Los Angeles designer Octavio Carlin, who opened his first retail store on Dec. 8 in the city’s Los Feliz neighborhood, has clear-cut ideas about his clothes and his customer.
“I design for those women who want to be different — who like to look distinctive,” Carlin said. “It’s elegance with an edge.”
Before launching his namesake line in March, Carlin designed for his now-defunct contemporary brand Naqada for four years. He hopes the boutique will help solidify his reputation as a designer of red carpet-ready dresses and gowns.
“The major reason I wanted to open a store was to have a place where my private clients could come,” said the 36-year-old Mexican-born designer, whose clients include actresses Sharon Stone and Marilu Henner. Stone recently ordered five custom dresses.
Carlin chose to open on the city’s funky east side because “I wanted to be a part of the whole east side revival going on,” he said, “I love Los Feliz.” His will be the first designer boutique on Vermont Avenue, which features a slew of hip restaurants, a few upscale specialty shops and an X-Girl store.
The 2,000-square-foot unit, which also will be a hangout for Carlin’s rotund pug Cairo, has a small atelier for final alterations. Accents in cobalt blue, including velvet-covered benches and heavy drapery enclosing a simple dressing area, play off bright white walls, vaulted ceilings and polished concrete floors. A large Art Deco-inspired metal chandelier and smaller wall scones are painted white, and huge screens bearing a stylized palm leaf print hang on two sides of the narrow unit. “The whole concept of the store was to make it Deco, but not too obvious,” Carlin said.
The boutique will sell Carlin’s ready-to-wear pieces, ranging from $250 to $1,000, and his made-to-order samples, priced from $900 to $2,000. Carlin will continue to create original eveningwear and wedding dresses at prices beginning at $3,000.
Financially, “I’m expecting to do well,” the designer said. “I’ve stayed in L.A. because I see how the [fashion] movement is going here, and it’s really been paying off … I think it’s a really good time to be here. Plus, Hollywood is here.”