La Vie En Rose

Peals of Excitement: A+R Re-Moved

Window Dressing: A+R's Rafael Negron

As we enter the final stretch before opening the nearly triple-the-size A+R store on Abbot Kinney Boulevard, we're madly trying to remove the old as we move into the new space.
Case in point is our Manager Magnificent Rafael Negron, scraping away the window vinyl under the blazing Venice sun (it's 82 degrees right now at 4:30!). Andy's gone to grab a squeegee to apply the new sign next door. It's a godsend the larger space was adjacent to where we've been since November 2007. Makes the process a whole heck of a lot less painful.
That said, we're all near collapse in both exhaustion over all the physical work and elation at what this next phase in A+R's relatively young life will mean for all of us.
A session at the Korean spa is definitely in order come Monday!

As for the opening hour? Hopefully Sunday, yeah, as in tomorrow...will Tweet when we do!

Crazy for Colombina

Colombina Dishes from Alessi

Falling like so many rose petals for the Colombina tableware we recently posted. The porcelain dishes are, in fact, reminiscent of petals, randomly layered, the bowl suggesting the pistil of a flower. So, too, the stainless steel flatware with each piece's stem-like handles and budding tips.

The collection was created by Doriana Mandrelli and her husband Massimiliano Fuksas for Alessi. The Italian duo have been major powers in the world of architecture for four decades, sharing a vision for distinguishing the organic poetry in bold, no-frills forms.

The collection is already at aplusrstore.com, and will be a part of the cherry-picked selection of tableware from several brands we will be introducing at the new A+R store in coming weeks.

Colombina Stainless Flatware

Time Out for Rubbernecking

At only $35 a pop, these rubber vases by Menu make a great gift.

The current issue of Time Out New York, out today, cited the brightly colored rubber vases by Menu & Henriette Melchiorsen in its "Obsessions" column, and with good reason. We've been obsessed with their multiple uses--a yellow one in our kitchen for wooden utensils; a blue one for paintbrushes...oh, and a red one for flowers. They're hands down among the best sellers at our store and online.

As Seen on TONY

A Hint of Alberto Marani

Alberto Marani Spring 2010

Never heard of Alberto Marani? That might all change sooner than later. The Paris-based designer is not only behind no fewer than three of Carine Roitfeld's favorite lines--and being considered for a major gig, according to today's report on Hint by LVER pal Robert Barr.

911 Style

Wake Up!: Good Water Cup by Studio Qubus

The 4 a.m. wake-up alarm Angelenoes, including yours truly, received today got me thinking about emergency kits. Specifically, the aesthetics of these cases and what goes in them.
Certainly the red cross--the international symbol of first aid--is so iconic because of its authoritatively bold, blood-colored graphic against pristine white. And the foil bags of water and foodstuff (and most of it is just that) suggest a kind of survivalist mode in space.
But much of what's out there is pedestrian at best. Thankfully, Andy managed to find a coffin-sized lock box in solid black for our home and black fannie packs (chock-a-block with essentials) for our cars.
(Yep, we're as ready as one can be. Perhaps, having grown up in England instead of earthquake country like Southern California like I did, he's a heck of a lot more conscientious about being prepared).

While getting through a disaster is no time to fret about anything but ensuring everyone is safe and sane, it also doesn't hurt to zero in on preparedness essentials that are almost too cool to hide for a rainy day...or worse.

American Red Cross FR300 Hand-Crank Radio

American Red Cross FR300, a hand-crank radio that comes in red or white, and looks cool enough to have on your desk year round.

The deluxe Eton Hand-Crank Radio for the Red Cross

Eton American Red Cross Solarlink Digital boasting AM/FM/SW/NOAA, weather, flashlight, solar and cell phone charger.

Macx USB Medical ID Bracelet, about $30

For those with medical conditions, the Macx USB Medical ID Bracelet looks (almost) like future-minded piece of jewelry.

Harry Allen First Aid Kit for Johnson+Johnson, about $20

New York-based industrial designer Harry Allen's Reality Series are ongoing best sellers at A+R. But he ventured out of his zone of whimsy to reimagine the first aid kit for Johnson+Johnson, using a space-saving, slim figure-eight form. A built-in handle allows for grab-and-go. No wonder it won I.D. Magazine's best packaging prize in 2009. It would be amazing to see more companies look to the new generation of designers for all their packaging and products--emergency and otherwise.

As for you DIYers, the Red Cross lists the anatomy of an ideal kit. And I found a site the clean, white metal boxes. The First Aid labels are sold separately, so the boxes themselves can come in handy for office supplies, sewing kits and "emergency" needs other than what the universe throws at us.

