Plus RH says hello to Palo Alto and Wrensilva hits play on its listening lounge
Words by CATHERINE BIGELOW, KERSTIN CZARRA, DAVID NASH, JESSICA RITZ
French Twist
Simon Porte Jacquemus — founder and designer of his eponymous French Fashion house, a favorite of fashion editors and influencers — is bringing his love of retro shapes and cheerful hues to reinvigorate a beloved 1960s Italian design collection. Gae Aulenti’s Locus Solus outdoor furniture pieces, produced by Exteta of Milan, are known for their masterful mix of performance and luxury. The JACQUEMUS EXTETA re-edition, available exclusively at Mass Beverly, is a stylish mash-up of la dolce vita and ’80s color and whimsy. The seven-piece line dresses up Aulenti’s original stainless steel, off-white, tubular, minimal pieces in fresh colors like beige with contrasting brown hand-stitching and a cheeky, vibrant yellow stripe. “I have always dreamed of developing a furniture line,” says Porte Jacquemus. “I have collected Gae Aulenti vintage chairs for many years, ever since I saw them in the movie La Piscine by Jacques Deray. I wanted to add a Jacquemus touch.” 9000 Beverly Blvd., West Hollywood, 310-271-2172; massbeverly.com. K.C.
 |
Sound Investment
San Diego company WRENSILVA crafts record consoles with design details synonymous with fine furniture while maintaining exceptional sound quality for true audiophiles. Their build-to-order pieces are handcrafted in Southern California, and they have a newly opened showroom and listening studio in West Hollywood’s Design District. Imagined by Studio Collective, this lounge-style listening space is designed to fully immerse visitors, thanks to cork-tile panels, vintage rock photography on the walls, and sumptuous furniture. The real stars are the modern hi-fi consoles, which are outfitted with custom-built speakers, a split-plinth belt-driven turntable, and audio components to ensure expansive, authentic sound. 8625 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood; wrensilva.com. K.C.
|
A Sleek Design Showroom With a Heart of Stone
The career trajectory for FORM (LA) founder Jordan Mosslar was written in stone. His fascination and appreciation for natural stone that began in childhood eventually led to designing and customizing furniture and objects from the earthly matter that are both ultra-contemporary and a nod to antiquity. Having conceived the design atelier in 2021, the Australian expat has just unveiled his first fully shoppable flagship showcasing current designs alongside newly launched collections of seating, fireplaces, vanities, and bathroom fixtures. The 5,500-sq.-ft. emporium is enveloped in rich tones of brown and cream that serve as an appropriate backdrop to Mosslar’s sumptuous furnishings and allow each individual form to make its own statement. Further outfitted with plaster lighting from Studio Tristan Kallas, custom artwork by Ali Enache, and decor from Aussie brand Tsu Lange Yor, the space is the epitome of a new Stone Age. 835 N. La Brea Ave., L.A.; form-losangeles.com. D.N.
|
Well Established
Since establishing Big Daddy’s Antiques more than three decades ago in Los Angeles, Shane Brown has demonstrated a flair for finding unique objects. Now THE WELL in Montecito follows the opening of its predecessor in Summerland in an extension of Brown’s highly eclectic sensibility. Although the inventory echoes the offerings a few miles down the coast, this fresh context alters the feel. Wares include choice vintage selections from European buying trips, new furniture collections, bespoke limestone fountains, Italian olive jars, and custom firepits. (His business includes staging and full-service design work too.) At the indoor-outdoor boutique, “I’m all about the experience,” Brown says. 1505 E. Valley Rd., Montecito, 805-888-8603; @thewellsummerland. J.R.
|
Textile Me
The striking home goods from AUTUMN SONATA are inspired by printmaking traditions worldwide, but the initial spark is rooted in Southern California. “Growing up here is the essence of my designs,” says founder and designer Lilli Elias. “My first gateway was vintage and antique clothing, which I fell in love with and which continues to inspire me.” After working as an archival intern at the Row, she earned a masters of archival studies in Amsterdam, where she built an envious textile collection — from a geometric print inspired by Japanese weaving to a floral paisley that echoes an ancient Persian teardrop motif. These designs came to life in Italian linen tablecloths, napkins, and placemats released this year. She launched a line of organic cotton reversible bath towels with an equally worldly pedigree in 2022. Now splitting her time between L.A. and Europe, Elias creates designs that feel like uncovered heirlooms. Nickey Kehoe, 7266 Beverly Blvd., West Hollywood; autumnsonata.co. K.C.
