oct. 22 to Nov. 24, photographer Brian Bowen Smith returns to De Re with a solo show titled “Metallic Life.” Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

7. ZINQUE 8684 Melrose Ave. lezinque.com (424) 284-3930 Stroll two blocks east from De Re to Zinque, a lively café that mingles the al fresco dining and imbibing experience Californians crave with a Paris bistro feel. The menu features an extensive wine list, food and coffee—maybe a cold brewed cup—all to be enjoyed while doing a little people watching in the cozy courtyard. Hours: Open at 6:30 a.m. on weekdays, 7:30 a.m. on weekends; closes at 11 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday, midnight on Wednesday and Thursday, and 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.

In one of the nation’s most walkable cities, you don’t need a car for a gallery tour.

8. GALERIE MONTAIGNE 8619 Melrose Ave. (310) 289-2534 yoniboutboul.com You can’t miss Galerie Montaigne, which is located one block east of Zinque, across Melrose at the corner of Huntley Drive. A new arrival in the Design District, the gallery focuses exclusively on contemporary French artists and features unusual sculptures, notably including a real olive tree dipped in silver. Owner Yoni Boutboul sums up his love of art (and his gallery) with his philosophy of life: “Faire de la vie une magie est une passion; j’en ai fait ma profession,” which means “Making life magic is my passion; and I made it my profession.” Hours: Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

9. MOCA PACIFIC DESIGN CENTER (MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART) Entrance is on North San Vicente Boulevard across from West Hollywood Library (310) 289-5223 moca.org Located on the plaza of the Pacific Design Center, across San Vicente Boulevard from West Hollywood Park, this spacious gallery is operated by a branch of MOCA, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. This fall MOCA PDC presents works by South American artist Magdalena Fernández, whose installations reference Venezuelan kinetic art, European constructivism and Brazilian neo-concrete art. The exhibition runs from Oct. 3 to Jan. 3, 2016. Hours: Closed Monday; Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Walk across the street and you will see two outdoor sculptures and three outdoor murals:

An exact reproduction of a neon sign advertising a swimming pool at a motel in Mississippi, “The Virginia Court Motel Diver” is a prime example of mid-century Americana. The original sign was salvaged and restored when the motel was demolished in 2000. This reproduction was first installed in West Hollywood in 2010, (in the median of the 8400 block of Santa Monica Boulevard) as part of the exhibition, “On Route 66—Lights,” sponsored by the city’s “Art on the Outside” program. The piece is now part of the city’s Urban Art collection, and is slated to move to its permanent location at the Aquatic and Recreation Center when it opens in 2018.

10. “THE VIRGINIA COURT MOTEL DIVER” (OUTDOOR SCULPTURE) West Hollywood Park, North San Vicente Boulevard between Santa Monica and Melrose

11. “MODERN HEROES” (OUTDOOR SCULPTURE) West Hollywood Park, North San Vicente Boulevard between Santa Monica and Melrose Chiseled from marble by Mauro Perucchetti, “Modern Heroes” is said to be a comic-book riff on Michelangelo’s painting, “The Creation of Adam.” It depicts Superman standing tall and baring the “S” on his chest while a supine Batman reaches out to touch him. You can see more of Perucchetti’s work on display at De Re Gallery (number 6 on our list), from Sept. 10 through Oct. 10.

12. WEST HOLLYWOOD LIBRARY MURALS 625 North San Vicente Blvd. These public murals by three of the best-known graphic artists working today were created as permanent installations on the exterior walls of the West Hollywood Library. The project was funded by Vanity Fair magazine and Cadillac, in partnership with MOCA and the City of West Hollywood. “PEACE ELEPHANT” BY SHEPARD FAIREY West-facing wall off El Tovar Place Shepard Fairey, who is best known as the designer of the 2008 Obama presidential campaign’s “Hope” poster, completed this 70by 106-foot painting on the library’s parking structure in 2011.

UNTITLED KENNY SCHARF MURAL North-facing wall of the parking structure

UNTITLED RETNA MURAL Inspired by Salman Rushdie quote: North Wall of Library Parking Structure This mural by Marquis Lewis, the artist known as RETNA, is an homage to writer Salman Rushdie. Translated, the lettering is a Rushdie quote, “Literature is where I go to explore the highest and lowest places in human society and in the human spirit, where I hope to find not absolute truth but the truth of the tale, of the imagination, and of the heart.”

An apt reflection of Kenny Scharf ’s colorful, if bizarre cartoon-graffiti style, this mural was also installed in 2011.

A self-guided Design District tour offers creative dining as well as art.

14. THE ABBEY 692 N. Robertson Blvd. (310) 590-7440 abbeyfoodandbar.com Voted the “best gay bar in the word” two years in a row by viewers of MTV’s Logo channel, the Abbey is also one of the “straight-friendliest” gay bars in town. When you enter off Robertson, go inside on the right, order a drink and then enjoy it under the portrait of one of the bar’s most famous patrons: Elizabeth Taylor. Hours: Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.; Friday 10 a.m. to 2 a.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 2 a.m.

13. ONE ARCHIVES GALLERY & MUSEUM 626 N. Robertson Blvd. (323) 546-9299 one.usc.edu/about/visit/ Although its address is on Robertson, the entrance to the ONE Archives Gallery & Museum is on El Tovar Place, just west of the Shepard Fairey mural at the library. This is a satellite space operated by the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, the largest LGBTQ history collection in the world, located on West Adams Boulevard, near downtown Los Angeles. According to curator David Evans Frantz, “ONE is an endless resource for interesting and inspiring queer histories, bringing them out of the archives and into the public, often objects or collections that have never been exhibited before.” Hours: Thursday, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday, Saturday & Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.; closed Monday through Wednesday.

15. LEICA GALLERY 8783 Beverly Blvd. (424) 777-0341 leicagalleryla.com If you’re still craving more great art, take a half-mile stroll down Robertson to the Leica Store and Gallery on Beverly Boulevard. Leica is one of the top camera manufacturers, and the gallery features ever-changing works by both established and up-and-coming photographers. Currently showing in the gallery is local artist Al Satterwhite’s “aRound New York” and Harold Feinstein’s black and white images, “Coney Island.” September 3-30. Opening is September 3rd, 6-9 p.m. On exhibit in October is 1950s travel photographer Slim Aarons’ “Exclusive Resorts.” October 3-October 26. Opening is October 3, 6-9 p.m. Hours: Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.

16. PETROSSIAN 321 N. Robertson Blvd. 310-271-6300 petrossian.com If you’re finished early enough, stop by Petrossian Café, a romantic spot with colorful art on the walls, a block north of the Leica Gallery on Robertson at Rosewood Avenue. Enjoy the champagne and blinis with caviar and crème fraîche or indulge in a caviar tasting, Hours: Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

BY GREG FIRLOTTE PHOTOGRAPHS BY WILLIAM CALLAN IVAN MCLEAN INSTALLATION, SANTA MONICA BOULEVARD & DOHENY

ARTS

Inside the Mind of Andrew Campbell, the City’s Cultural Guru His official title may be Arts Administrator with the City of West Hollywood, but to many, he is the unofficial cultural guru, social observer, urban visionary and arts enabler—bringing freely accessible public art and live cultural programs to the city’s residents and visitors alike. With a canvas of 1.9 square miles containing approximately 60 various public art works (think murals, sculptures, tile mosaics and more) as part of the city’s Urban Art Program, Andrew Campbell is the face of one of the most ambitious public art programs in the nation. That adds up to one public art installation for every 573 residents of West Hollywood—an amazing fact when you consider it. Add in all of the performing arts events that the city offers free of charge, and you have an amazingly well-rounded program everyone can enjoy.

hired him as grants manager in 1997. Seven years later, Campbell was appointed to the West Hollywood Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission, serving as chair on its Performing Arts subcommittee. When the Arts Administrator position became available in 2007, the West Hollywood resident leapt at the opportunity.

In the 1980s Campbell found his way from his native Minnesota to California, eventually receiving his masters in playwriting from UCLA, before spending nine years in the corporate world. But he couldn’t ignore his love for the arts, and he began working in non-profit theater—a move that would bring him to the attention of Laura Zucker, executive director of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, who

WEST HOLLYWOOD MAGAZINE When you became the first full-time Arts Administrator for West Hollywood in 2007, what goal did you have for this position and for the city? ANDREW CAMPBELL The primary goal was to establish a strong local arts agency, meaning providing a broader spectrum of programming and cultural opportunities than was currently being offered and, importantly, expanding existing programs and developing new ones such as One City One Pride LGBT Arts Festival, Summer and Winter Sounds, Free Theatre in the Parks, WeHo Reads and WeHo East Arts to name a few. And our grants program has since expanded considerably, allowing us to support even more programs presented by local non-profit arts organizations. I was fortunate to come to a position that already had a strong Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission (ACAC) and a

very supportive City Council, which provided a sturdy foundation to grow the program and allowed us to bring on talented staff members who do a lot of the heavy lifting these days. WHM The city is well known for its celebration of diversity. Does its public art reflect that, and do you think of this when making your selections? AC Among our largest demographic groups are the LGBTQ community, senior citizens, Russian-speaking immigrants and an emerging Latino population, which means that providing programs for these communities is very much a part of the ACAC decision-making process. For example, we provide musical and other cultural programs in Plummer Park, which is the heart of the Russian-speaking community and the aforementioned celebrates the convergence of cultures on the eastern edge of the city. As for the public art installed along our streets and in

So where does one begin when it comes to selecting art and artists, finding suitable venues, and addressing the relevancy of what is presented? Since 1987, when West Hollywood officially embraced the incorporation of public art into its public and private developments, parks and streetscape plans, those decisions have been based not only the quality of the art, but also on providing a diverse cultural experience through various media and artistic approaches. For Campbell, that means drawing upon his years with the county Arts Commission dealing with organizational, leadership and grants aspects and bringing these skills and more to the WeHo arts table. A challenge for anyone, but a joy for Campbell. In a recent meeting at the West Hollywood Library, the animated Campbell put a perspective on what it takes to make the city visually and artistically enriching.

our parks, we’ve had straight, transgender, gay, male and female artists represented, not only local but from such countries as China, Belgium, England and Italy. And we’re currently working on an installation in October with a Swedishborn artist, not to mention considering work by a Korean artist who was recently featured in a West Hollywood gallery. We feel it’s our responsibility to offer opportunities to experience art to our residents that they might not see otherwise. WHM And the relevancy of the art and programs you present? AC One good example would be WeHo Reads, which presents authors and readings on topics that are current and often socially relevant. And contemporary issues or historic issues with a contemporary slant are the subjects of the One City One Pride LGBT Arts Festival. This is all very important to our programming.

