Plus Saint Laurent doubles as a photography gallery while Louis Vuitton pops up on Rodeo Drive
Words by ELIZABETH VARNELL
Louis Vuitton’s latest odyssey
It’s a rare day when a shipping container makes its way through the streets of Beverly Hills, but that’s exactly what happened when Virgil Abloh’s spring collection for Louis Vuitton arrived for a new Temporary Residency on Rodeo Drive. The house’s menswear artistic director, inspired by his Ghanaian father’s work unloading similar crates at Accra docks, arranged to have the collection travel in the bright red cubes (first to Shanghai, then Tokyo, then Miami and now to L.A.) before opening them inside the pop-up to display racks of clothes, shoes, bags and accessories. The collection, rife with the red, yellow and green hues of Ghana’s flag, includes upcycled overstock, reworked looks from past seasons and also hypnotic suits in a new Checknosis pattern, not to mention an array of playfully knitted stuffed animals attached to suit coats and bags. The Residency runs through the end of the month, and the space’s façade includes QR codes that activate SnapChat filters with animated characters from Abloh’s virtual concept, The Adventures of Zoooom with Friends. 486 N. Rodeo Dr., Beverly Hills
Anthony Vaccarello curates a print show at Saint Laurent Rive Droite
Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello selected images by storied street culture and music photographer Derek Ridgers as the latest addition to the house’s Rive Droite space in Los Angeles. The work of the British lensman who chronicled the London club scene over multiple decades beginning in the 1980s, has appeared in such treasured publications as NME and Loaded as well as national newspapers. In addition to the photographs, Rive Droite—the shop and cultural hub created as a nod to the democratizing Rive Gauche line launched in the 1960s—is carrying a Ridgers fanzine and ready-to-wear pieces emblazoned with Ridgers images alongside its eclectic assortment of music, books, exclusive pieces and limited editions. 469 Rodeo Dr., Beverly Hills, 310-271-4110
Fendi menswear branches out
With its walls and ceilings papered over in a leafy green print, Costa Mesa’s new 603-square-foot Fendi men’s boutique has the lush look of an outdoor garden and the serene feel of a modern pavilion set amid the greenery. A bright yellow entryway yields to gold-hued metal shelves and racks holding Silvia Venturini Fendi’s stripped-back men’s collection of deconstructed spring looks. The softer aesthetic is a nod to rigorous workmanship under surreal circumstances. Relaxed suits evoke the blue skies Fendi glimpsed through the windows of her Roman house during lockdown, soft embossed knits hang beside pants printed with the shadowy images of tree branches seen through billowing drapes. Jute-covered shelves and green benches hold sling-back boat shoes and T-bar plimsolls—ideal kicks for the season ahead—above a beige rug subtly evoking the house’s striped Pequin motif. 3333 Bristol Street, Costa Mesa, 714-751-1111
Adwoa Aboah hearts John Hardy
Long a collector of delicate heart-shaped tattoos, activist and model Adwoa Aboah took to her sketch pad to pen a new 14-piece jewelry collection for John Hardy inspired by the curvy symbols of love and connection. The reclaimed gold and sterling silver designs that comprise Mad Love include toggle necklaces and bracelets, stud earring triptychs and drop earrings. The Gurls Talk podcast founder’s freehand sketches—that also reference her signature on personal notes—are paired with super-fine links of Hardy’s Classic chains. The chic new collaboration is one more link in Aboah’s ongoing celebration of inclusive, unapologetic love.
Oge Egbuonu and Levi’s dream up the Beauty of Becoming
Original tunes by Phantogram and poetry by Aja Monet accompanies a new film series running through June that pairs storyteller Oge Egbuonu with Levi’s and a cast of change makers and creatives including Naomi Osaka, Dolores Huerta, Carlos Montes, Willow Smith, Tremaine Emory and L.A. designer Melody Ehsani. The short films in the Beauty of Becoming series and still photographs by Social Studies’ Shaniqwa Jarvis, chart these individuals’ reflections on the journeys that shape their remarkable lives. Ong sets her films amid a beautiful floral labyrinth created by Bloom & Plume’s Maurice Harris in tribute to her vision of a future full of possibilities.
Photo by Jaz Miyagi
Ayesha Curry’s Sweet July lands in Oakland’s Uptown neighborhood
In addition to providing over 6.5 million meals to Oakland and Alameda County families in need through Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation—the nonprofit Ayesha Curry started (with her husband Steph of the Golden State Warriors)—the mother of three recently launched the lifestyle magazine Sweet July and now she’s just opened an Oakland boutique by the same name. Doors from her friend Sherri McMullen’s eponymously named shop (known for carrying Lagos-based Maki Oh alongside Khaite and Simone Rocha), the author, chef and entrepreneur’s space carries Black-owned and women-owned brands that don’t yet have dedicated storefronts. Oakland native Candice Cox’s quilted jackets with bold patterns join a curated selection of books, home goods, and a coffee bar with signature syrups meant to evolve into a community space. Curry says she favors Island Love with her brew, a nod to her Jamaican heritage, explaining “the mixture of coconut and ginger has so many great health benefits and coconut is one of my favorite flavors.” The space echoes the neutral tones and minimalist look of the couple’s Atherton residence, also designed by Curry. Both places, she says, are “designed to calm the spirit.”455 23rd Street, Oakland, 510-806-4600
Dior revives an artisanal Argentinian leather technique
A trip to Argentina inspired Maria Grazia Chiuri, creative director of women’s collections at Dior, to design a tooled leather Book Tote derived from the intricate saddle work of gauchos native to the region. After laser-cutting Chiuri’s floral designs, Dior’s artisans use precise tooling techniques first developed by the notoriously freewheeling nomadic horsemen of South America’s grasslands to hand-shape each motif into a three-dimensional bloom or leaf. Coats of brown or black patina bring a sculpted leather field of blossoming stems into sharp relief, and, just like that, Chiuri has deftly modernized the art.
Feb. 17, 2021
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