If you think you’ve noticed an increasing volume of creative types quitting New York and heading for the West Coast, you’re not just imagining it – it’s effectively a thing. An especially tempting one, with the lure of slightly cheaper rent, ubiquitous taco trucks, and consistently balmy weather calling our names. And fashion designers have picked up on it too: Everyone from Louis Vuitton to Tom Ford has opted out of the major fashion capitals to show in California – Hedi Slimane loves Los Angeles so much that his plans to operate Saint Laurent out of L.A. ruffled as many feathers as the name change (remember that?!). With that whole shift in mind, it didn’t throw us off nearly as much as it may have, say, 12 months ago when we heard that Stella McCartney was opting to show her Fall 2016 Collection in Los Angeles this season.
To take it all in, we first met up with the team from Sunday Riley over at Milk Studios to get the behind the scenes of the beauty look (thick spidery lashes meets clean, glowing skin) before heading over to the presentation’s location: the iconic (a word we at least like to think we don’t throw around all too often) Amoeba Records.
Stella Artois (get it?!) beer in hand, we perused the aisles of vinyl and took in the scene: Kate Upton (in a killer embroidered floral Stella suit), Quincy Jones, the HAIM girls, Mary J. Blige, Katy Perry, Lake Bell, and more were among the likes we bumped into while making our way through the stacks of records. We ate one of the mini Stella-branded pizzas up for grabs as we made our way around what was pretty much the ultimate setting for the 70s-tinged collection: burnt mustard, layered animal prints, floaty, sheer tulle gowns layered over floral pant suits, sports jersey-style tunics – plus Stella’s signature impeccably cut jumpsuits. Did we mention Brian Wilson (!) casually took to the stage before the night was out?
Driving down the coast in a U-Haul while clad in a printed romper and massive star-spangled creeper platforms never seemed so tempting.