WHM Does an artist have to be established to be considered for your installations and programs? AC Not at all. In fact, any artist can submit a proposal. We’ve presented both the famous and the unknown, the experienced and the emerging, which is what makes it exciting. We have an open proposal process and the Commission’s Art on the Outside subcommittee does the first in-depth review of projects that it then recommends to the Commission. An example of how this process works is reflected in our current installation of Shana Mabari’s “Illumetric” works on the median on Santa Monica Boulevard. This project—consisting of large diamond, cube and rectangle-shaped illuminated sculptures—came to us through our open proposal process. While she had experience as a studio artist, she was definitely a neophyte public artist, and she—and we— both learned a lot through the process, which resulted in a colorful set of works now on view through the end of the year. There is temporary art, such as Mabari’s , and there are permanent works. Temporary art can be on view from one day to two years depending upon the nature of the work and if it remains fresh and in good shape, the Commission will often extend the exhibition time frame. But generally, we aim for one to one and a half years.

Council Chambers—were installed as part of its development since the City allocates one percent of construction costs for civic projects towards public art. The library’s interior walls have provided us with a rotating exhibit space since the facility opened in 2011. We’ve had an eclectic array of exhibits, including artists from Jean Cocteau to Clive Barker, along with a series of film noir posters and exhibits focusing on the architecture and history of the city. Our recently closed exhibit Art AIDS America was two years in the planning and provided the city with an opportunity to do a preview of this exhibit, which opens in October at the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington. Our current exhibit, in celebration of the WeHo’s 30th anniversary, is a community-based project called Finding Home: Ten Years Later—After a decade in America, Russian-speaking immigrants reflect on the experience. It’s a moving exhibit about Russian-speaking immigrant youth that is not just a West Hollywood story, but is really an American story. WHM How have you and the Commission created attention for the public works and the artists during your tenure? AC One example would be artist Ramiro Gomez, a WeHo resident whose career is skyrocketing. A couple of years ago, we gave him his first authorized public art project that is a series of small murals of people who work in West Hollywood Park—nannies and gardeners—which was an extension of his street art and studio work which focuses on the “unseen” workers who keep our communities functioning. Of course, probably one of our best-known projects was in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art —and that is the series of murals on the West Hollywood Park parking structure. MOCA, under former director Jeffrey Deitch, did the fundraising

WHM Which brings us to the next thought that most people consider public art as outdoor art, but that’s not always the case.

and secured both Cadillac and Vanity Fair as sponsors. Photographer David LaChapelle did photos of each of the artists—Shepard Fairey, Kenny Scharf, and RETNA—with their works, which were later used in a promotional piece by Cadillac on the pages of Vanity Fair. And Vanity Fair threw a party in the parking lot adjacent to the Fairey mural. Ultimately, those murals created a lot of buzz and garnered a lot of attention and are seen as rather iconic public art today some three and half years later. WHM Would you consider WeHo’s public art as having an impact? AC The simple declared purpose for our Art on the Outside program is to bring art into the public realm to enhance the city’s pedestrianfriendly culture. West Hollywood has a wonderful energy that people can actually feel when they are within our borders, and this can be attributed to a lot of things, such as our nationally recognized urban planning, our streetscapes, our architecture and our art. We want people to feel invigorated when they encounter the art and feel engaged creatively when they come upon the color or design or craftsmanship of the works. I often think of the people who may be stuck in traffic along Santa Monica Boulevard and, while that is never a pleasant experience, at least they have the art along the median to look at and the time to enjoy it. WHM What one word would you like someone to say about your tenure as WeHo’s first-ever Arts Administrator? AC Meaningful—that would be the word. Art can provide an opportunity to build and engage a community and its identity, whether the art is fun or challenging. The very first installation I worked on in 2007—Dan Corson’s Empyrean Passage—went on to be selected as one of the best public art works of the year by Americans for the Arts. It was both challenging and meaningful to me and it was all worth it. And that’s how I still feel about the public art we continually bring to West Hollywood.”

*** West Hollywood’s Urban Art Program has approximately 60 permanent works throughout the City—48 of which can be found at weho.org/arts under “Urban Art Collection. ”

AC Not always. For indoor exhibitions, our main venue is the West Hollywood Library where two permanent works—a white tree sculpture by David Wiseman and a mural by Shepard Fairey in the

Art on the Outside

The City of West Hollywood presents public art projects in the parks and medians as part of its Art on The Outside program. For more info on West Hollywood Arts programs please visit weho.org/arts

@WeHoArts

BARNEY’S BEANERY

The Local Gathering Spot has Managed to Keep its ‘Funk-tique’ Alive In 1999, when it was purchased by only its third owner in 80 years, Barney’s Beanery was given the cleanup and revival it deserved, one that maintained the look and feel of this legendary bar and restaurant in a West Hollywood that is going through dramatic changes. Barney’s, which opened on Santa Monica Boulevard near Holloway in 1927, did need some fresh air breathed into it after the ’80s and ’90s to clear away the cobwebs. That’s because its décor is best described as “funktique,” with random items from the 19th century through to the 1930s that are signs of the Beanery’s slow evolution. That was also the style of cool places like Shelly’s Manne-Hole, the jazz joint on North Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood in the ’60s and ’70s, and Lefty O’Doul’s, still open on Geary Boulevard in San Francisco. The maintenance of such an ambience requires attention to detail. The décor, said A.J. Sacher, Barney’s regional manager, is an accumulation of Barney’s history, and some of it is very, very old.

Part of Barney’s history was as a meeting place. Sacher said a customer from the past told him that in the old days musicians on tour in Los Angeles, who in those days couldn’t get in touch with one another on cell phones or by texting, showed up at Barney’s to meet one another. Those musicians included people like Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin, known for sitting at Booth 34. “So when they were in Los Angeles, this was their point of contact,” Sacher said. “We are still very much trying to keep that going, and be that physical place, and there’s something to that which gets lost a lot with the technology. You lose that personal contact, and I don’t think a lot of restaurants or bars are geared around that. It used to be, you’d know what was going on because you’d go down to your local bar, and figure it out there.”

BY DOMINIC PRIORE PHOTOGRAPHS BY MIKE ALLEN

Barney’s has gotten well past its reputation for homophobia. After West Hollywood’s incorporation in 1984, the city’s first mayor, a lesbian named Valerie Terrigno, led a group into the bar to rip down the infamous (and misspelled) sign that read “Fagots - Stay Out!” One of the new owners, David Houston, invited the Rev. Troy Perry, founder of the Metropolitan Community Church and a gay activist, to Barney’s to shake his hand. Perry was pleased, as was Houston. “We hope to exclude no one and cater to anyone who has an appreciation for fattening food, good chili, beer and loud rock ‘n’ roll,” he told the L.A. Times.

Barney’s, which Anthony opened in 1920 in Berkeley as a lunch hut before moving it to West Hollywood in a ranch house-type structure, has slowly evolved as it added a new room or a small outdoor dining area. “I think it’s striking a balance between adapting to what the clientele is looking for, which is an ever-evolving thing, but also maintaining the reason that people came here in the first place,” Sacher said. “One example would be adding the televisions for watching sports, but trying to do it in a way that didn’t push back the core audience. You don’t reinvent the wheel, but sometimes you need a new tire.”

Sacher agrees that Barney’s is a place for everybody. “And that’s so unique in Los Angeles, because there are so many places that are ‘the next big thing’… and then it’s gone. Not everything is geared toward being the classic neighborhood establishment.” “The thing I most often hear from customers is ‘this place feels like…’ and they’ll name a place that they’re from. When people are setting their nightlife roots in Los Angeles, this is one of the places they set it, and they always come back for that. It’s a communal place for people to hang out, without a whole lot of pretense.”

Under its new owners, Barney’s Beanery has expanded beyond its original location to perfect-looking outlets in Pasadena, Burbank, Westwood Village, Santa Monica and the Redondo Beach Pier. “The biggest thing is figuring out how to open more locations, which is really tricky, because you can’t duplicate an icon,” Sacher said. “It’s like the framework of a house, but it takes about a year, or two years, for it to become what it’s supposed to be—a neighborhood restaurant. So we’ll change a lot, depending on what the clientele for that area wants. I think it would be great in New York, or in some of the towns along Route 66, those would be a nice fit for it. Our growth is calculated, and one at a time.”

Famous people still come there, Sacher said, because they know they’ll be left alone. “Steven Tyler has been here a few times in the last couple of months, which is neat, because he’s a rock ’n’ roll icon… and he’s a really nice guy. On the total other side of the spectrum, Justin Bieber has been coming in lately, which is a very weird thing. Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, had his friends over and he was telling them things off the menu, saying ‘you guys are gonna have a lotta fun.’ There’s no paparazzi; they’re not calling their P.R. people before they come. They wait for a table like everyone else. They come in because this was the place that was so welcoming to them before they became famous.”

That slow evolution includes the menu. Barney’s is a place where you can truly go get some grub. “The menu’s enormous… it’s a version of the traditional diner menu, where you can get breakfast, lunch and dinner all the time, all day and all night, and then I guess you mix it in with a gastropub feel,” Sacher said. “Barney’s was one of the first places to have this large selection of tap beer, which is now very much a staple. We added 14 taps at the Santa Monica Boulevard location last year just as this movement toward draft beer came about. The customer has become much more well-versed in what they’re consuming and so we’ve got to keep up with that.”

That’s the way Barney’s always has been, treating everyone the same. In fact, in the old days founder John “Barney” Anthony would lend the occasional customer a few bucks. “Going back to World War II, Barney infamously had this box of IOUs, and there’s all these famous people listed.” Sacher said. “But there’s also a lot of not-famous people listed. He wasn’t lending money to people because they were famous, he was lending to them because they needed a buck, and they were coming in all the time.”

So Barney’s Beanery has managed to remain a place true to its original rural roots, while adapting to the evolution of Tinsel Town—as true and as timeless as the restaurant’s namesake sculpture by Ed Kienholz, permanently housed in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. “We’re coming up on 100 years, which is great,” Sacher concluded. “We plan to be here for 100 more, no problem, and we think that’s attainable if we remember the reason people come here—for fun.”

