Two years ago in downtown Los Angeles, design director Claudia Chioda had a life-changing experience. As she fed a parking meter, she noticed a small, slow-movi...
L.A. punk legend Pleasant Gehman looks back at the early years of L.A. Weekly, when she was part of the staff writing the paper's popular scenester column "L.A. Dee Da," and having a very wild time doing so....
R.I.P. Henry Peck, one of the creative minds behind legendary Melrose record store Vinyl Fetish, L.A. dance clubs including the Veil and Fetish, and KROQ's groundbreaking '80s-era Import Show....
“I adore the old Hollywood movie-studio designers, all the special touches they did on clothes,” says Dana Pfeffer, who designs a line called Clothing Whore. “Edith Head, Travis Benton, Adrian — the way they made clothes move.” Her dramatic bias-cut coats, robes and capes are tailored with sweeping entrances and......
Photos by Jenafer Gillingham Sweats, platform flip-flops, a faux fur over a studded baby T — you see outfits similar to this on women all over L.A. every day. Designer Marco Morante has tapped into this tossed salad of comfort and pizzazz that’s a uniquely Angeleno uniform and infused it......
Photos by Julie Pavlowski Willie Mrasek is a breast man. You could say he’s obsessed with décolletage. It would be hard not to be when women are flashing him all the time — often within minutes of meeting him. In fact, he’s probably seen more boobs than Hugh Hefner, although......
Photos by Larry Hirshowitz "PUT ON A CORSET, AND IT MAKES YOU feel dainty, fancy and dressed up," says Miss Sue Nice, a comely redhead who enjoys lacing up. "Corsets make you stand tall and regal. It's the ultimate in being a lady." Like the majority of women who came......
Photos by Julie Pavlowski PERFUME HAS BEEN A LIFELONG fascination for Iris Parker, dating from early childhood when she was given a kiddie perfume-making kit from a toy store. About 12 years ago, Parker began taking steps to turn her fragrant dreams into reality. "In the beginning, I was completely......
Photos by Anne Fishbein "I'M A GLITTER JUNKIE," SAYS DESIGNER LORI PERSONS, WITH a mixture of pride and regret. "Practically everything I own is covered in rhinestones!" Persons' whimsical Lucite purses are not just accessories, but functional works of art. Inspired by the dainty, seductive see-through evening bags carried by......
The moment you enter the heavy, padded leather doors, you’re engulfed in a cozy darkness that’s dramatically punctuated by horseshoe-shaped lacquer-red booths, an ancient bar underlit with eerie, glowing, lime-green neon, and the long, narrow backroom, which, diner-style, was constructed from a train car. A red-and-black ’40s-style faux-Oriental-type font on......
