Defining a city as "in fashion" requires exquisite timing. Themoment a hip hurrah hits the press almost certainly coincides withthe height of the trend and its inevitable unravelling.
Several years ago, Newsweek called London "the coolest city on theplanet". Now, the majority of the Britpack fashion designers named inthe story have shipped over to Paris, and London has the cooldistinction of being the most expensive city on Earth.
This is part of the reason why this writer said goodbye to the oldfog, and moved back to LA. On the surface, LA seemed as it always was- sunny, sedate, superficial. But even a cursory scrape at the glossreveals that the city so long derided by New York as its smiling,vacuous sister, has had a major mind shift.
While you'll still find the requisite contingent of talent agentsreading scripts on step machines, and model/actress/whateversslurping protein shakes at health bars, there's a new avant-gardebattalion chipping away at the city's plastic, soulless image.Primarily led by Hollywood's new style council of young actors,musicians and entrepreneurs, this millennial rat pack has adjustedLA's chakras in every field, from aesthetics to nightlife.
Take, for instance, the influx of a post-grunge genre of youngmusicians. They're a swirl of flashback fashion, conjuring images ofJim Morrison, the Byrds and late-1960s Rolling Stones. With tunes asretro-infused as their looks, they're packing local clubs and signingrecord deals.
"It's about the ecosystem here - things tend to happen in ahealthy environment where there are clubs, bands and independentlabels," says Anton Newcombe, lead singer of the Brian JonestownMassacre, a San Francisco transplant whose band, along with groupssuch as the Beachwood Sparks (who will play at the Reading Festivallater this month), head up the retro-inspired music movement bubblingin LA. "We've never really had that here before, but now there aremore than a dozen bands right now in LA who are creating a bigindustry buzz," says Newcombe.
Some of LA's draw and energy can be attributed to the city'srelatively cheap cost of living in comparison to the skyrocketingexpense of San Francisco, which for years lured struggling artistsbut is now overrun by dotcom giga-billionaires. "A lot of the coolinfluence came from San Francisco," says James Ambrose, a member ofSmall Stone, another LA band. "It's been a dynamic movement over thelast six months. A lot of the artisan Bohemian types moved to LA. Addthem on to the people who are already here and you're gettingsomething really neat."
The scene gravitates around LA's avant-garde enclaves of LosFeliz, Silver Lake and Echo Park - areas near Downtown Los Angelesand well east of Hollywood's legendary Sunset Strip. Once the rite ofpassageway for all new bands, the Strip now more closely resemblesPiccadilly Circus, all flashing billboards and cruising carloads ofteenagers.
In order to meet the demand for more performance space away fromthe Strip, lounges and bars such as Hollywood's 3 Clubs and BeautyBar now accommodate live bands and DJs . And new venues are poppingup, such as the Knitting Factory, an offshoot of the eponymous NewYork club, which opened on Hollywood Boulevard this month. Billed asa "smart club", the Knitting Factory is wired with cameras forwebcasts as well as internet access throughout the 19,000 square footfacility. "Our slogan is `Downtown is more than a zipcode'," saysMichael Dorf, the owner, who plans to open similar clubs in Berlin,Tokyo and London. "We support the left side of the spectrum, the non-commercial side. In LA there's always been a whole bunch of clubs,but in terms of something on the cutting edge, it's been a toughtown."
In general, the cutting edge is burgeoning by edging east. "It'sfair to say that anyone who is remotely hip would not venture ontothe Sunset Strip on a Saturday night anymore," admits Andre Balazs, ahotel developer and owner of two hot properties on Sunset, theChateau Marmont and the Standard. An art aficionado who has a keeneye for the new, Balazs is already working on a sister hotel to theStandard in Downtown Los Angeles, the city's business centre whichhas, for years, laid dormant in terms of nightlife.
"Downtown LA is about to go through a resurgence for much the samereasons SoHo and Chelsea in New York went through similartransitions," says Balazs. "For the group of people who form thefront edge of cultural activity, it is not only inexpensive to movehere, but it is also necessary to get away from the more establishedvenues." For his part, Balazs says the new Standard, which is set toopen next June, will host performance artists while the hotel isunder construction.
Several upstart galleries and loft spaces are already makingDowntown a destination for new and unusual art. A recent Saturdaynight had LA's hipsters spoilt for choice with about half a dozenDowntown happenings. Perhaps the most fitting was a photoinstallation and performance spectacle connected to a documentaryabout underground artists and freak shows called Cabaret X(www.CabaretX.com). Held at the Laboratory on Spring Street, CabaretX performers, such as the eerily beautiful naked duo Osseus Labryintand vaginal artist Kari French (aka the Pussy Print-cess), stagedlive shows as several hundred revellers filed in throughout thenight.