JASON KOREN, LEFT AND SAM MONGIELLO, VISTA GRANDE STREET

Building Drama JASON KOREN AND SAM MONGIELLO’S PROJECTS BRING THE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE TOGETHER

BY JASON GIBBY PHOTOGRAPH BY NAOMI YAMADA

A creature sinks its fangs into a woman’s neck, and a radioactive dinosaur crumbles an Eastern metropolis. The fanged villain is an actor in face paint and dentures. And the dinosaur? A sweaty man in a rubber suit. Smoke and mirrors to be sure, but to the audience, these tableaus look like the real thing. A home, says Jason Koren, owner of Hollywood Home and Garden, isn’t much different. Building one, like those monsters, usually involves the interplay between reality and illusion. “When you see a property for the first time, it’s like watching a film,” he says. “I don’t want to see the whole thing right away. I want it to be a surprise.” Sometimes achieving that surprise means breaking down a few walls, and occasionally, it means creating new ones. But the real magic, according to Koren, exists in the space between a property’s interior and exterior. With his best friend and business partner, artist Sam Mongiello, Koren seeks to consolidate that space. Their designs—“inside/outside,” as they call them—play with architectural convention, bringing the landscape seamlessly into the home’s interior and letting the décor spill into the garden. Their work is distinctly Californian, a western aesthetic born in a climate largely without seasons. “When we met,” Koren says of Mongiello, “we hit it off. He was like the older brother I never had. Our friendship really solidified while working on projects on a property in Mount Crest. And like me, Sam is very hands on. We’re both on the properties all the time.” While partnered with Garden and Library, Koren and Mongiello recently built a home from the ground up on Crescent Heights Boulevard in West Hollywood, the two thoroughly exercised their brand of creativity. They designed the entire second floor as a master suite with an atrium at its center. “The atrium connects to the bathroom,” says Koren, “so when you sit in the bathtub, you can open the doors and it’s like being outside. It makes the bathroom feel like it’s that much larger.” Downstairs, the back wall of the house—a series of interlocking glass panels—slides completely open, connecting the backyard and the great room. And in the backyard, an outdoor living room, furnished with a table, several chairs and a minimalist painting, rests under the shade of a re-purposed carport.

Additional hedges guide visitors into what Koren calls the property’s “secret garden.” Smooth Italian pavers frame the cast iron fountain inside the garden. And outside is the home’s outdoor living room—a fire pit at its center. “When you first approach the home, all you see is the long foyer to take you to the front door,” Koren says. “But as you take two steps forward, you look to your right, and you see this secret garden. And then, if you take a few steps beyond that, you get to the outdoor living room. By adding the hedges, it doesn’t immediately give away the whole shebang.”

Illusions perhaps, but Koren is no stranger to a little artistic sleight of hand. “I worked for a film development company for six or seven years,” says Koren. “Then, about a year before I left, I started producing horror films. And shooting film is all about cheating. It’s all about getting something from nothing. It’s about looking at a space and expanding on that to create something larger and more dramatic. And you can use those same principles in building and design.”

On paper, the additional hedges might seem to confine the home, but it isn’t a property’s square footage that leaves the lasting impression. That, reminds Koren, is best left to illusion. “It gives you the perspective and the feel of something that is, in truth, maybe not there,” he says. “But reality and feeling are two different things. If you feel a particular way in a space, then that becomes the new reality.”

Towering jacarandas, some at least fifty feet tall, hover above the hedges on another one of their recent properties on Vista Grande Street. The trees, explains Koren, endow the home with a natural grandiosity, an attribute the two decided to cultivate on the property. Spear lighting, installed along the base of the hedges, now casts a spotlight on those jacarandas. “The spear lighting shoots up into the air on those trees, so when you see them, your eye wants to go up. It gives you an expansive feeling and makes the area seem much bigger than it actually is.”

WILLIAM ARTHUR

A Headof Style Haircuts Trending Among West Hollywood Men BY TIM CHAN PHOTOGRAPHS BY NATE JENSEN

JACK SWEENEY

ou go to the gym four times a week, make your protein smoothies and lay off the bread. You use the good stuff on your face and treat yourself to an occasional mani-pedi. So when it comes to looking good, men in West Hollywood haven’t exactly been slouching. But while you’ve taken good care of your body and skin, it’s also time to address that mop up top. Yes, we’re talking about your hairstyle. And that “man bun” you’ve been sporting after scrolling through Instagram? That’s the first thing that’s got to go. In the past, a guy’s style was primarily defined by what he wore. You were more likely to be judged on your shoes— square-toed shoes are a permanent “no”—than whether or not you combed your hair. But more and more guys these days are using haircuts to show off their personal style and to prove their sartorial worth. It only makes sense. After all, few “hellos” begin by looking at someone’s feet. “We live in a city that embraces style,” says Alon Shalom, who owns an eponymous high-end salon on Melrose Avenue and works with some of L.A.’s top male models. “Guys here aren’t afraid to be current or modern, and they definitely aren’t afraid of change.” These days, more and more of Shalom’s clients are looking to guys like Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy for “hair-spiration.” “They’ve got a cool, Prohibition-era look going on,” Shalom explains. “It’s very 1930s-inspired; long on the top and short at the sides.” Even celebs like Brad Pitt and David Beckham are adopting the look, which Shalom says can be achieved by getting a fresh buzz at the sides and then slicking your hair back on top. “It’s meant to look a little unfinished and a little rugged,” he says. “You don’t want to look like you just stepped out of a salon.” Daniel Martinez is a West Hollywood-based hair stylist who’s worked for Vidal Sassoon, Warren-Tricomi and John Frieda. He says the influence of sports and street culture, which dictates many of the fashion trends we see today, has now permeated the hair industry as well. “A lot of athletes and guys like Kanye West are showing off a street barbering approach,” Martinez says. “Sides are clean, fades are tight; it’s Brooklyn and high fashion at the same time.”

FASHION EDITOR BRUNO LIMA HAIR BY TIMOTHY DURANT FOR KEVIN MURPHY ASSISTED BY GERSON VINDEL MAKEUP BY JESSICA YU VINTAGE MENSWEAR COURTESY JEFF ON FAIRFAX

STEFAN PINTO

TAYLOR MCALISTER

COLTON COATE

42 STYLIST DANIEL MARTIENZ AND WILLIAM ARTHUR

JORDAN WISELY

HUNTLEY WOODS

GREGORY MATTHEWS

“A lot of athletes and guys like Kanye West are showing off a street barbering approach. Sides are clean, fades are tight; it’s Brooklyn and high fashion at the same time.” —Daniel Martinez, M Squared Studio

43 SYLVESTRE HUERTA

RONNIE GAMINO

DRE

ROLANDO AQUI

“This is not your traditional ‘50s barbershop cut. It’s about doing something avant-garde...” –Dre, Kraft Salon 44

IAN ALEXANDER

Taking the look one step further is Dre, a self-professed “hairsmith” who has pioneered the art of “hair modification,” in which barbers shave geometric shapes and tattoo-inspired designs into someone’s hair. The process involves etching the design in with clippers before tightening up the lines with a razor. “This is not your traditional ‘50s barbershop cut,” says Dre, who worked at a tattoo parlor before setting up his Dre Hair Shop at Kraft Salon on Sunset at Salon Republic. “It’s about doing something avant-garde and really pushing the perception of what hair can be about.” “Hair modification” works best for men with an even head shape, and perhaps a less conservative occupation (think DJs, club kids and Coachella-types). The key, Dre says, is to know your angles, and contour the design to the shape of the head. “Just because a tattoo looks good on your arm doesn’t mean the design will flow on your head,” he says.

For those who aren’t quite ready to jump into the trends head first, rest assured that a good classic cut is always in style. “The Mad Men-inspired look is no longer just for a suit and tie,” says Victor Morales, master barber at the Baxter Finley Barber & Shop on La Cienega near Rosewood. “It also works for a lot of younger, hipper guys.” To achieve the look, Morales suggests asking for a traditional side part, but with a shorter fade at the side. Let your hair build into a textured, natural wave or bend at the top. “It adds some edge so the cut doesn’t look so conservative,” he says. “You can suit it up but also wear it to the beach.” In a neighborhood of entertainers, high-worth moguls and entrepreneurs, men in West Hollywood aren’t averse to taking a few risks. Case in point: those customized G-Wagens you see rolling through WeHo and the increasing number of guys sporting bleached out hair.

DENNY CONNOLLY

“Coloring your hair has been something men have done to avoid the reality that we all get old, but in more recent times, men have embraced color to express themselves in a fun way,” says Paul Norton, a Joico celebrity hairstylist and spokesperson at Sally Hershberger Salon on La Cienega near Waring. “It started by men lightening their hair to get that ‘surfer’ look, but it has escalated to embrace more funky colors that demand attention and really make a statement.” Erick Orellana is an L.A.-based colorist at Studio 6 at Salon Republic. He suggests starting with subtle highlights (or what he refers to as “guy lights”). “It’s a play on what nature already does, which is lighten your hair up a little in the sun,” he says. “This can be achieved by doing balayage highlights on the hair to achieve that sun-kissed look.” If you’re looking for something a little bolder, Orellana says to make sure the hair color works with your features. “Icy blonde or grey hair looks great on guys with darker features, as it gives them a more striking, edgy look,” he says.

“On naturally blonde guys, it tends to give them an androgynous appearance.” Orellana suggests trying colors like pinks, purples, lavenders and blues. With the right styling, the dye job will look “lived in” and relaxed (see Justin Bieber), as opposed to coming off too severe (sorry, Jared Leto). Then, there’s the opposite end of the spectrum, with men who just want to let their hair down. “It used to be the surfer look, but now it’s the downtown, Echo Park look,” says Martinez, who doesn’t mind the “lumbersexual” trend. “You want it to look effortless but you need to take care of it too.” One simple rule to follow: shampoo and conditioner. “Use something specifically designed for your long hair,” Martinez advises. “It’s not about borrowing your girlfriend’s or roommate’s stuff anymore.” Adds Morales: “Don’t wash your hair every day. You want to let the oils get in there a bit.”

