LOS ANGELES — Oscar de la Renta is out to conquer the West, and is planting his flag on Melrose Place here.
The designer has opened his first West Coast boutique on the trendy, two-block designer shopping row off La Cienaga Boulevard, joining Marc Jacobs, Carolina Herrera and others.
The 4,000-square-foot two-level unit, formerly a Tracy Feith boutique, marries bright, airy interiors with quaint outdoor spaces, including a brick-paved interior courtyard that is being refurbished by well-known Los Angeles landscape designer Nancy Gosslee Power.
The boutique’s 3,000-square-foot ground floor, which houses apparel and accessories, opened Friday, but its 1,000-square-foot second floor, which will be the company’s first retail store for Oscar de la Renta furniture and homewares, will launch next month. The upstairs, accessible only from an outdoor staircase in the back of the building, also will house a VIP area.
Alex Bolen, chief executive officer of Oscar de la Renta, said the company chose Melrose Place over Rodeo Drive and other high-profile shopping districts — despite its dearth of foot traffic due to inadequate parking — because, “our customer is principally the local and not so much the tourist customer. We think what’s most important is to have a unique and inviting space. The space we have fits all of our requirement and is really beautiful.”
Carolina Herrera, who opened a flagship on the street in July, said she picked Melrose Place partly because it attracts a younger shopper than Rodeo Drive. Bolen, however, said targeting a younger demographic wasn’t a factor in choosing the location. “We didn’t go to Melrose Place in order to attract a younger customer. We think it will appeal to young and old and in between….There’s an important fashion customer in Southern California, and Los Angeles is the capital.”
Like many businesses on the two-block street, including Temperley and the Sally Hershberger at John Frieda Salon, the facade of the Oscar de la Renta boutique is almost hidden from the street, shaded by trees lining the sidewalk. Shoppers enter the store through a brick-paved walkway lined with carissa shrubs.
Inside the front door is a huge fireplace constructed from Dominican coral stone, a signature material for the family-owned company in homage to de la Renta’s native country, the Dominican Republic. The tawny-colored stone also swathes sections of the cream-hued walls throughout the first floor. The company’s spring and resort collections hang from simple steel poles that alternate with the building’s original French doors along the edges of the main, gallery-like room. A shoe “catwalk” — a low-lying display of footwear — sits in front of a large built-in display of sunglasses, brightly illuminated from behind. “The sunglass [wall] is a new element for this store,” Bolen said. “We have something similar in our NorthPark [mall] store in Dallas, but this took it a step further.”
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Moving into the store from the main room, racks of ready-to-wear are juxtaposed with glass-box displays filled with the company’s custom jewelry, which is only sold in its boutiques. Gowns hang in a small area in the back of the boutique that curls around the glassed-in courtyard.
Prices for sunglasses begin at around $250 and shoes start at around $500. Apparel ranges from around $900 for a white woven tank top to upward of $20,000 for a one-of-a-kind couture dress.