Bita Rad

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.