MATTY MORBID

JOEY GRACEFFA

“The most important thing is to commit to the look with a 100% confidence and go deaf to any naysayers.” –Paul Norton, Joico stylist

JACOB ROBINSON

48 FRANK MENTIER

SEBASTIAN JAMES

TED VELASQUEZ

GABRIEL LEUNG

GUS BERUSA

JHONNES MATTOS

As for the man bun? “As quickly as it came, it went,” Morales says. The idea, it seems, is to find that happy medium between taking it too far and taking a little off the top. You rotate your workouts every few months, why not switch up your hairstyle as well? Just make sure you come out of the salon looking like yourself—or at least an updated version of yourself. “The L.A. guy is very on point,” says Shalom, who recommends changing up one’s hairstyle at least once a year. “They care about their appearance but don’t want to do it in an obvious way. It’s okay to play with your hair so it’s not always so polished,” he adds. “I call it the ‘accidentally handsome’ look. #IWokeUpLikeThis.” “The most important thing is to commit to the look with a 100% confidence and go deaf to any naysayers,” adds Norton, “because if you doubt your own look, most certainly others will too.”

49 JORDAN LUCAS

Madam Mayor LINDSEY HORVATH: ‘A PARADOX WRAPPED IN AN ENIGMA IN A VERY ATTRACTIVE PACKAGE’ BY KYVELI DIENER PHOTOGRAPHS BY IAN MORRISON FASHION EDITOR BRUNO LIMA HAIR BY PAUL NORTON FOR JOICO / COLOR BY MARCO PELUSI MAKEUP BY DYLAN MEEK / LOCATION EMSER TILE

As safe and warm as Horvath’s upbringing was, she faced challenges. Her earliest memory of gender bias dates back to kindergarten in Ohio, where she was one of three children selected for their good grades to attend a computer science fair. The mother of one of the two boys picked for the event contacted the school and suggested that having a girl join the group undermined her son and asked that Horvath be left behind. The request was denied, and the school supported Horvath, who, even at the age of five, could sense there was something “weird” about the contention.

he is a petite blonde who sings in her church choir every Sunday and has a chipper “hello” for everyone she sees on the streets of West Hollywood, whether she knows them or not. She maintains contact during conversations with her bright gray-blue eyes opened wide. She loves leading Sunday walks through different sections of West Hollywood, calling out historic buildings or other sites to the residents who accompany her. And she’s only three years older than the city she serves as mayor.

Later she was bullied because she was so good at her schoolwork that she would throw off the curve for the class. She ultimately transitioned to a fast-track school in seventh grade when teachers noticed her teaching herself algebra in the hallway. As her sophomore year approached, she faced having to leave small-town Ohio to relocate to Las Vegas, where her father had been hired by a company that designs and sells electrical products. It was in Las Vegas where she took lessons to hone her smoothas-silk singing voice, a strong yet elegant soprano evocative of classic musical darling Julie Andrews that echoes through the ornate Church of the Blessed Sacrament on Sunset Boulevard at Mass every Sunday evening.

Lindsey P. Horvath was sworn into the position of mayor of West Hollywood in April, shortly after she won election to the City Council in March. Already, her enthusiasm, independence and community outreach, not to mention her intelligence, have surprised some local residents who had judged her to be too young for the Council or too in thrall to more experienced Council members. But the Lindsey Horvath that people now are seeing is no surprise to those who have known her for years. “She’s a spark plug,” said producer/ director Charlie Ebersol, one of Horvath’s closest friends since their college days. “The thing that amazes me about her is that every stereotype you could try to apply to a short blonde who can sing, everything you think she must be, she’s the opposite of. She is a paradox wrapped in an enigma in a very attractive package.”

After high school, Horvath entered the University of Notre Dame with the intention of eventually going to law school to “be Gloria Allred and protect women by being an attorney that fought for their rights.” Ironically, Allred was the one who swore in Horvath when she took her City Council seat. “Now I’m friends with Gloria Allred and it’s a little surreal,” Horvath said. It was at Notre Dame that Horvath first raised her sword in the battle for women’s rights, an issue that remains important to her. In her sophomore year she became involved in an on-campus production of The Vagina Monologues, the noted work of political theatre by Eve Ensler. That almost got her expelled from the prestigious but conservative Catholic university but also garnered her two important friendships.

“They’re very lucky to have her,” said Dean Hansell, co-founder of GLAAD, former Los Angeles Police Commissioner and chair of a working group on police oversight for Los Angeles County, who has worked with Horvath often. “She’s committed, but she also has a lot of gravitas that extends well beyond the borders of West Hollywood. She is well respected among political leaders and other stakeholders in the state, so she’s a great asset to West Hollywood. It’s one thing to be an elected official, it’s another thing to be an elected official a lot of people respect.”

“It was a very precarious situation because the university did not want the production to happen,” Horvath recalled. “They refused to identify us as a student group, so the only way we could have access to be able to reserve the theater space and have the funding to do it was for academic departments to come together as a collective. No one department would do it by themselves, so I had to go to different departments and say, ‘If this department does it, will you do it?’”

No doubt Horvath’s small-town-girl appeal is a result of growing up in Wickliffe, Ohio, a city of 12,600, about a third of the population of West Hollywood. “I think growing up in a small town helped me appreciate what a smaller city can bring,” Horvath said. Horvath remains close to her own family—parents Bill and Kathi and younger brother Michael, 28, who practices law in Las Vegas and says he calls his big sister if he needs advice on life or girls.

The Theater, Gender Studies, Political Science and English departments, among others, backed the production as an academic program. The student organizers quickly set out to create buzz around campus, but one promotional display, which Horvath proclaims as “brilliant” although she had no part in it, nearly got her kicked out of school.

She also remains close to the church of her childhood. The mayor is a proud Irish Catholic — that “P” in her name stands for Patrice, the patron saint of Ireland. She’s been quoted as saying she “got the best parts” of her faith, meaning that her devout upbringing instilled in her a sense of duty to help those less fortunate without biases toward life choices that aren’t supported by official Catholicism. Horvath’s philosophy is servant leadership—the idea that one’s primary focus should be the well being of her communities, putting herself in service to others.

Several young female organizers of the show had taken red caution-tape style banners emblazoned “RAPE FREE ZONE” and wrapped it around their bodies in a bold and beautiful act of protest. “I was told they had bathing suits on underneath, but it certainly didn’t look that way!” Horvath recalled with a laugh, sitting in her City Hall office with an inches-thick agenda for that evening’s City Council meeting. “They ran through the student center and dining halls declaring their bodies a rape-free zone, which is absolutely fantastic as an action, but I certainly got an earful about it!”

“We’re a world that’s starving for love and compassion, and if we engage with each other as humans first rather than whatever your roles are in relationship to one another, I think that’s really what’s going to transform communities and culture,” Horvath said.

Horvath said making apologies to offended department heads taught her how to “navigate bureaucracy” and reminded her that “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” The show went on, and during Horvath’s senior year the production became the best-attended non-athletic event on campus. Through The Vagina Monologues, Lindsey unwittingly impressed the young Charlie Ebersol, who attended the production with mutual friends. “The first time I ever met her, she was coming out on stage in a black dress and gigantic, fire-engine red boa with a very short beautiful blonde haircut, and she owned this incredible monologue,” Ebersol recalled. “I remember thinking, ‘Who the hell is this person and how have we not known each other the entire time here?’ There are fewer things I like as much as an iconoclast in a stubborn institution. That moment is burned into my memory and will be for rest of life.”

Horvath said. “I struggle with the movement today because very often I see people using social spaces, especially social media, to sort of take down something they don’t see as ‘feminist enough’, whatever that means.” “Everybody needs to feel comfortable in their expression of their identity and what it is they believe and what their values are, but I’m also hoping that the women’s movement can find things to organize and rally around and come together rather than taking down people who try to express a sentiment that is intended to move women forward.” It didn’t take long after graduating from Notre Dame for Horvath to decide to move to Los Angeles. It was 2004, and she had been home in Las Vegas about a month after graduation when she asked her father to drive her to the City of Angels to find an apartment and look for a job. Her plan was to burnish her vocal talents studying musical theater before attending law school at UCLA. But Horvath was practical. As they drove into Los Angeles, her father recalls she asked him to stop at a few restaurants so she could apply for a job during their apartment hunt. Horvath was soon employed and moved into her first apartment on Wilcox Avenue near Hollywood Boulevard. That year she entered the entertainment marketing industry with a company called Creative Domain. Her boss let her buy a ticket to the Women in Entertainment Awards, where Horvath met the executive director of the National Organization for Women. NOW’s director encouraged Horvath, then 22 years old, to establish the NOW Hollywood branch, which she served as president. When then-Mayor of West Hollywood Abbe Land agreed to be a narrator in a Vagina Monologues production for V-Day, Horvath knew she was meant to live in West Hollywood.

Another important connection Horvath made was Susan C. Swan, executive director of V-Day, a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls. It was through Swan that Horvath became the Los Angeles global coordinator for One Billion Rising, a program in which events are held simultaneously in over 200 countries in February to raise awareness about violence against women and girls and unite communities to end it. “From the first time I spoke with her, it was clear not only that she is a true activist, but that she is committed to ending violence against women and girls using her strong voice and working with the community,” Swan said. “You saw that she had not only passion, but also the creativity that made her activist work a true success.” In one sense, Horvath was born into the women’s rights movement. Her birthday, June 30, 1982, was the day the Equal Rights Amendment fell three states short of ratification. As activist Torie Osborn puts it: “This woman is God’s revenge on anyone who wants to repress equal rights.” Horvath is most inspired by the feminists who preceded her, those of the ‘60s, ‘70s and early ‘80s who introduced radical ideas like womenonly communities and islands of lesbians—ideas that exposed people to different perspectives on the world. “I wish I could have been a part of that sense of community that existed,”

“

In addition to heading the Hollywood NOW branch and serving on the Glendale board of the YWCA, Horvath logged in 18-hour days in advertising, transitioning from Creative Domain to Crew Creative to a company called BPG, where, at the age of 25, she served as vice president. She then transitioned to Canyon Design Group, where she started a theatrical division. By 2010, her career led her to a creative advertising agency based in Venice called Cold Open. During her last few years at Cold Open, Horvath, a senior account executive, was assigned an account coordinator named Rachel Hodges, a 21-year-old fresh out of USC with zero graphic design or advertising experience. Horvath’s guidance had a major impact on Hodges, empowering her with the knowledge to become an account executive. “She’s brilliant, and she was a pro at her job,” said Hodges, now 25 and still thriving in the industry she learned from Horvath. “She made it look like second nature. I always strive to be just like her. I get excited to tell people she used to be my boss, that she made me who I am today in my career, and she’s my mentor and my friend.” Horvath’s hard work in advertising and women’s rights paid off, in action as well as in personal connections. Those connections included relationships with the five members of the 2009 West Hollywood City Council. In April 2009, Councilmember Sal Guarriello, 90, died two years into his four-year term. Less than a month later, the remaining Council members—Abbe Land, John Duran, John Heilman and Jeffrey Prang—unanimously voted to fill Guarriello’s seat with the 26-year-old activist.