Oh Mary!

Mary Ann Apodaca June 1961

Played hooky from the shop today (thank you Andy and Rafa!) so I could meet up with my cousins Marilyn Fitzgerald, Daisy Wendkos, Millie Apodaca and Della Gurney--our parents are siblings--to strategize an Apodaca reunion in the coming year. We scanned over 100 photos, and shared as many stories.
This will be the first reunion in nearly two decades: My father, David Apodaca, R.I.P., was the longtime keeper of our genealogy--including collecting and snapping photographs and hosting the annual extended family soiree.

Given my penchant for picture taking and parties, guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree...

On that note, it's this vintage studio shot of my Aunt Mary Ann that I carefully studied as a little girl. Everything about it fascinated me, especially how she got to this moment.
She died when I was 8. But I spent hours with her through this photograph. Love the mad uber-graphic print of her knit dress.
Like most struggling actors with flair and a figure, she worked as a model, too, and Marilyn recently gifted me a July 1957 copy of "The California Girl: The Magazine Styled for California Fashion." Inside, our Aunt Mary Ann strikes a pose in sophisticated, pencil-silhouetted skirts and dresses for the Lebanon of California brand, a company that is history...in the ever evolving fashion industry here, and, as history of a more lasting kind, now my own.

In the Raw

RAW Lounge Chair by Muuto

This week I found myself behind the photographer one day--the lenswoman being Amanda deCadanet on a feature focusing on some of her starlet pals for the May issue of Harper's Bazaar--and (gasp!) two days later in target range of another photographer--for next month's Interiors edition of Angeleno Magazine.

Suffice it to say, I am in my element behind the scenes.
Andy seconds that (though he always patiently mugs for his snappy-happy wife!).

Thankfully, the real star of the piece is the newly expanded A+R store in Venice, slated to open as the issue hits newsstands.
Since the space wasn't quite ready for its close-up for the Thursday morning shoot, we focused attention on one of the new categories we'll be showcasing: Furniture.
But expect it to be in our A+R M.O., the select pieces more objet driven than anything.
Case in point: the RAW Lounge Chair by Jens Fager for Muuto.
Muuto is a relatively new Finnish design house that we are proud to have first introduced to the North American market a couple of years ago.
Each of these limited-edition wooden dining and lounge chairs, side tables and candelabras is hewn by hand and band saw. (The wonderful chiseled texture of the surface that inspired the name is a bit lost in the photograph.) We also love the Crayola-like colors of yellow, blue, green and gray.

Raw Candelabra by Muuto

Brick In reDesign

Burn Baby Burn: It's not what you think it is.

What we love about the far-reaching tentacles of the internet is how it brings new ideas to enthusiasts everywhere. Case in point: Today's feature on the Israeli-based, Hebrew-language site reDesign written by an Australian-based writer and highlighting products made from building bricks, including these candles made right here in Los Angeles by our neighbors Eli Bonerz and Thomas Robertson at P.A.D.

Think of it: Global Peace and Unity through Better Design.

A Whif of Paris

Marilyn by the molecules.

Today's Daily Candy posting of Le Whif chocolate and coffee inhalers reminded me of my visit to Le Labo Shop in the center of Paris last month. I happened upon the tiny storefront on Le Bouloi by accident that afternoon, and, weary and rain-damp, I was immediately energized by the concept of it all. For all the talk of concept shops these days, after all, very, very few hit the mark.

Le Labo Shop

Le Labo is the retail, street-level front of the think tank Le Laboratoire. Founded by scientist-Harvard prof David Edwards, it is literally, a collaborative space for scientists, designers, architects and artists to create and present new tangible ideas exploring culture, humanitarian, economic and educations considerations. David, in fact, is behind the artscience movement, which considers contemporary methods of human creativity via multiple channels and the intersection of art and science.
Among the creative minds on work and on view here are product and furnishings designer Mathieu Lehanneur (who also designed the interior), sound and electronic aritst Ryoji Ikeda and manga artist Junko Murata.

Inside the Mathieu Lehanneur-designed shop

Below ground (entered not through the bright blue stairwell that leads there from the inside of the store, but via an outside door near the entrance) is the real hub of it all, Le Laboratoire. There a kitchen and dining acts as mad culinary lab. It's aptly called Cafe ArtScience. Here is where Le Whif products were apparently conceived, or at least enjoyed. They are coffee and chocolate-based inhalers and sprays designed to provide the satisfaction of the real thing. Something out of the future, indeed, but, like virtual sex or traveling, not sure it's the way I want to enjoy two other of life's greatest pleasures.
There is a mini library of architectural and design books. And beyond doors I almost didn't dare open there is a cavernous space which showcases highly conceptual projects.
The show on view when I was there was out of this world, and I'll post about it next.

