The designers gathered friends inside the playfully upholstered boutique lined with supersize cat and mouse portraits
Words by ELIZABETH VARNELL
Tory Burch emblazoned German photographer Walter Schels’ animal portraits across portions of her Resort ’24 collection, and supersize images of cats and mice for the Melrose pop-up she created in collaboration with Humberto Leon and opened with an evening cocktail party on Wednesday, January 24. The space will house her designs until her Rodeo Drive flagship’s renovation is complete. Leon (formerly of Opening Ceremony and Kenzo and lately of Los Angeles restaurants including Monarch, Chifa, and Arroz & Fun) joined Burch to create a capsule of T-shirts, sweatshirts, and totes screen-printed with Schels’ images for the shop in addition to designing the feline-friendly space. Leon commissioned Mexican artist Aranza Garcia of Chuch Estudio to create a series of pale pink ceramic seats and vases shaped like giant strawberries for the shop and covered floors, shelves, and displays with the sort of shag carpet cats can sink their claws into.
He and Burch gathered Natasha Lyonne, Awkwafina, Rashida Jones, Dree Hemingway, Aja Naomi King, Beatrice Grannò, Kathryn Newton, Alice Hewkin, Annabelle Wallis, Shirley Kurata, Heidi Bivens, Olivia Perez, Salem Mitchell, Orion Carloto, Maria Vittoria, and Icelandic singer Laufey for the party. Lukita Maxwell brought a kitten along to take in the life-size cat towers holding Burch’s Pierced wedges and a host of shoes and bags alongside racks of the line’s Spring 24 collection, with its Insta-bait Hoop dresses and Goddess frocks. Leon’s mother, Wendy, was also on hand for the celebration. She joined guests later in the evening for dinner at Formosa Cafe, where she oversaw a one-off menu from the family’s Cantonese-Peruvian restaurant Chifa in Eagle Rock.
PHOTO: Marc Patrick/BFA.com.
February 5, 2023
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