Long before the advent of the personal shopper, Westside women trusted Sara. At her eponymous boutique on Montana Avenue, boldfaced names gathered together outfits that radiated carefree elegance with accents of ethnicity — call it California Style. Stunning shirts or stylish tees, perfectly cut jeans or slacks, unique footwear and accessories from across the globe. While Sara has moved her outpost twice since her Montana run and changed its name to Sequin, thankfully her style remains. Sequin may carry such popular lines as Velvet, but Sara's wide reach as a buyer ensures you'll never look like a chain-store casualty. Though her breezy, highly tactile clothes always came in a wide range of prices, at Sequin she's even more conscious of post-recessionary lifestyles. We just died when a stunningly patterned, loose, sophisticated chiffon shirt that we expected to be well into the triple digits revealed its price to be an invitingly obtainable $69. 11732 W. Pico Blvd., W.L.A. (310) 473-0124.

—Tibby Rothman

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