Cafe ArtScience

Better eating through chemistry...

Do Not Miss: Manifest Equality

Saying no to H8.

To miss "Manifest Equality," which closes at 6 p.m. Sunday, is to lose out on one of the most awe-inspiring experiences in L.A. this year.

Works by more than 170 artists take on the civil rights fight that continues to dog the land of the free, most specifically the situation in California where the honeymoon legalizing marriage between same-sex couples was quickly outlawed when Prop 8 passed in 2008.

During a week when much of this town's focus is on Team Hollywood's craft and what the marketing machines behind those works will reap at the Kodak Theater Sunday night, down the road on Vine, south of Sunset (that most storied spot of broken dreams), the most honest of collaborative art experiences fills a gaping storefront, most recently home to the discount chain Big Lots! (Exclamation the store's, not mine, thrilling as that graveyard to consumerism could be.)

In its wake, the high price of legislating love and marriage is considered through photography, paintings and multimedia assemblages, some of it presented on the fractured sections of a white-clapboard house by Jed Lind. A portrait of Abraham Lincoln there by Scotlund Haisley brings to mind a declaration by that most cherished of civil rights advocates: "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
Case in point why this cause is not limited to homosexuals. This is an equal rights, equal access issue. When we take into account there are fellow citizens who are regarded as a subclass because of some barbaric, anachronistic notions of what is right...well, it's nothing short of wrong. Exceptions are un-American, inhuman.
Unfortunately, even well-meaning supporters continue to frame this as a "gay" issue.

"Freedom of/from Choice" by Robbie Conal

Elaborating that thought is at the heart of Manifest Equality, according to founder Yosi Sergant, who sought to enlist artists who are straight and gay, and artwork that is as much about civil rights as it is about the LBGT community. The 33-year-old Yosi was part of the Manifest Hope movement and art shows in Denver and Washington D.C., which supported Barack Obama's presidential campaign. His enthusiasm got the better of him last fall when he was communications director at the National Endowment for the Arts, and after resigning, rather than sticking his head under a pillow, he decided to continue his activism through cultural engagement.

"We're All Searching for Someone to Sleep Next To" by Bettina Hubby

Yosi, along with event producer Apple Via and publicist Jennifer Gross, engaged collaborators Shepard Fairey, Aaron Rose and the creative crew at Commune Design (including Roman Alonso who designed the inevitably iconic logo), among many, many others, to stage this first Manifest Equality event.
There are some incredible pieces here, many which had already sold by opening night Wednesday.
But the real impact here is the sum of its parts. Why simply viewing the work on the (incomplete) online gallery is not enough. From the heart-shaped string installation outside to the heart-shaped shallow pool installation in a private room (both by the gifted Mike Murphy), it's all about being present.
All proceeds from sales of the artwork and the gems in the pop-up shop benefit Courage Campaign.
Go by day. Or hit tonight's closing night party, featuring performances by Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock, Sea Wolf and Sam Sparro, as well as DJ sets by the Crystal Method. (Hit the ME site to rsvp). Entrance is free. Just don't miss it.

"It's Complicated" Mike Murphy (mirror, shallow water pool, light + audio)

One of the chalkboard walls in the activity workshop.

Photographs by Mike Rosenthal

A vintage film of a gay men dancing plays on this steampunk-style work.

Kelly Lynch

"Ghosts in America" by Mel Lim

Fitz & Tantrums on opening night. Worth checking out

Domesticity in Technicolor: "Behind Closed Doors" by J. Frede

Mrs. and Mrs. Yohanna Logan

Commune's Roman Alonso and pal

Andrew Neuheus and his print available at the on-site shop.

Amy Fleetwood and Apple Via

Ivan Ontiveros

Jessica DeRuiter, Mathew Swenson and Jed Lind

Michael Cioffoletti, Frank Helmer and David Ketterling

"Lady Justice" by El Mac, Retna and Kofie

"Manifest Equality," 1341 Vine Street, Hollywood. Open 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Closes Sunday, March 7 at 6 p.m. FREE.

