welcome to her world

LABroadsheet_ 01-20-2013_ P_ 5_ P5_ LA_ 1_C
K
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TSet: 01-18-2013 13:19
LAT I M E S . COM/ I MAG E
SUNDAY , JANUARY 20, 2013
P5
{ SH O PPIN G }
WELCOME
TO HER
WORLD
Hayley Starr’s quirky shop in
Venice, the Quest, is part boutique,
part gallery, part New Age refuge,
but completely her vision, ‘like
a parallel universe,’ she says.
By Nora Zelevansky
Hayley Starr is a modern-day flower
child.
The artist and designer (whose given last
name is Keenan but who describes “Hayley
Starr” as her “highest self and inner superhero”) may not wear fringe and flash peace
signs. But a desire to promote creativity and
self-confidence prompted her last fall to
open the Quest by Hayley Starr, her onestop boutique, art gallery, New Age refuge,
classroom, studio and event space in Venice.
The shop, which is clean and feminine but
decidedly offbeat, is like a three-dimensional
Pinterest page, communicating Starr’s
whimsical outlook via an eclectic collage of
her favorite things. “The aesthetic is a little
alien,” she says, glancing around with satisfaction. “It’s like a parallel universe of pastel
colors — ethereal, like you’re on a cloud. I
want people to walk out feeling inspired and
good.”
(Incidentally, customers exit onto a progressively hot and soon-to-be greened up
stretch of Lincoln between Palms and Venice
boulevards recently dubbed “The Linc” by
Starr and fellow owners of recently opened
local retail spots such as General Store,
Tradesman and Deus Ex Machina. See accompanying story for more about them.)
Starr, 33, grew up in Washington, D.C.,
with an interior-decorator mother, whom
she credits with establishing a hyper-artistic
childhood experience for her. “My mother
enrolled me in every class you could imagine:
dance, acting, art,” recalls Starr. “She gave
me the foundation for being creative and
didn’t limit it to one thing.”
After spending her formative years at a
lycée (with all classes in French) and then at
Emerson High School, gathering enough
credits to graduate at 16, Starr headed to
New York City, where among other things
she worked at the first Steven Alan store on
Wooster Street, was an assistant booker at
Women Model Management and even did
some modeling.
But Starr, who did stints at the Fashion
Institute of Technology, Parsons and the
Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, craved her own creative outlet. Her
design story began in earnest 10 years ago
when she launched Infinite Collection dresses, which can be worn in as many as 117 ways
and bought off the rack or by custom order.
The collection was quickly a success online
with help from instructional videos and an
appearance on the “Today” show.
In 2004, she launched a West Hollywood
collaborative installation space, the Divine
Quest of Hayley Starr & Co. For four years
the collaborative promoted fledgling upand-comers, many of whom are now well
known, including the likes of fashion designers Jenni Kayne and Darren Romanelli; pho-
tographers Vava Ribeiro and
Cass Bird; and DL & Co. candles.
“I met Hayley at [a club
called] Moomba when she was
a teenager. She was just like
this otherworldly, alien, supermodel, artist and fairy,” recalls
Kathy Rose, co-owner of Roseark boutique, who showed
her own jewelry at Hayley’s
first space and displays a
sprinkling of her favorite pieces at the Quest. “She has always lived totally from the
heart and in another fabulous
dimension, really, bringing
cool people together, always
surrounded by amazing artists and throwing beautiful
dinners. And now, this store is
like a salon. She’s like a Gertrude Stein, completely visionary.”
Always a champion of others, Starr wanted to get back
to her own work and was excited about offering a meeting
place for her community, so
she opened the Quest in Venice last year.
In this space, her dresses
are on display, along with her
Wish Tees (silk-screened with
images from her paintings
that evoke “The Little Prince”
with subtle lessons about personal growth) and an evolving
Photographs by Bob Chamberlin Los Angeles Times
current event-inspired collection featuring negative forces
HAYLEY Starr says of recently opened Quest by Hayley Starr: “It just feels right.”
(like grenades) with the word
“Enough” and positive counterparts (like a
heart) reading “More.”
Her paintings, at present mostly nudes,
are also for sale, along with enamel pendants
and her series of children’s books. Her
friends’ work (art, beauty products, accessories, books) are also represented, along with
a selection of vintage garments. Customers
peruse eco-apparel by the Battalion, jewelry
by All for the Mountain and Sophie Monet
and essential oils from Andrea Seed Oil Co.,
among other things, in the space which is
open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through
Sunday and by appointment only Monday
through Wednesday.
Once a month, Starr showcases work by
revolving artists. “Being an artist my whole
life and not always having a place to create or
a platform for showing that work, it makes
me really happy to be able to share that with
people,” she says.
Starr is also enlisting pals to teach classes
and collaborate on events such as fairy-talethemed supper clubs, limited-edition collections, meditation sessions, astrology talks,
toy-making courses and children’s yoga
classes. A schedule is listed on her website.
“This just feels right,” she says. “You have
to take what you’re good at and what you’re
passionate about and try to marry the two.”
The Quest by Hayley Starr, 2122 Lincoln
Blvd., Venice, (310) 360-9711. Hayleystarr
.com.
THE SHOP, on an up-and-coming stretch of Lincoln between Palms and Venice
boulevards, also features jewelry and a zeitgeist-inspired pro-and-con collection.
