Los Angeles Magazine Melrose Heights Just three years ago the shopping scene on Melrose between Fairfax and Crescent Heights had hardly evolved beyond the Freg Segal mothership. These days, though, the retail titan is facing competition from avant-garde merchants who've banded together to create Melrose Heights, an upscale fashion mecca. "This part of the street was dead when we first moved here," says clothing designer Jon Meizler of Jon Valdi, who after seven years on the Avenue is already an old-timer. But when Miuccia Prada opened Miu Miu in 1999, other sartorial sophisticates, including Costume National, Lotta, and Daryl K, followed. Rock-wear designer Henry Duarte recently joined the movement. "It's high fashion without being as conservative as Beverly Hills", say Meizler. The husband-wife team of Joseph Corre (son of outré British designer Vivienne Westwood) and Serena Rees offers Swarovski-crystal collars and cuffs, briefs with condom pockets, and other stylish skivvies at the lingerie boutique Agent Provocateur. Courtney Love and Drew Barrymore make Betsy Johnson's shrine to sexy floral and frills their stomping ground, while celebrity moms-in-the-making head to maternity emporium Nom, where even the nonexpectant find flattering cuts. Over at Emma Gold, the distressed look from local designers is the rage, while tamer types opt for Prada or Marc Jacob totes. The stylists at M Salon (experts in hair extensions) will bow to any tress trend you desire - even that Morticia-meets-Bride of Frankenstein straight-and-kinky look. Across the way serious skin preservations swear by the oxygen facials and blemish-busting clove oil at Enessa Day Spa, but it's the funky frames at Selima Optique that keep the eyes looking good. The folks at the Zen-styled Dan Gallery sell antique Asian art, from Javanese teak tables to coloured-glass lamps with rice-paper shades. Those in search of something new that's actually old bump elbows over the mint vintage threads from Gucci, Pucci, and Halston at Resurrection, while contemporary clothing designers are the draw at Xin. The baremidriff set heads to Fornarina, where the shoes are bubbly, the colors poppy, and the jeans ride ridiculously low. At Spirituali, lost souls find themselves among the chakra jewelry, Buddha-shaped candles, and meditation beads. Modernity is the philosophy that Fitzsu Society owners Fitz and Su Sazama live by; pod watches by Marc Newson and arty kitchen utensils are just some of their streamlined wares. What started with a simple "grandfather shirt" hasblossomed into Ventilo Paris, a clothing and home store where the WASP statement gets a French-Moroccan twist. Moe's Flowers may seem like your typical corner stand, but behind the ivy covered walls the space brims with rare orchids and lush arrangements. http://www.lamag.com | |  |