The Art of Style

Painted Lady: Actress Ginnifer Goodwin and her portrait by Kimberly Brooks

What's it like to be the subject instead of behind the scenes? That was the question every inquiring mind posed during the two-fer openings for the "The Stylist Project," Kimberly Brooks' new series of portraits of those toiling behind the scenes in the world of style. The fest started with the one-night affair Monday at LeadApron in West Hollywood, preceded Saturday by the gallery opening at Taylor de Cordoba in Culver City, where the show runs through April 3.

Notwithstanding the portrait of actress Ginnifer Goodwin, who played host to Monday's teeming, Oscar-week kick-off along with Dior and Vanity Fair, the dozen women and two men in the series are a motley crew of individuals who have a hand in shaping the fashion scene here, from the red carpet to the silver screen to street style and pop culture. And starry pals came out to chant their praises, among them Christina Hendricks, Lisa Edelstein, Abbie Cornish, Marisa Tomei, Rosanna Arquette, Nia Vardalos, Ariana Huffington and (my fave) Norman Lear.
Most of Kimberly's portrait subjects, in fact, would be hard to pick out in a crowd, since they are little known by name or face. But you likely know their work: Costume designer Nancy Steiner ("The Lovely Bones," "Little Miss Sunshine," "Lost in Translation"); Janie Bryant, the award-winning costume designer behind "Mad Men;" stylists Jeanne Yang (who also designs Holmes & Yang with Katie Holmes) and Andrea Leiberman (who also has her own fashion line, besides consulting on Gwen Stefani's L.A.M.B.).
Jessica Paster is among the pioneers of the celebrity stylists, with an A-list clientele year after year; she bared it all for Kimberly, a show of bravura and wag given what she does for a living.

Elizabeth Stewart

Revealed: Stylist Jessica Paster

Others are better known: creative director and fashion plate Liz Goldwyn; stylist-mogul-in-the-making Rachel Zoe, and designer-creative director Jeremy Scott (clad for the portrait in a baroque matador jacket I so covet). Ditto Cameron Silver, known as a trailblazer in making vintage haute, but less so as a consultant to heritage luxury brands and best dressed-list women.

Liz Goldwyn, Jamal Hammadi and Guinevere van Seenus

Janie Bryant on canvas.

...and in person.

To the fashion-following set, there are certainly the secret celebrities, those who we regard with awe for their consistent skill and artistry: Arianne Phillips, a multi-threat who costume designed Tom Ford's "A Single Man" (he let her do her job folks!), got an Oscar nom for "Walk the Line," and continues her long-time collaboration with Madonna on tour, in editorials and in projects such as the future film on the Windsors.
Or even Katherine Ross, consultant for LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and, along with her mister, LACMA head Michael Govan, a champion of fledgling fashion and art talent.

Kimberly encouraged everyone to choose the location and clothes they'd be most at home in, giving the project a sense of collaboration (and control for her subjects who are so used to having a bit of it in their own work!). I especially love what she's done with Grace Coddington, who is the first in her second phase of style makers on the east coast.
Kimberly also partnered with designer Clare Vivier on a trio of leather bags benefiting P.S. Arts and featuring fragments of the paintings with Rachel, Jeremy and Janie.

Of course, the most surreal aspect of this all wasn't simply standing inside a gallery looking at the portraits of individuals whom I've known and written about forever. It was being among them, both in the flesh and on canvas. This whole craziness of a project began right after my 40th birthday two years ago, when Kimberly finally convinced me to sit for her. I did so in my treasured Magda Berliner bridal dress. I was uneasy being in front of Kimberly's lens, and not in the least due to the blazing hot August day. Like most of those eventually featured in her series, I'm just more at home behind the scenes.

Cameron Silver

Nancy Steiner

Annie Flanders, Michael Schmidt and Lisa Edelstein

Marisa Tomei and J.C. Obando

Artist Kimberly Brooks flanked by Angela Janklow and pal

A+R's Rafael Negron and Arianne Phillips

Tracee Ellis Ross

Obsolete's Ray Azoulay and gal pal

Clare Vivier and clutches featuring fragments of Kimberly's work

Taylor Cordoba's Heather Taylor

Editor Jayne Seward

Brena Egan and Jennifer Gross

Magda Berliner and pal

Raymond Lee, Bret Witke and pal

Artist Bettina Hubby

Stylist George Kostiopoulos and Doris Raymond of The Way We Wore

Tiffany Caronia

Linlee Allen

Ginnifer Goodwin and Joey Kern

ForYourArt's Bettina Korek

Yep, that's me.

“Kimberly Brooks: The Stylist Project” runs through April 3 at Taylor de Cordoba, 2660 South La Cienega Boulevard., Culver City.