January issue of GQ focuses on downtown L.A. revival
In case you missed it, the January issue of men’s fashion glossy GQ (that’d be the one with Bradley Cooper on the cover) includes a pretty sizable feature on the downtown Los Angeles scene.
Penned by Brett Martin, the piece starts like this: “For decades, Downtown has been the dark center of L.A.: a wasteland of half-empty office buildings and fully empty streets. But amid the glittering towers and crumbly Art Deco facades, a new generation of adventurous chefs, bartenders, loft dwellers, artists and developers are creating a neighborhood as electrifying and gritty as New York in the ‘70s. “
Anyone familiar with the downtown scene since before there was a downtown scene will recognize the names that populate the piece, including (but not limited to) organizer/activist/agitator Brady Westwater and nightlife impresario Cedd Moses (he of the Varnish and the Golden Gopher).
The piece talks about the soon-to-open Ace Hotel, name-checks another hotel (the Standard) and goes into great detail about the downtown dining scene (Martin mentions Alma, Bäco Mercat and Bar Amá among others).
It’s certainly worth a read (if you prefer pixels to print, the piece was recently posted to the GQ website), though we have to admit we were a bit surprised that the magazine holding itself out as the American man’s fashion bible was almost completely stone-cold silent on the style front. (In fairness, it does mention one downtown menswear store -- Apolis -- in the same breath as sausage restaurant Wurstküche.)
Maybe it’s that Ross Cutlery has been selling double-edge safety razors, barbering supplies and all manner of sharp and pointed implements on manliness for so long (94 years to be exact) that it doesn’t fit the revival mold.
And we’re guessing that the long-lead publication schedule of a monthly magazine meant that Acne Studios’ ambitious new 5,000-square-foot downtown flagship hadn’t quite opened its doors while Martin was strolling the streets of the downtown core.
But we think that downtown L.A. as the hotbed of the global premium denim business (revival-related or not) should have at least merited a passing mention.
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