[email protected]
JUST AROUND THE CORNER
By Ingrid Schmidt
A new crop of brick and mortar shops has quietly opened in Venice,
along the unlikely stretch of Lincoln Boulevard between Palms and
Venice boulevards that most commuters speed by en route to Marina del Rey or LAX. An alternative to the increasingly commercial
NECKLACE
Abbot Kinney Boulevard retail strip, these artfully curated
boutiques are almost designed to be missed — doubling as hipster destinations for those in the know. All of these boutiques place
an emphasis on local designers or California sources — a welcome
return to the authenticity and eclecticism that hit at the core of Venice’s original design vibe.
from Sacred
Door/All for the
Mountain.
Sacred Door/All for the Mountain
trice Valenzuela, hand-dyed indigo blankets
by Lookout & Wonderland, TW Workshop
ceramics by Tracy Wilkinson and cereal from
Granola Project.
1801 Lincoln Blvd., (310) 751-6393, www.vi
sitgeneralstore.com
Tradesmen Los Angeles
General Store
GENERAL Store has new and vintage
finds such as clothing and books.
General Store
The sister store of San Francisco-based
General Store, the brand’s second retail outpost features a well-edited mix of new and
vintage finds, including clothing, books,
food, furniture and household accessories.
The difference is that this time owners Mason St. Peter and Serena Mitnik-Miller have
teamed up with local tastemakers Hannah
Henderson and John Moore of the Pop Studio retail branding and marketing agency in
Culver City to give the shop a unique local
flavor.
General Store’s aim is to focus on “a
handmade, high-quality, local and small run
ethos,” Henderson says. “We find our wares
wherever we can but definitely with an emphasis on local craftspeople. And we gravitate towards things that are both beautiful
and useful.”
Notable Los Angeles-based goods include minimalist 14-karat gold bar earrings
by Kathleen Whitaker, hand-stitched leather shoes with recycled rubber soles by Bea-
Gap veterans Ruben Leal and Doug
Behner, who both worked in the company’s
visual merchandising division in San
Francisco, relocated to set up their own
men’s shop in Venice. With a focus on quality,
made-in-the-USA brands that they personally love and wear, the boutique resembles a
casually dapper guy’s dream closet.
Menswear and gear stocked at the shop
include local brand M.Nii’s ’50s-style surf
shorts, reissue workwear shirts by Los Angeles-based label Five Brother, the Portland
Collection from Pendleton Woolen Mills,
waxed cotton rucksacks with leather and
brass detailing by Archival Clothing of Oregon and Tellason’s handcrafted selvage denim jeans from San Francisco. There are also
select colognes, grooming products and
room fragrances.
“We want to bring soul, a personal touch,
back to the [shopping] experience,” Leal
says.
1807 Lincoln Blvd., (424) 835-4397 www
.facebook.com/TradesmenLos Angeles
Deus Ex Machina
There is no shortage of testosterone at
the first U.S. location of Australian brand
Deus Ex Machina, at the corner of Lincoln
and Venice boulevards. The store resembles
a gigantic L.A. man cave, filled with hand-
glassed surfboards, the company’s menswear collection and custom-built motorbikes favored by the likes of Orlando Bloom.
Motorcycle exhaust mingles with the scent
of strong cups of joe from Handsome Coffee
Roasters. The shop’s weekly “Sunday Mass”
event adds tacos to the menu and features
film screenings and more.
Deus Ex Machina’s line includes essentials, such as logo tees, trucker caps, jeans,
oiled canvas jackets and riding gloves. Also
in the mix are felt hats handmade in Venice
by Westbrook Maker, grooming products
from Baxter of California, classic Red Wing
work boots, sunglasses by Encinitas-based
Raen Optics and timepieces by Newport
Beach brand Tsovet.
1001 Venice Blvd., (888) 515-3387, us.deus
customs.com/
Sacred Door/All for
the Mountain
Local artist and designer Carly Margolis
describes her sculptural jewelry line, All for
the Mountain, as “ancient meets futuristic.”
A necklace from her Elevators collection
“could be either an Aztec temple or a sci-fi
relic,” she says. The Elevators theme was inspired by the idea that every event “is an opportunity to rise up and elevate oneself spiritually,” according to her website.
All of Margolis’ work has a spiritual, New
Age bent. Pieces from her Mothership collection, centered around a breast-like shape
meant to evoke the power of motherhood,
were featured in the fall-winter 2012 runway
presentations of New York City fashion designer Mara Hoffman and renowned French
fashion designer Sonia Rykiel.
Margolis is working on a series of paintings for the Ojai Rancho Inn. Some of her
new artwork is done on silk, which she also
plans to fashion into a line of muumuus.
Earlier this month, Margolis opened the space at the
front of her studio as a gallery
called the Sacred Door, dedicated to displaying local art
and music on the first Saturday of every month.
On the third Sunday of the
month, Margolis transforms
the space into a pop-up “Venice Bazaar,” where her own art
and jewelry are sold, alongside
vintage fashion and wares by
California designers.
2118 Lincoln Blvd., (310) 3964242, allforthemountain.tum
blr.com
Deus Ex Machina
DEUS Ex Machina resembles a giant man cave.
[email protected]