Ok, so Fashion's Night Out was a great pretense to initiate a thought-provoking installation in our window, mark the launch of six new collections and see old friends who drove all the way from the eastside to the westside.
Revelers were certainly spending money in L.A. Vogue left coast head ed Lisa Love popped by with Balenciaga's Katherine Ross and shared that she'd just been telling her NYC counterparts that while the hordes there might be out in the streets and stores in party mode, Angelenos were carousing and shopping.
And we weren't the only ones on the lane inspired to do something more than just throw open our doors in the name of fashion. While Cast of Vices plies its madcap ideas in the form of jewelry cast as pharmaceuticals and disposable plastic bags cut from luxe lambskin, co-designer Chris Glancy came up with the installation in our window that questioned art and commerce and the very idea of FNO.
Mona Moore used the evening for its own support of artists with the opening of “Ideal Woman,” a provocative installation by L.A.-based feminist artist allie pohl. And, up the street, the avant-garde fashion salon Guild opened its exhibition of sublime mixed media imagery by the Czech-born artist Kamil Vojnar.
Still, I couldn't quite shake the feeling that, shopping or not, the party was over. In three turbo years, FNO has become a company unto itself, with an array of branded disposable product and hype tie-ins. By its very existence, it was always a commercial enterprise. Now it feels institutionalized. And that feels forced.
We enjoyed the evening, for sure, and our band of shops on Abbot Kinney who commemorated FNO seemed to enjoy the experience. We all stayed open late—until 10—yet it was a much more manageable, civilized affair than, say, the pandemonium of First Fridays with the gourmet food trucks or even the upcoming street festival which is more about the crafties setting up their tables of home-spun wares for the day than it is for the brick-and-mortar stores who make it work year-round.
It certainly attracted a better dressed crowd.
Will we return for a fourth FNO? Probably. I always enjoy a good revival.
Vincent Ehly, lynchpin of the chicest footwear and bag shop Mona Moore, tells us how he feels about FNO
Mona Moore's Sara Van der Mijnsbrugge (far left) and husband Rembrant with his fellow-staffer at Obsolete, Max Zinser, the lovely Sonny Ruscha Bjornson and another friend.
Feminist artist annie pohl's neon installation at Mona Moore
Andy Griffith and, yours truly, Rose Apodaca inside warm and fuzzy A+R
Jewelry designer and craftsman Jay LeCompte of Cast of Vices
A+R manager extraordinaire Gina Gardner
Jewelry designer Gabriela Artigas showcased her new "Raven" collection of brass pieces
We also showcased a new bag collection from Frankfurt, Airbag Craftworks. Most are unisex bags roomy enough for a laptop or LPs (the designers are deejays).
A+R is the first outside Paris and Stockholm to have the revolutionary Mutewatch. We already had a waiting list thanks to viral reviews on the Stockholm-designed timepiece.
Design afficianado Raymond Lee
Cast of Vices' Chris Glancy and his lady love Tiffany Horn
Cast of Vices "ID Access" bracelets in lambskin and gold-plated brass
The Classics: Cast of Vices Rx pendants and cigarette carefully cast in sterling, 14k and porcelain
Vicodine pill rings from Cast of Vices on my first-aid bandage display
Unflagging A+R champ Natasha Kaplan and husband Todd Maurer
Across the way in front of LFrank, these vintage wheels signaled the presence of the delicious Juicy Greens Juicery cold-pressed elixirs inside jewelry designer Liseanne Frankfurt's gem of a shop.
Heist owner Nilou Ghodsi (dressed in Gregory Parkinson) snuck out of her corner shop early on in the evening to visit LFrank. Most of us store owners managed to swing a visit to some of our neighbors's places at some point during FNO.
Yes, it's a very good-looking collection of independent shopkeepers on Abbot Kinney.
Designer Kendall Conrad, our stunning A+R neighbor. In her space, among the handmade luxury bags and accessories, the epitome of high craftsmanship of tequila, Los Dragones, was being served up in Reidl stemware. Nice.
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