Bita Rad

Overall, the Alber Elbaz’s Lavin for H&M menswear collection has been highly underrated, but these two looks make me *swoOooN*. And this model reminds me a lot of Ruben Toledo, whose style I so admire. In stores November 20.

From a music producer named Braxton Nations, and a vintage store owner named Turya Nations comes the new LA-friendly clothing line called Guy Baxter. It offers vintage silhouettes with a modern twist on fabrics, and reintroduces the free spirit of the 80’s to the refined ladies of today. Described as the “burgeoning L.A. cult line” by Elle Magazine, this brand was only launched in the Spring of 2007, and is already aiming to open its store doors on January 15th. I’m eager to see how it does..

Check out the Guy Baxter site here.

D&G (not to be confused with Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce’s higher-end label Dolce & Gabbana) opened up the doors of its newest store on Robertson Blvd last night, December 15th.  Intrigued by West Hollywood’s mix of edgy fashion and a relaxed atmosphere, the brand opened the store in efforts to remain at the core of the Westcoast’s fashion scene. The star-studded event showcased the kaleidoscopic boutique which was designed by Dordoni Architetti Studio, a famous interior design studio in Italy.

I am a bit surprised that the company opted not to open the boutique on the ever-sprawling Melrose Ave., but neither did Chanel who now sits side by side to Robertson’s newest addition. However, unlike Chanel’s Robertson Blvd store which only offers a limited  and tightly focused selection, the D&G store offers a full assortment of men’s and women’s apparel, underwear, beachwear, accesories, eyewear, and jewelry. It is, afterall, only the eighth freestanding D&G shop in the U.S.

I was introduced to Romp by a friend of mine.  The flagship store at 7928 West 3rd Street is something to see. Upon entering the iron gates in front of the store, you are thrown into this beautiful shop where fur rugs line the floor and seductive mannequins lay around in sexy raw silk gowns.  Everything down to the scent of the shop has been accounted for, and everything from the clothes to the furniture, luggage, and shoes has been exclusively designed for the brand by the statuesque owner Nina Morgan-Jones.

This organic lifestyle brand offers men’s and women’s super fine lamb suede and leathers, and natural dyed raw silks in rock & roll and biba-esque fashions.  The company also has a “traceability” program, which traces the complete lifecycle of its leather goods, including the names of all those involved in the creation of a garment from start to finish. But the best part about this company? The clothes fit like they were tailored to your body.

Romp will be holding an in-store event on Thursday December 18th from 7:00pm-11:00pm to view its fall collections. See you there.

British designer Matthew Williamson was just announced as the successsor to Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons, as the next talent to partner up with H&M.  Exciting! Matthew Williamson’s bursts of colorful patterns and prints are a great way to juxtapose Comme des Garçons’ dark solid pieces. Williamson used to be the creative director of Pucci, and is a huge fan of Eastern influences ie. Indian batik and embroidery. My favorite collection of his was for Spring 2008 RTW where he merged Indian, African, and Mayan trims flawlessly. . . and a certain special someone was spotted strutting the runway!

click here to see footage from the show.

Thursday November 13th, Comme des Garçons for H&M hit stores. LA Times’ Max Padilla calls it “avant garde for the masses”, and that’s exactly what it is. Why is this collaboration so awesome? Because Rei Kawakubo, design director of the high-end Comme des Garçons collections, is infamously anti-fashion and has made her collections to symbolize just that. If it’s trendy, popular, in high-demand, or up-and-coming, she is not into it. Padilla says, “She’s known for head-scratching runway shows, the kind that make you feel like you’re the only one not in on the joke (women in hunchback pillow dresses and men in skirts), as well as for opening temporary “guerrilla stores” in gritty neighborhoods such as downtown L.A.”

What category of fashion design does Comme des Garçons fall into, you ask? Deconstructed shapes and nontraditional lines and techniques. Stuff that you just don’t understand, and shouldn’t even try. Rei Kawakubo prefers to consider her designs as conceptual art rather than practical pieces. So how would she manage to mesh the impracticality of Comme des Garçons with fast-fashion powerhouse H&M?  Behold:

See the full mens and womens collections here .

See how supermodel and Cali girl Erin Wasson styled herself in the November 2008 issue of Nippon Vogue in pieces from the Comme des Garçons for H&M collection here.

Tommy Perse, co-owner of Maxfield boutique, has moved in next door to his son, well-known knit designer James Perse here in Beverly Hills. Maxfield is undoubtedly one of the most avantgarde, statement-making stores on the West Coast. Now, its “on-sale version”- Maxfield Bleu, has moved to Canon Drive in Beverly Hills! Maxfield Bleu houses designers like Rick Owens, Comme des Garçons, Yohji, Stella McCartney, and Libertine. And while it may be a bit limiting, it conveniently carries some of the most hard to find must-haves you won’t see anywhere else. I am thoroughly excited that my hometown of Beverly Hills is finally making a shift towards more avant garde stores such as this, Taschen Books, and the gorgeous Maison Martin Margiela store now open on Little Santa Monica. Out with the old, in with the new!

Entrance of Maxfield, West Hollywood

Paper Magazine opened up its new department store in the heart of the Sunset Strip with a kick this Friday. The store, designed my architectural designer Johnston Marklee, stayed open for a straight 24-hour shopping experience upon opening weekend, featuring 17 live bands which helped to duplicate the magazine’s oh-so ecclectic tone. The store features a “black market meets high street”  approach with artist vendors anywhere from high-fashion to low-fashion and anywhere in-between, in the true spirit of the magazine itself. Artists and designers include Rodarte, Band of Outsiders, Libertine, Henry Holland, Jeremy Scott, and Slow and Steady Wins The Race,  some of  which are personal favorites of mine, mainly stemming out of L.A. Paper Magazine’s co-founder and editor-in-chief Kim Hastreiter, graduate of CalArts, tapped into Los Angeles’ pop art scene quite successfully with the opening of the Paper store, the fourth arrival of Paper to the Westcoast. Passing by its doors, located across from the Viper Room on Sunset Blvd. at 2 a.m. on Friday night, the crowd was still thriving and the music, still blaring. Stores like this go to show that no matter how terrible the economy might show itself to be, there is still a huge market base in Los Angeles of ever-trend-chasing, fashionista-aspiring kids looking to spend some cash. As it turns out, Hastreiter’s opening of the Paper Magazine department store on Sunset is exactly what Los Angeles needs, an opportunity to show just how well L.A. could compete with - or compliment - the New York fashion scene. I have great confidence that pop-up stores like this will continue to do well regardless the economy. And frankly, I was pretty excited to explore its booths myself.