This woman is God’s revenge on anyone who wants to repress equal rights. – Torie Osborn

” 52

A press release from the city announcing the appointment illustrated the breadth of Horvath’s local involvements at the time of her appointment: “She is the current President of the National Organization for Women, Hollywood Chapter; President of the National Women’s Political Caucus, NWPC-LA Westside; Chair of the City of West Hollywood’s Women’s Advisory Board; Board Member of the West Hollywood Democratic Club; Board Member of the Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project; a member of Planned Parenthood; a member of Human Rights Watch; a member of Amnesty International, and a member of the Human Rights Campaign. She has also been involved on the Steering Committee for the West Hollywood Women’s Leadership Conference and the West Hollywood Plan B Access Committee, as well as the Producer of V-Day & Until the Violence Stops Festival, a Co-Founder of OBJECT: It’s How You Say It and a community partner for the Equality for All Campaign.” But despite those achievements, the fact that the Council appointed Horvath rather than holding a special election upset many people. Horvath, a firm supporter of efforts to increase voter turnout, understands why the public was frustrated about not being offered an opportunity for input on her appointment. But she chose to take the opportunity for public service, even though many said she lacked experience in politics and in West Hollywood, where she had been living for only 18 months. Horvath’s abbreviated first term on council—from 2009 to 2011—was highlighted by a number of successes. She continued an effort she’d started before her Council appointment to secure funding to test DNA

on a severe backlog of over 5,000 untested rape kits. For that project, she worked with a coalition of organizations and people including the Los Angeles Sheriff ’s Department and L.A. City Councilmembers Eric Garcetti and Wendy Gruel to get funding for DNA testing included in the Los Angeles City Budget. She created the West Hollywood Community Response Team to Domestic Violence, a multi-agency effort to thwart domestic violence that included a team of experts on same-sex and transgender couples, teens, seniors and Russian-speaking residents. She worked with Abbe Land to promote bicycle use for transportation in West Hollywood through the Bicycle Task Force, and she initiated a recycling program for compact fluorescent light bulbs. Horvath also began a long-standing collaboration and friendship with Barbara Meltzer, a West Hollywood resident since 1977, who serves on the city’s Human Services Commission as well as being the L.A. County Commissioner for Older Adults. Ensuring that senior citizens have a voice in the community and making aging-in-place possible are among Horvath’s top priorities, motivated by her relationships with her grandparents and an understanding of the elderly that Meltzer attributes to Horvath’s having “an old soul.” “Lindsey is amazing in that she can handle the problems that are happening right now, but also look forward to the future,” Meltzer said of Horvath’s involvement in supporting aging-in-place efforts for older residents in West Hollywood, where a quarter of the city’s residents are aged 55 and older. “It’s a gift, not everybody can do that. Nothing seems to rattle her, she just takes care of business.”

the impending loss of the House of Blues on Sunset (waving goodbye to the chance of her dream concert of Colbie Caillat, Corinne Bailey Rae and Ingrid Michaelson at her favorite live music venue). She looks forward to cocktails at her favorite haunts like Pearl’s and Bar Lubitsch and nights of dancing like nobody’s watching (she hopes) at The Abbey.

Despite her achievements on the Council, Horvath lost her 2011 election bid. She continued to be plagued by mistrust from some residents who still considered her inexperienced and saw her as an extension of the same long-tenured Council members who appointed her. She lost the election to challenger John D’Amico, who today serves alongside Horvath on the Council.

Horvath has also surrounded herself with mementos of her life as an activist, which fill her apartment on Sweetzer Avenue just north of Melrose. Her bookshelf is adorned with medals from groups like the Russian Veterans, the Honorable Order of the Kentucky Colonels and the Veteran Feminists of America. There are framed photos of veterans she’s helped, her old pastor and her nearly two-year-old godson, and countless strips of quick photo booth snaps. Two of the larger items on display are a star machine that recreates constellations on the ceiling to self-proclaimed “star geek” Horvath’s delight, and a bullhorn her NOW comrades decorated with a hefty amount of glitter, its sparkly green background supporting a pink cursive “L.”

After losing the 2011 Council election, Horvath continued her steady stream of civic and social activism that unfurled alongside successful work with Cold Open and NationBuilder, an online community organizing platform that ultimately led her to launch her own independent entertainment marketing company, LPH, in 2014. Horvath also stayed active in civic affairs, serving on the L.A. Unified School District Redistricting Commission, advocating for senior citizens on the board of Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE), and serving for four years as a city transportation commissioner, a role in which she worked to advance the West Hollywood Bicycle Task Force and reduce traffic and parking problems. She also was active in at least a dozen other organizations, including Women Against Gun Violence, the Stonewall Democratic Club and Running Start.

In a move straight out of the Leslie Knope of Parks & Recreation handbook, Horvath has photos of the politicians she admires clearly visible around her apartment. There’s a photo of Horvath with Nancy Pelosi, next to a propped-up Christmas card Horvath received from Senator Dianne Feinstein along with a copy of the pivotal CIA Torture Report. Horvath’s preferred 2016 Presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, is featured several times—a framed photo of Horvath with Clinton, entry passes to Clinton’s speaking engagements that Horvath attended and a signed copy of Clinton’s book Hard Choices. When Clinton signed that book, Horvath told her that they’d met before and that she was a former member of the West Hollywood City Council. “You know, you better run again!” Horvath told Clinton, who had not yet announced her candidacy in the 2016 race for president. The former Secretary of State smiled and yelled back, “You better do the same!”

“I think it’s a great testament to her that politics has its ups and downs, and when she was first on Council and it didn’t all go her way, she didn’t go away,” said L.A. City Controller Ron Galperin. “She stayed as active as ever before, she stayed as committed as ever before to the issues that she cared about, and people saw that and respected that.” During her time off the Council, Horvath took the time to get a true local’s knowledge of West Hollywood. She now recommends the cauliflower steak at Cavatina at the Sunset Marquis, praises Le Pain Quotidien on Melrose for serving “a perfect coffee,” and she’s reached a point where she simply couldn’t live without the cherry vereniki at Voda Spa. She laments

LINDSEY WITH HER FATHER BILL HORVATH

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y job is to make sure I am the best public servant M I can be for the next four years... this opportunity is not forever...

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COVER & PAGE 50: DRESS BY KAREN MILLEN @BLOOMINGDALE’S BEVERLY CENTER / COAT BY ST. JOHN / RING BY SUPREME JEWELRY/ EARRINGS BY SWAROVSKI PAGE 53 & 56: DRESS BY KAREN MILLEN @BLOOMINGDALE’S BEVERLY CENTER / SKIRT BY STELLO PAGE 54: DRESS BY REISS

As the West Hollywood City Council prepared for its most radical transition in a decade, with four of five seats open in the March 2015 general election and the June special election, Horvath decided she would do just that. Her mother, Kathi, flew to West Hollywood to campaign alongside her daughter, visiting constituents door-to-door. Horvath’s apartment became the hub of her campaign, with long tables filling her normally airy living room and volunteers seated at any available spot where they could work to drum up support for their candidate. Her campaign manager was Horvath’s friend and fellow young Democrat Estevan Montemayor, whom she had met through the Stonewall Democrats. “I got to see Lindsey’s commitment to community and the people of this city,” Montemayor said. “I too am a resident of West Hollywood, and Lindsey’s love for these people is undeniable.” On March 3, the votes started rolling in. Incumbent John D’Amico retained his seat on the Council. Horvath took the third seat, coming in less than five votes below fellow challenger Lauren Meister and edging out John Heilman, who had been on the Council for thirty years. On April 20, with incumbent John Duran passing on the rotating appointment as mayor, Horvath was sworn into that position by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

RESHAPE YOUR BODY, RESHAPE YOUR LIFE.

As exhilarated as Horvath is about opportunities for civic change before her, she’s also aware that her seat on the council for more than one term is far from guaranteed. When a staff member asked Horvath how she planned to use her twelve years on the Council now that members are limited to three terms of four years each, she replied: “I’ll be lucky if I have anything past four.” “I don’t say that for any other reason than: I’ve lost. I know what it means to have this opportunity and then have it taken away from you,” Horvath said. “My job is to make sure I am the best public servant I can be for the next four years. I’m not thinking about four years and four years and four years. I am aware that this opportunity is not forever, and so I absolutely do not take it for granted and I want to make the best of it.” On July 29, Horvath celebrated her first 100 days as the Mayor of West Hollywood. She had already taken three major actions on her first day as mayor: she created the 21st Century Leaders Task Force to advise the Mayor’s office on issues affecting West Hollywood’s young people. She put her goal of comprehensive ethics reform into action with the creation of an Ethics Task Force. And she formally commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. She also led a successful effort for elimination of a controversial City Council deputy system that had been in place for thirty years and that many thought couldn’t be removed, despite its scandals. But without a doubt the biggest day of Horvath’s first 100 was June 26, the day “marriage equality became the law of the land,” a phrase Horvath can’t say enough. She seemed to overflow with joy when she said it even a month later. Horvath stood in front of a sea of revelers in West Hollywood Park that day and declared June 26 to be Equality Day. The scene gave her mother Kathi pause as she saw her daughter, four days shy of her 33rd birthday, captivate a park full of people with her voice and a message of love and equality. It’s a day Horvath, her family, and every resident of West Hollywood will not soon, if ever, forget. “When people say ‘Where were you [on June 26, 2015]?’ I can say I was the mayor of West Hollywood that day,” Horvath said, making a clear effort to not get choked up at the thought. “There are not words for the magnitude of that opportunity.”

