the radar | now!
[Trend Vetter]
season. Vintage coats, from fox to rabbit,
are popping up all over town after hours,
whether paired with short cocktail dresses
and sheer white tights at Bardot or mixed
with jeans and boots at The Bazaar at SLS.
“I’ve noticed that people are feeling a little
less paranoid about PETA these days,” says
secondhand doyenne Doris Raymond of
The Way We Wore, who sold a mink poncho
to one of the producers of Revolutionary
Road. “In the vintage world, at least, the
poor animal’s been dead for quite a long
time.” And speaking of guilt-assuagement,
she advises fur lurvers not to hesitate in
cropping even the most prized of heirloom
hides to transform those pelts from stodgy
to stylin’: “If you have your mother’s or your
grandmother’s long jacket, shorten it or turn
it into a wrap.” –Alexis Johnson
The Fast Lane!
This month’s news blips and cheap shots
RADICAL CHIC?
From top: A page,
from Saks Fifth
Avenue’s new catalog,
by Shepard Fairey’s
Studio Number One
design firm; the new
Saks shopping bag;
Fairey at work.
Superstar Echo Park street artist Shepard
Fairey—he of those ubiquitous Obama ‘Hope’
posters—is now engaging in a bit of agit-shop. Saks Fifth Avenue
hired his Echo Park-based design firm, Studio Number One, for its
spring marketing blitz: The “Want It!” campaign, which features
shopping bags, window displays and print advertising done up in
Soviet-era Constructivist style (an unusual, albeit tongue-in-cheek,
statement from a renowned luxury name). “For me, it’s no different
than showing my work at an expensive art gallery,” says Fairey. Saks
VP Terron E. Schaefer is similarly unconflicted about heading offmessage in the selling department: “What we do is propaganda.”
> > > Ever since tool tycoon Eric Smidt purchased epic Bev Hills
spread The Knoll from Barbara Davis for $39.75 million in late
November 2005, every big-ticket interiors artist in town has been
angling to land the coveted redecoration gig. Turns out, though, that
New Yorker David Kleinberg, a noted Francophile with a taste for
Jean Prouvé and André Arbus pieces, has been given the go-ahead
to make over the 25,000-square-foot, 13-bedroom, 12-bath manse.
Designed in 1955 by architect Roland E. Coate in grand Georgian
style, it was previously owned by, respectively, Dino De Laurentiis
and Kenny Rogers. > > > Better be lying down for this one: House
of Dreamzzz (houseofdreamzzz.com), an upstart SaMo mattress line
developed by geophysics-trained numerologist Christopher Power
and his partner, Jeff Kalatsky, has released a new custom model.
Starting at $10,000, it claims to harness the revitalizing power of
custom-designed crystal patterns. “Crystals amplify and rebroadcast
whatever energy you put into them,” says Power, whose confidence in
the mattress’ appeal was bolstered by a showing in the gifting suites at
Sundance in January (neo-pagan actress Fairuza Balk was charmed).
“With us, you’re getting a bed that’s saying, ‘We accept you for who
you are, you don’t have to perform for us. You’re safe here.’” Err, sweet
dreams. –Richard Martin, Laura Meyers and Kersten Wehde
40 | Angeleno | March 2009
FUR, SPURRED: Ashley Olsen with her coat; a
Hollywood clubber bundled up this past winter.
[Burning Question]
Hey Landscape Designers,
What’s Growing on You Lately?
“My most recent plant love is Aloinopsis [a
succulent]. I like four different types in a
divided square planter with a pumice rock
mulch. Looks great on my galvanized steel
tabletop outside.” Melinda Taylor, MTA
“Cordyline ‘Festival Grass’. The red leaves
arch gracefully to the ground. It’s a stronger
color choice than the ubiquitous bronzecolored [New Zealand] flax, so you’ve got to
be careful with where and how you use it.”
GREEN SCENESTERS From top:
Joel Lichtenwalter and his pick,
Cordyline ‘Festival Grass’; Mark Rios
and Cotoneaster dammeri.
Joel Lichtenwalter, GROW OUTDOOR DESIGN
“I recently moved to Topanga with my
architect husband and small children.
Our garden will use native plants like
Arctostaphylos glauca [Bigberry Manzanita]
whose small, white bells—‘fairy houses’ to
my kids—are some of the first flowers of
early spring.” Sasha Tarnopolsky, DRY DESIGN
“I’m currently intrigued with Cotoneaster
dammeri—a very low-growing Cotoneaster.
A couple of varieties are available which
have greener or greyer leaves, but they all
have vivid red berries this time of year.”
Mark Rios, RIOS CLEMENTI HALE –A.J.
shepard fairey photo by Jared Ryder; saks fifth avenue photos courtesy of saks; ashley olsen photo by patrick mcmullan; hollywood clubber photo courtesy of mark “the cobrasnake” hunter;
cotoneaster dammeri photo courtesy of monrovia nursery; rios photo courtesy of rios; lichtenwalter photo courtesy of lichtenwalter; cordyline photo courtesy of anthony tesselaar plants
PELT DOWN! PYTs are feeling furry this