|
Inside Outside
There are few better qualified to design — and then write about — traditional California homes than one of the state’s most respected contemporary architects, Erik Evens. His first monograph, SHAPING THE WORLD AS A HOME: THE HOUSES AND GARDENS OF ERIK EVENS (Rizzoli, $60), is a blueprint for his success. The Los Angeles native and principal of an eponymous studio within the L.A.-based KAA Design Group is renowned for his attention to detail and his breadth of project styles. Including a ranch house surrounded by oak trees in Montecito, a Spanish Colonial Revival estate in Malibu with ocean views, and a sprawling classical compound inspired by American rural architecture, the book showcases five incredible projects that flexed Evens’ inimitable talents for imagining — and occasionally reimagining — the way we live. Richly illustrated, and with a foreword by award-wining architect Marc Appleton, the 240-page tome also lays out Evens’ design philosophies — or “values” — as with the section titled Place, where he explains, “Houses should look like they belong where they are,” or Proportion, where he shares, “Everything in a building should be properly related to everything else in the building.” Filled with plenty of inspiration and Evens’ insights, this is one coffee table book you’ll crack the spine on. rizzoliusa.com. D.N.
|
Pattern Play
International luxury furnishings company Sanderson Design Group tapped English fashion designer and ceramicist HENRY HOLLAND to create a curated selection of fabric and wallpaper for HARLEQUIN inspired by his love of nerikomi, the Japanese pottery technique of thoughtfully stacking, folding, and rolling multicolored layers of clay to create graphic patterns. Holland also hand-selected designs from the British brand’s archive. “This collection’s palette can be interpreted in a multitude of ways for people to curate looks that reflect who they are,” he says. The 19 fabrics and nine wallpaper designs — available in many colorways — are a translation of organic forms and old-world techniques indicative of the designer’s earthenware collection. A textured ombré effect for the Southborough wallpaper mirrors tones found in Holland’s clay work, and the crewel embroidery of the Pot Shop textile references his signature ceramic shapes. Meant to be mixed and matched, these statement wallpapers and incredibly textural fabrics “cocoon interiors in an earthly palette” while elevating the essence of design as an art form. harlequin.sandersondesigngroup.com. D.N.
|
Taking Stock
Designer Stephan Jones is busy with a slate of buzzy projects, but he still found time to open a new home decor destination in the heart of West Hollywood. This past summer, Jones debuted a new brick-and-mortar design store adjacent to his design offices and rebranded both as STOCK STUDIO. The curated mix of objects and furnishings includes his enviable array of vintage pieces, including one-of-a-kind finds from Europe, especially midcentury designs often sourced from northern France and Belgium. The clean, minimal space is an ideal backdrop for Irish dining chairs with carved ladderback and turned legs, a Maison Regain Brutalist planked elm sideboard, and stoneware from local artists like Lee Kawasaki. 7317 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, 323-654-5420; stock.studio. K.C.
|
RH Says Hello to Palo Alto
At RH Palo Alto, glass-and-steel French doors open into a soaring atrium illuminated by a third-floor skylight. The fourth Northern California outpost from RH has arrived. RH Palo Alto, the Gallery at Stanford, is a design gallery paired with a glamorous rooftop restaurant. The 60,000-sq.-ft. emporium includes room-size galleries infused with luxe home furnishings and accessory collections. A grand floating double staircase, flanked by dramatic crystal chandeliers, ascends to the second floor, where additional galleries and the RH Interior Design Studio are located. The third floor is crowned by the Rooftop Park, featuring RH Outdoor lounge terraces punctuated with 100-year-old heritage olive trees and lush views of the Kings Mountain range. Next to that green space is the glass-domed RH Restaurant, accented by a burbling Biancone limestone fountain, where shoppers or diners will savor curated Napa Valley sips and delicacies such as mini lobster rolls topped with generous dollops of caviar from the brand new RH menu. 180 El Camino Real, Palo Alto; rh.com. C.B.
Portions of this story originally appeared in the Fall Men’s Edition and Fashionable Living 2024 issues of C Magazine.
Discover more DESIGN news.