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HIRO CLARK

L.A. DARK & PARIS CHIC Inspired by L.A.’s dark side and the effortless style of Parisian men, two local menswear designers prove you don’t need a shop on Melrose (or elsewhere) to build a brotherhood of fans.

BY CHRISTOPHER BLOMQUIST PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN ARSENAULT

Before Andy Salzer relocated to Los Angeles a little over four years ago, he was a fixture in New York’s fashion and creative world well known for creating the cult (and now defunct) menswear collection called Yoko Devereaux. When the current West Hollywood resident decided to re-enter fashion with a new line last year, he vowed to streamline. “Simple is the key word here. I like to keep it very simple, very clean and very straightforward. That’s the key to my brand story,” he said of the result, a men’s T-shirt line called Hiro Clark, which offers limited edition batches of 12 tees per style. The shirts, all in highquality cotton, are $78 for plain and $128 for those with graphic prints. Up until recently, they were sold exclusively on hiroclark.com. Salzer is now testing limited distribution to boutiques. Batch #5 was released in early August and continues to explore the L.A.-centric themes that he finds fascinating. However, these topics are far from stereotypical sunshine, starlets and surfing. Instead, his images and words—always in black and white— often touch upon the city’s darker side. “I like to look at L.A.’s grittier layers and underbelly. That’s the part that I’m obsessed with,” Salzer

Andy Salzer/HIRO CLARK

explained. “I enjoy the process of looking and scratching the surface and finding all those more real layers.” The current batch’s graphics include a smog print and El Coyote restaurant, where Sharon Tate ate her last dinner before being murdered by the Mansons. The designer is also fixated on the fact that so many transplants to L.A. are in the process of reforming or completely transforming themselves. “People come here to kind of ditch their past, ditch their names and ditch what ever it is that is bothering them and just entirely reinvent themselves,” Salzer said. “The search for self is something that is really fascinating about L.A. L.A. and Hollywood of course go hand in hand, and that reality is very glossy, shiny, manufactured and pretty and a lot of things I don’t really care for, to be totally honest. The struggle that people go through to become this other person once they get here is the part that fascinates me. But no one ever plays with that because it’s ugly, it’s dark, it’s painful, it’s real.” L.A.’s universal casual dress code was, and continues to be, another inspiration. “Being able to live in a city where you can wear a T-shirt every single day became an obsession for me and that’s why I am focused on T-shirts and don’t want to do anything else,” Salzer said.

RAF SWIADER IN HIS STUDIO

With three seasonal collections under his belt, Swiader continues to create gorgeous, cutting-edge Parisian-inspired fashion that ranges from baggy, short-length suit pants to numerous tunic-like tops and long aprons (which are definitely not meant to be worn for cooking). The clothes, which Swiader says are “about ease and effortless chic,” are sold at his online shop and exclusively at A’marre’s in Newport Beach for about $200 for tees and $500 to $1,500 for jackets. Swiader said that the collection, which is entirely produced in L.A., has a broad appeal. “The guy wearing R. Swiader is an independent and creative type who could easily live anywhere in the world. You can be in West Hollywood, Paris or Tokyo and you will fit in,” he said. “The R. Swiader guy is not afraid to be an individual or a leader. He feels good and secure about his own self and doesn’t follow trends. I have seen my clothes on many creative people, conservative types and even women. Boy George has worn several of the pieces, as have some Hollywood managers who typically wear a suit and tie. I love that about R. Swiader—anyone can get into it.”

“In 2014 I decided I wanted to start a womens wear line,” said West Hollywood-based Rafal Swiader about the birth of his namesake clothing collection. “I got married during the time I was working on the women’s line, and we went to Paris for a few weeks on our honeymoon. While sitting at a café, my husband and I were talking about how the men’s style in Paris felt so fresh compared to anything we had been seeing back in the States. We were so inspired, we decided I should do a mens wear line instead.”

Raf Swiader/R.SWIADER

The designer also adores his neighborhood, where he has lived since 2009. “I love to be able to walk or ride my Vespa around West Hollywood—it’s so easy, and it makes me feel part of my community. I love my Sunday adventures to the Melrose Place farmer’s market where my husband and I get fresh food for the week and the most beautiful roses. I also like that, living in West Hollywood, it is easy to be spontaneous, to do fun stuff— we visit galleries together, eat on the patio at Gracias Madre or Cecconi’s or drink wine at Zinque.” “I think my lifestyle here has a big influence on the way I design the collection and each individual piece. R. Swiader is a very peaceful collection and Los Angeles is a very easy place to live.”

LA MAISON FRANCAISE ANTIQUES

GOLDEN STATES Yakira Rona and Jason Hoehn share a love of precious metals and gems, and are both often inspired by wildlife. Yet their jewelry collections couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be more diverse. Meet the local yin and yang of jewelry design.

BY CHRISTOPHER BLOMQUIST PHOTOGRAPHS BY NAOMI YAMADA

“One of these days I’m going to go super crazy and bejewel something and make it super expensive. But I’m not gonna do that just yet,” Rona said, laughing. Although travel and architecture influence her work, Rona says nature is her biggest inspiration. “Number one is nature for sure. Because living in L.A., there is a lot of that. It is just everywhere,” she said. “Literally, I will go out into my backyard and pick up a leaf and think: ‘Wow, this leaf is kind of amazing.’ I can either be inspired by the shape of it, or I can be inspired by the actual leaf and make an actual leaf.” Her key pieces inspired by the outdoors include a bird pendant necklace, a starfish necklace with diamonds and a 14-karat “flock” ring of yellow and white gold birds.

A former New Yorker, jewelry designer Yakira Rona has been producing her eponymous line of metal jewelry from her West Hollywood studio for five years. She began making beaded necklaces at her house in Woodstock, N.Y., but once she moved west and learned how to solder and cast, silver and gold became her media of choice, along with gems such as small diamonds. Rona’s collection of women’s rings, earrings, necklaces, bracelets and cuffs are sold on her website, yakirarona.com, and at Roseark on North Crescent Heights, where pieces retail for $600 to $11,000.

Yakira Rona

Does living and working in West Hollywood inform her line? “Absolutely!,” Rona said. “In West Hollywood, you see it all. It’s like the mecca. Everyone pays attention to everything. People even pay attention to the gym clothes that they wear. And people pay attention to their hairstyle. It’s just so aesthetics-oriented, but in a good way. So living in West Hollywood, there’s a Zen hiking, nature-sort-of-thing that makes you concentrate on things that make you design. In West Hollywood and L.A. there are a lot of design things that are going on right now. I just feel it. There is a lot of creativity going on. And also friends come over and we talk about things. There is this energy that just makes you want to create.”

Launched in early 2014, unisex jewelry line Huckleberry Ltd. offers a wide range of pieces from a rose gold boar head ring with precious gem inlays for eyes ($11,250) to a gold-dipped solid bronze paperweight that says FUCK ($420), and the pièce de résistance, a wolf cuff/sculpture that is 4.24 pounds of gold, rubies, emeralds and diamonds and is $750,000. Jason Hoehn, a 12-year resident of West Hollywood, co-founded the line with Charles Lew in early 2014. He said he decided to design fine jewelry 15 years ago because he wanted “jewelry that was important and personal.” Hoehn says the collection’s name “has a personal meaning and also historically refers to the early 19th century usage—a person; specifically, the exact kind of person needed for a particular purpose.” Huckleberry Ltd.’s jewelry is sold online, directly to private clients and at boutiques such as Roseark in West Hollywood and Nick Foquet in Venice, with Hoehn planning to add more accounts worldwide soon. “We introduce new pieces fairly often,” he said. “Sometimes it will be a reiteration of a piece, and others something completely new. We also do one-offs in small runs and never make them again. I believe the smaller numbers make the pieces more special.”

Hoehn said his clients appreciate the bold, brash designs. The collection’s bestsellers are the large horseshoe ring (the first piece he ever created 15 years ago) and the black oxidized silver wolf ring with black diamond eyes and all of the pins, which can function as hat, lapel and tie add-ons. “We are a young brand so we are continuing to round out our line,” Hoehn said. “There’s a lot of room for growth and progress.” Next up, Huckleberry Ltd. will work with photographer and creative director Amanda Demme on a series of portraits of friends and notables wearing the best work from the collection. What does Hoehn love (and what, if anything, does he hate) about living in West Hollywood? “We have the best all-around food,” Hoehn said. “The worst is our militant parking enforcement. These streets aren’t cheap.”

Jason Hoehn /HUCKLEBERRY LTD.

Back to Work FALL FASHION BRINGS STYLE TO THE OFFICE

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The Getaway: Santa Barbara’s Santa Ynez Valley Wine, Cowboys and Ostrich Eggs, Only Two Hours Away

INDUSTRIAL EATS, BUELLTON

ou leave L.A. after breakfast, and hope for smooth traffic. The 120-mile drive north to the Santa Ynez Valley should take about two hours, depending on notorious pockets of traffic in West L.A., Ventura County and even Santa Barbara.

But as you head north on Highway 154, the two-lane artery quickly reveals sweeping views of mountain canyons and wide-open sky. You soon realize you’re a world away. The Valley, as locals call it, is a colorful palette of towns, historic and small, teeming with personality. A weekend here could look something like this:

BY GABE SAGLIE PHOTOGRAPHS BY CASSANDRA PLAVOUKOS

DAY 1: MORNING Highway 154, dubbed the Chumash Highway after the Native American tribe that lives here, takes you to the township of Santa Ynez, a former stagecoach stop founded in 1882. Your first stop is the Santa Ynez Airport, off Highway 246, where you’ve reserved a glider. Santa Barbara Soaring offers various packages, but the Mountain Adventure ($304 for two) takes you soaring to 3,600 feet. About twenty minutes of utterly silent flight powered by thermal lift, the glide offers a bird’s-eye views of vineyards, the Reagan Ranch and the Pacific Ocean. Manned by a certified pilot, it offers the lay of the land that’ll be your playground for the next two days. After you touch down, you cross the highway and park along Sagunto Street. With a cup of locally-roasted coffee from Valley Grind, check out the custom home furnishings at Dennee’s of Santa Ynez, the Native American art at Old Adobe Traders and the cowboy-inspired clothes at Outpost Trading Company. At the quaint Fontes & Phillips tasting room, you find a few bottles of winemaker Alan Phillips’ sparkling ChamPanky for later. It’s time to think picnic for lunch, so select a few artisan cheeses and meats from the family-owned Santa Ynez Valley Cheese Company, and some fresh-made Pain au Levain from The Baker’s Table before you get back in the car.

