Texture Sports the Wares of Rising Young Designers
Life-size mannequins of naked babies nestled in bunches of ice-blue net adorn the walls. Coffee beans and metal shavings are sprinkled all over the shelves, and the walls are airbrushed in shades of sea-foam green, flamingo pink and lilac.
“My whole concept is to be different,” says Wendy Wolff, 24-year-old owner of Texture boutique on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.
“I wanted the place to be comfortable, a space where people could kind of hang out. But I also wanted to illustrate that you can create a look with almost any kind of material, such as shavings, beans, babies, whatever. It’s all in the way you present it.”
Decor Changes
Wolff, who opened the 750-square-foot shop last month, says she got the baby sculptures from her father’s mannequin company, Decter Mannequins in Los Angeles. Paul Wolff, her 27-year-old brother and owner of Fflow interior designs, dreamed up the decor, which apparently changes according to which mannequins the Wolffs borrow from the family firm.
The latest additions stand in the front display window--one white female mannequin, spray painted with bold black stripes, and one black mannequin spray painted in greens, lilacs and pinks.
Wolff specializes in offering clothes by young (they are all in their early 20s) L.A. designers, whom she finds “through friends or by word of mouth.” Designers include David Dart, Lisa Lawrence, Paul Batoon, Emilio Che and Ugo Blake.
“What I look for is innovative use of fabrics and kind of off-center but stylish looks. All of these people seem to be able to take pedestrian fabric, such as sweat-shirt fabric, and turn it into something really special,” Wolff says.
Dart’s current collection includes leggings, tops and jackets made out of a lightweight sweat-shirt fabric that reverses to a woven paisley pattern. He also offers rib skirts with slits, cowl-neck tunics and extra-long, reversible coats. Lawrence does innovative versions of the big shirt and jacket, along with long, paper-bag- waist skirts and baggy pants, and Batoon specializes in big sweaters and long coats.
Wolff also offers a line of handmade, fiberglass jewelry by local costume designer Julia Gombert. Pins and earrings are priced from about $30 to $50. Prices for clothing run from about $50 for shirts to $120 for trousers, skirts or jackets.