While LA's new edginess has been reserved for the more outreartists, a recent magazine launch party in Downtown's Chinatownproved that the area is finding its groove. Fun seekers, includingactors such as Vince Vaughn, Tobey Maguire, Bijou Phillips, ChinaChow and Lacey Chabert, partied till well into the night at Stuffmagazine's "Seven Deadly Sins" bash, which took over three blocks.When the dragon dancers and firecracker pyrotechnics ceased, a largecontingent of VIPs moved on to the morning- after bash at an agent'shouse in the hills. It was the kind of rager you would have expectedin New York or London, not LA, where the 7.30am yoga class beckonsmany to bed before midnight.
"You've got to do quite a lot to get the attention of youngHollywood - not a lot fazes them," says Stephen Colvin, publisher ofMaxim and Stuff magazines in the US. "We wanted to do something veryedgy and original and in a new environment."
The gentrification of areas such as Downtown, Echo Park and theseedier parts of Hollywood, has gone hand-in-hand with something of acultural awakening in the City of Angels. "There's an amazing amountof art coming out of LA and there are very good galleries popping upin Chinatown, Silver Lake and the Wilshire area," says Robert Berman,a longtime gallery owner in Santa Monica. "It might not have theright mix of elements to rival New York at the moment but there's noquestion that the local arts scene is getting better."
Fashion - another distinctly New York industry - is demonstratingmore staying power. High-end couturiers have always been rare in LosAngeles, but the needs of a growing cadre of discriminatingcelebrities is keeping Angelenos such as Rick Owens and Henry Duartebusy locally. Both are expanding their collections and selling morewidely. Owens, who counts Courtney Love and Madonna (back in LA withRocco, her and Guy Ritchie's new baby) among his faithful clientele,says he's looking into selling his line in Hong Kong and London. AndDuarte, who has quietly catered to the rock'n'roll set (LennyKravitz, Aerosmith, Bob Dylan) for years, is gearing up for a highervolume business and moving out of his small atelier off SunsetBoulevard.
"There's a new generation of celebrities; women - like ChloeSevigny - who know about designers and have a respect for vintage,"notes Owens, whose model and muse for years has been Hollywoodrestaurateur Michele Lamy, who owns the chic Les Deux Cafes. "I'vealways been kind of resistant to the whole celebrity thing, but nowit might work."
In fact, Miss Sevigny recently modelled in a rather unorthodoxfashion show held in a Hollywood subway station for a new labelcalled Imitation of Christ, a renegade line of recycled andrefashioned thrift store clothing dreamed up by twentysomething artschool dropouts Matt Damhave and Tara Subkoff. Brazenly thumbingtheir noses at the fashion establishment, the feisty twosome embodythe spirit of the new generation redefining Los Angeles.
"Younger people are embracing LA in a way that they didn't in thepast," explains Sean MacPherson, the man behind the city's stylishnight haunts El Carmen, the Good Luck Bar, Jones, Swingers and BarMarmont, a co-venture with Balazs. "As opposed to other major citiesthat have the weight of history on them, LA is always about the new.It's what makes LA so great; there's no consideration for the past -it is always forward thinking." n
be seen at...
HOTELS
The Avalon
9400 Olympic Blvd, Beverly Hills
Restored 1950s retreat. Marilyn Monroe and Mae West stayed here
The Grafton
8462 Sunset Blvd, W Hollywood
Feng-shui balanced rooms in the middle of the glitzy Sunset Strip
Maison 140
140 South Lasky Dr, Beverly Hills
Serene French-colonial-style boutique hotel, a rendezvous spot fortalent agents who work nearby
RESTAURANTS
Hamasaku
11043 Santa Monica Blvd, West LA
Latest version of LA's best oxymoron: the upmarket strip-mall/sushi parlour
Ita-Cho
7311 Beverly Blvd, Hollywood
Sushi spot of choice for the
designer-photographer set
Swingers
802 Broadway, Santa Monica
Beachside version of Sean MacPherson's Hollywood diner
Ciudad
445 S Figueroa St, downtown LA
Modern Mexican for local hipsters
BARS/CLUBS
Beauty Bar
1638 Cahuenga Blvd, Hollywood
Manicure and a martini for $10
The Knitting Factory
7021 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood
LA's newest fully-wired mega-club
Las Palmas
Las Palmas Blvd, Hollywood
Leader of new wave of dance clubs
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