The Fess Parker Wine Country Inn. Photo by Elizabeth Witt

DAY 1: AFTERNOON A leisurely 15-minute drive past horse ranches lands you on Foxen Canyon Road, where hills blanketed in grapevines roll on as far as the eye can see. You bring your picnic to the newly redesigned Andrew Murray Vineyards visitors’ center. Here, the multi-terraced grassy grounds, the shade from ancient oaks and furniture made of wood from an old barn that once stood nearby offer plenty of spots to unwind. When you’re ready to sip the award-winning syrah here, you enter the tasting room, a modern space with raw steel and reclaimed wood and custom sconces fitted with LED lights. The adjacent gallery features a wall of bottles, rows of French oak tanks and posh furniture. You play a quick game of life-size Jenga on the patio before you leave. Now it’s time to check in. The Fess Parker Wine Country Inn is a boutique hotel in the heart of Los Olivos, a stone’s throw from the town’s landmark flagpole. Refurbished in 2012 in French country style, this resort is cozy and elegant. The lobby has recycled wine barrel wood floors. The spacious rooms feature fireplaces and home-inspired touches, like hypoallergenic comforters, white wooden shutters and peanut brittle, the late Mr. Parker’s favorite sweet treat, at turndown. The heated pool is a relaxing space. As you stroll Grand Avenue and Alamo Pintado, the intersecting roads that define this tiny town, you enter J. Woeste, where a bevy of garden art and home accessories are for sale. At the Los Olivos General Store, shop for gourmet foods, handbags and books, as well as myriad home décor ideas. If more wine beckons, tastings at Tessa Marie and Epiphany come complimentary for guests of the Inn.

DAY 1: EVENING After unwinding in your room, you walk to dinner at Mattei’s Tavern, a former stagecoach stop from 1886. When they restored it in 2013, chef Robbie Wilson and his wife, Emily, carefully preserved historic details of this two-story gabled building while infusing contemporary style. Guests weave through several quaint dining rooms, each with its own ambiance and décor. The state-of-the-art exhibition kitchen, complete with custom-built Viking ranges and oak-burning grill, is impressive. Choose from a menu that features prime beef, pork, fish, chicken and seasonal greens; the side of Brussels sprouts served with smoked cherries, almonds and labne is a must. After a signature nightcap, “Hadley’s Bench” featuring 10 Cane Rum and smoked grapefruit, you saunter back to your hotel.

DAY 2: MORNING You sleep in. And since breakfast is included, you head downstairs to Petros for a hearty start to your day. The fare here is Greek inspired, like the Gyro Scramble, the three-egg Horiatiki omelet and the oatmeal with berries, almonds and Greek honey. You check out after breakfast; you’ll be staying in nearby Solvang tonight. But, for now, you drive straight west, toward the ocean. The Wine Ghetto, in the heart of Lompoc, gets buzz for the worldclass wines made here and for the small wineries that double as tasting rooms. The feel is decidedly industrial; these spaces are all about functionality. But the drive here, along Highway 246, is beautiful, cutting through many of the renowned vineyards of the Santa Rita Hills. You get here by 11 a.m., when most tasting rooms open and when there’s elbow room at the bar. At Pali Wine Company, named for the founders’ L.A. hometown of Pacific Palisades, you sip pinot noir and chardonnay by winemaker Aaron Walker amongst the barrels; this space was made from 100 percent recycled materials, like barn wood and corrugated metal. At Flying Goat Cellars, you sample more pinot but quickly find your way to the Bubbly Bar, where winemaker Norm Yost’s five sparklers are rotated regularly. The tasting rooms of Longoria and Loring also get high marks. Your appetite is back, so you drive north through sweeping backcountry to the one-exit town of Los Alamos, about 25 minutes away. It’s old-world and dusty here, but this is where the Valley’s most exciting culinary revolution is found. You pull into Bob’s Well Bread, which serves both its breakfast and lunch menus straight through 3 p.m. This epicurean haven— an old gas station transformed into a sleek modern space while keeping its vintage vibe—was opened in 2014 by Robert Oswaks, former president of worldwide marketing for Sony Pictures. The man who helped launch shows like Seinfeld and Breaking Bad, decided to switch careers by training to bake and now draws crowds with handcrafted bread. You might have a hard time choosing between the Avocado Toast with Poached Local Egg, the Gravlax served on a wooden cutting board or any of the other specialty sandwiches that rotate weekly. Either way, you nab a canelé—a caramelized custard cake—and a flaky, buttery Kouign-Amann for the road.

DAY 2: AFTERNOON You walk along quiet Highway 135 for a while, and stop to scope out the historic 1880 Union Hotel and the Wine Saloon next door, the exclusive retailer of actor Kurt Russell’s GoGi label (the 2011 Angelbaby chardonnay is named for his sister, Jami, who’s usually pouring). At Babi’s Beer Emporium, you stock up on a few small-batch international craft brews, and you peruse the art and antiques at the Depot Mall and the Gentleman Farmer. By mid-afternoon, you’re headed back south. It’s true that Solvang has a slightly kitschy reputation; in this town founded by Danes in 1911, windmills and ebelskivers still reign supreme. But Solvang is undergoing a modern-day renaissance of sorts, and the new Landsby is proof. This polished and airy hotel opened in April and is a nod to modern-day Scandinavian design. The lobby is bathed in natural light and decked out in Danish country furniture. Most of the 41 rooms feature wood floors, minimalist décor and comfy touches, like slender writing desks, white wooden shutters, illustrations by Rachel Brown and lavender sachets on the beds. You unwind in your room and head outside to explore, but not before a visit to the cozy lobby bar, where the daily Happy Hour runs from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. You order a cocktail made with homemade shrubs and fermented syrups concocted with seasonal local fruits; the Black Knot blends apricot shrub and bourbon. You explore this storybook town on foot and visit the new Copenhagen House, a retailer of high-end Danish home accessories. The traditional exterior of a former 1919 bank building contrasts with the contemporary interior design (the furnishing and flooring here are inspired by the Copenhagen Airport). You visit the two free museums on site before heading back to get ready for dinner.

The Landsby. Photo by David Tsay

DAY 2: EVENING You head back to Santa Ynez Township, 5 minutes down the road. You’ve made reservations at S.Y. Kitchen, which offers a California farmhouse feel and wine country-inspired Italian cuisine that’s tough to beat anywhere in the Valley. You opt for one of the rustic wooden tables in the newly opened courtyard under the soft tree lights. Before you order, you inquire about the seasonal specials by Chef Luca Crestanelli, but appetizers like the 24-month aged Prosciutto di Parma, entrees like the Oak Grilled Natural Angus New York Steak, or any of the wood-fired pizzas, are sure bets. The 29-year-old sommelier, Emily Johnston, has built an impressive list of Italian and Santa Barbara wines to complement the menu. You’re in the mood for a late night, so you walk off dinner by ambling to the famous Maverick Saloon. You’ll mingle with ranchers and cowboys at this classic Old West establishment, and you might catch local celebs like Jeff Bridges and John Corbett taking the music stage. At minimum, you learn the basics of line dancing before you call it a night.

Photo by David Tsay

DAY 3: MORNING No rush, you sleep in again. When youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re ready, The Landsby offers a complimentary sit-down continental breakfast in the slick Mad & Vin dining room. For a few bucks, you upgrade to a heartier meal. To enjoy more of the Valley landscape, you rent bikes nearby and pedal east on Highway 246. Soon after you pass the lovely 211-yearold Mission Santa InĂŠs, you hang a left on the bike lane down Alamo Pintado Road. You drift past apple orchards, vineyards and miniature horse farms. Each is worth a stop, but you keep moving toward the tiny township of Ballard. The country homes here, as well as the Ballard Inn & Restaurant and the Little Red Schoolhouse, in continuous use since 1882, are beautiful features of this bucolic valley.

DAY 3: AFTERNOON You bike back by checkout time, hop in the car and head west. Home beckons, but you have enough time to pay OstrichLand USA a visit, where you feed emus and buy an ostrich egg (the equivalent of 24 chicken eggs!) as a souvenir. For one final meal, you drive another few minutes into Buellton, where Chef Jeff Olsson’s Industrial Eats is a foodie favorite. The ingredient to success here is a commitment to quality local food, with most of it sourced within just miles of the kitchen. The salads are creative, like the one with cucumber, melon, sheep’s feta and mint, and the pizzas are hearty, like the one topped with skirt steak, chopped tomatillo and queso fresco. Next time, you think to yourself, you’ll sign up for one of Chef Olsson’s hog butchery workshops. Southbound Highway 101 is just down the street, and soon, the journey back home begins. For more information on the Santa Ynez Valley, visit visitsyv.com.

TALKS DESIGN

CAFFEINATED DESIGN The Style of Local Coffee Shops is as Stimulating as the Brew They’re likely deep into crafting a screenplay. And the stylish people who spend their mornings at Zinque on Melrose across from the Pacific Design Center? While they’re dining, drinking and socializing at lunch or in the evenings, during the morning and mid-afternoon they are crafting ad or PR campaigns or placing online orders for their interior design clients.

An outlaw walks into an old saloon. Poker faces break at the faro tables, and the piano man, doing his best Ennio Morricone, hits the wrong key. “Whisky?” asks the barkeep. “No,” answers the gunslinger, “gimme your best espresso shot.” This is the new West, not the old. Today, coffee, at least in West Hollywood, is as likely to be the beverage of choice than booze, especially for the selfemployed. Do you think those people hunched over their laptops at the big Starbucks on Santa Monica Boulevard at Westmount are posting on Facebook?

West Hollywood’s coffee world continues to branch out, with many of the new shops seemingly as focused on a certain style or vibe they are on offering up a distinctive brew. Here’s a quick tour:

1. THE ASSEMBLY

3. COFFEE COMMISSARY

Starting west on Robertson, just north of Melrose, our first stop, The Assembly, features a clean, modern design. A light blue cuts into the pale blonde panels behind the bar, and its bold dual-colored walls offset the woodwork. Its menu, just a couple of items, complements the sparse aesthetic. In the back of the café, a bench and two simple tables continue the minimalist style.

Further east, near Melrose and Fairfax, Coffee Commissary, with its handwelded outdoor seating, blends into the façade of the 801 North building. Inside, the space blooms into a chic farmhouse café. Low hanging lights and exposed piping float overhead, and the wood-top counter rests on a bolted sheet metal frame. Behind the bar, track lighting draws out the shelved décor: a globe, an old Diehl fan, and a vintage adding machine.

Its open, laid back vibe makes The Assembly ideal for clearheaded creativity. Outside, a small wire partition separates the café from its neighbors, and a collection of wood plank benches and potted ferns make up the patio. Their coffee, a sweet, delicate brew, comes in at just the right temperature.

Its complex, somewhat fruity coffee delivers a bold, full-bodied finish. Scrawled on a chalkboard, their menu features around twenty items, including specials and tea. A surplus of seating, both inside and outside, makes this an ideal spot for a hangout. And their mixtape, a medley of country, pop and R&B, keeps things social.

2. ALFRED IN THE ALLEY

4. COFFEE COFFEE

Traveling east on Melrose, we come to our second coffeehouse, Alfred In The Alley. “But first, coffee,” reads this local hot spot’s neon slogan. This location, unlike its two-story counterpart on Melrose Place, delivers simplicity and seclusion. Red brick lies behind the entryway’s black-andwhite awning, and inside, its logo, the buck-antlered “A,” pops against the white tile.

Our final stop, Coffee Coffee, near Fairfax and Santa Monica Boulevard, features thirteen menu items. Framed on the marbled oak walls, kinky psychedelic prints with nude ladies and wavy haired bikers offset Judas Priest and Motorhead. “49% son of a bitch, 51% motherf----r,” says a sticker below their accepted payment options.

Light hip hop sets the tone, and the gold countertop fades into checkered split flooring. Wafting in from the alley, a cool breeze keeps the chill atmosphere from dissipating. Coming in at just over a dozen options, its menu, inlaid on a mirror, displays a fresh black font. Soft green tables line the corridor outside the café. The seating, although minimal inside, sprawls the exterior. A balanced, light-bodied brew, Alfred’s coffee, like its setting, eases its way into being.

About the size of a taco stand, this hole in the wall, located next to the Filth Mart, showcases its edge unapologetically. A rock anthem swings into a hard pounding drum solo as the barista, alone behind the counter, pours the coffee. Strong, robust tones shape the brew’s flavor profile. Just a single table, the outdoor seating, like their interior, skips the fluff. At this place, it truly is, as the name suggests, all about the coffee.

BY JASON GIBBY PHOTOGRAPHS BY MAGÜIS SOSA / MELROSE PLACE DIARIES

VIRTUALLY Does Jonny Drubel have tens of thousands of social media followers because of his talent as a singer and songwriter? His role on the E! Network’s Rich Kids of Beverly Hills? Or because he describes himself as “the youngest daddy in West Hollywood,” a city with a gay culture where “daddy” doesn’t mean the father of a child? We’re guessing the answer is: all of the above. By the way, while Drubel gives his age as 26, various websites say he’s 35. But then again, E! identifies him as a resident of Beverly Hills, although he lives in West Hollywood. Drubel’s father, Richard Drubel, is a partner in the prominent law firm of Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP. He grew up in New Hampshire and started singing at the age of 10. An encounter with vocal coach Seth Riggs took him to L.A., where Drubel found he had a talent for writing music. He was living in New York City for a time when one of his friends invited him to join Rich Kids of Beverly Hills. She had been discovered on the Tumblr site Rich Kids of Instagram, which poked fun at rich kids posting pictures of fancy cars, Birkin bags and flights on daddy’s private jet. In an interview with Yahoo New Zealand, Drubel says he’s put his music career on hold to focus on reality TV. But he hasn’t dropped his work with the #ComingOutMatters social media campaign, which provides support to young people coming to terms with their sexual orientation. And his website, www.jonnydrubel.com, offers dating advice for gay men and tips for using apps like Tinder and Grindr. This self-identified (sugar) daddy has been known to hang out at The Abbey. Other ways to follow him are on Instagram (@jonnydrubel), where he has 171,000 followers; Twitter (@JonnyDrubel), where he has 34,500 followers, or Facebook (facebook.com/JonnyDrubel), where he has 13,000 “likes.”

Jonny Drubel

The Singer, the Cyclist and the Stylist: Meet Three of West Hollywood’s Digitally Famous 94

FAMOUS

Nichelle Hines

Johnny Wujek

If you don’t believe that Nichelle Hines kicks butt, clearly you haven’t seen E!’s Hollywood Cycle. Hines, a West Hollywood resident, has appeared in films such as Ocean’s Twelve (2004), Look (2007) and Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (2015), and in episodes of TV shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, The King of Queens and Scandal. But what really stimulates her is spinning those stationary cycle wheels at Cycle House on Melrose Avenue, where she is “Chief Ride Officer.” While born and raised in San Francisco, Hines has a bit of a New York City attitude, or maybe that’s something she cultivates to create the tension that makes Hollywood Cycle interesting. I mean, who would really chew out her bosses on TV?

Oh, those Midwest boys, moving to Los Angeles for a life of fame! Johnny Wujek found his, leaving his hometown of St. Clair Shores, Michigan, known for its marinas and one of the country’s longestrunning beauty pageants, for L.A. and a career as a model. Once here, he quickly transitioned into working as a stylist after assisting one for free on the movie Wonderland.

Her sweaty students are used to hearing her yell “you have no idea what you’re capable of ” as they churn their way to fitness. Having lost 60 pounds herself, Hines can be an inspiration. Her good looks are probably one reason why she has more than 31,000 Instagram followers (@spingalnichelle) and more than 3,000 people listen to her 140-character inspirations on Twitter (@spingalnichelle). On Facebook, friends know her as Nichelle Marie (facebook.com/ nichellehines).

But what really made his career take off was running into Katy Perry at a party 15 years ago when she walked up and asked whether he was playing on her team or that of her attractive gay companion. Despite the fact that Wujek confessed to Perry that he wasn’t batting for her team, the two bonded, and his career took off. In addition to Perry, the West Hollywood resident’s client list includes names like Nicki Minaj and Shakira. And now he’s branched out, working as creative director on Pascal Mouawad’s Glamhouse line of affordable fashion accessories, and launching SOS (Stylist On Set), a web series featuring Wujek performing miraculous style makeovers. Now Wujek has 91,500 Twitter followers (@JohnnyWujek), 49,000 Facebook “likes” (facebook.com/StylistJohnnyWujek) and 175,000 followers on Instagram (@jwujek). Wujek clearly isn’t in Kansas, uh, Michigan, anymore.

JORDAN

AKILAH

AMANDA

HAROLD

CAMIE

@jordanlucas957 “ Mix of rock’n’roll” and skateboarding culture”

@akilahgreen “ A mix of CA color with DC power lobbyist”

@mandy-tugz “ Outgoing, edgy with a Korean flare”

@haroldhadnott “ Relaxed, comfortable, effortless and functional”

“ Black and tight!”

LOOK BOOK

DANNY

NAOMI

SABINA

BROOKE

SEAN

@dann_4 “Urban mixed with casual”

@naomifly “Fancy, casual, swag”

@sabinaabcnews “Casual, relaxed and easygoing”

@brookeventre “ Bohemian with a little edge”

@seanmandell “ Minimal, modern, easy with a bit of edge”

Styles Described in Ten Words or Less | Lemonade (corner of Beverly Boulevard & Almont) 96

PAIGE

VICTOR

ERIKA

ZACK

CHELSEA

@paigewandling “Comfortable tomboy”

@ahnimal_fries “ Modern professional”

“Casually European”

@zacktanck “Elevated beach bum”

@saverandthetapes “ Comfortable, but with contemporary fresh look”

WEST HOLLYWOOD

MATTHEW

KAREN

LINDSAY

MICHAEL

LAUREN

@matt_isner “ New England prep with a hipster edge”

@karenmcbags “Parisian, effortless chic”

@lindsayraaee “ Boho chic with a simple aesthetic”

@mrpeppergramm “ Casual, comfortable, stylish”

@wadergirl “ Bohemian, sporty and a little rock’n’roll”

Photographs by Naomi Yamada 97

BEDTIME STORIES Molly Joseph & Ryan Fontana

Molly Joseph and Ryan Fontana met in the personal development community Joseph founded in Los Angeles and started dating. Both were DJ’s looking to change the world. One morning, feeling decidedly “unstoked” about their DJ gigs, they decided to rent their apartments, sell their turntables and backpack through Hawaii, Thailand, Cambodia, Bali and Japan. They shared their journey via social media— discussing romance, adventure and breaking free of social constraints to follow one’s heart. Both are fans of non-fiction at the moment, with Joseph reading Just Kids by Patti Smith, the story of Smith’s life with Robert Mapplethorpe when they were artists in New York City in the Sixties. “It’s been super inspiring for me to read about their tenacity in terms of accomplishing their dreams and moving people with their art, as I am on a similar mission to create an impact (with a different medium of course),” Joseph said. Fontana is reading A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson. “Williamson compared romantic love to a rosebush—she likened the stem and the roots to the friendship and respect you have for your partner, and the blossoms to the passionate, romantic elements of the relationship,” Joseph said. “She says that though blossoms are seasonal and come and

go, it is our roots and foundation that really keep us grounded in our love.” Joseph reads mostly in bed. “I think reading is a beautiful way to transition out of your day,” she said. “It calms me down and gives me a place to focus my attention.” Fontana likes reading in a car or on a plane. “We use books to transform ordinary experiences into extraordinary experiences. Traffic is no longer a problem if you have a great book.” Lately both read on Joseph’s iPad. “I read on my iPad because I am always reading at least three books at once,” Joseph said. For Fontana “nothing compares to the feeling of holding a book and flipping through the pages. The smell, the feel, and the time away from electronics makes carrying a book around worth it to me.” Their favorite books? For Joseph its John Irving’s The Cider House Rules. “He really struck a chord in my heart. I remember crying just over how beautiful the language was,” she said. One of Fontana’s favorites is You Are a Badass by Jenn Sincero. “She does a really great job of reminding you of your true power and potential without being too newagey or self-helpy.”

“I think reading is a beautiful way to transition out of your day.” PHOTOGRAPH BY NATE JENSEN INSTAGRAM MOLLY @MOLLYJOSEPHLA, RYAN @FONTEEZIE

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