Horsing Around With Fashion
“On Saturday nights at the L.A. Equestrian Center, I bet at least 20% of the audience is dressed for polo and they don’t even know how to ride a horse,” muses Ron Volpe, owner of Burbank Pet & Equestrian Supply in Glendale.
When the Western look came into style in the ‘70s, some non-riding clotheshorses were inspired to check out the tack shops for more authentic apparel. The Western style remains strong, but this fall the English riding style is in the forefront of women’s fashion: high-top boots, form-fitting vests, hunt coats that resemble long-tailed blazers, jodhpurs--and for a touch of whimsy, fringed leather gloves.
“The fashion designers copied the look, but they don’t have quite the right fit as genuine equestrian attire does,” says Harlene Gordon Gilroy of the Paddock Riding & Sports Shop in Burbank. “The whole idea behind the English riding look is that it’s very fitted to the body. We know how to do the alterations here to get that fit.”
Women from Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and Malibu are trekking over the hill to Valley tack shops for another reason as well. “Some of the stores over there are carrying the genuine riding clothes, but they charge twice what we do for them,” notes Nancy Wyman, manager and buyer of Dominion Saddlery at the L.A. Equestrian Center in Burbank. “On Saturday nights at the polo games here we sell more clothes to non-riders than to riders.”
Many riders are amused--but not fooled--by the latest trend. Laughs Suzanne Peika, polo coordinator at the L.A. Equestrian Center, “You can tell they don’t really ride because their clothes are never dirty!”
Firewood Facts
Do you feel twinges of foolishness when you call to order firewood? Typically, a supplier rattles off a forestful of wood types, extolling the virtues of his company’s custom blend. Who are you to debate the merits of pinion over pine?
A typical mistake buyers make is in thinking that soft wood burns fast and hard wood burns slow. Not so. “Soft wood has snap/crackle, and hard wood doesn’t,” says Norma Vaughan of Brigg’s Firewood in Canoga Park. It’s density that affects the rate at which wood burns.
Slow-burning woods include eucalyptus, oak, olive, almond and citrus. Fast-burning woods include pine, elm, fir and avocado. Woods that burn at a medium speed include pinion, walnut, juniper and plum. (In case you’re wondering, a cord of oak costs about $300. More typically, firewood is a mix of woods such as oak, pine and juniper and costs about $265 a cord.)
Medical Condominiums
“I think most doctors want to own their own office space,” says Dr. Robert Hesselgesser, president of Coastal Radiation Oncology Medical Group in Thousand Oaks. Yet most physicians are renters. In two months members of Hesselgesser’s group will open a branch at Westshore Medical Plaza in Westlake Village where they will own their office space--because the Plaza is a medical condominium.
“You have a building with so many offices, and each physician owns his particular space within it,” says Ted Walters, assistant vice president at the Money Store Investment Corp., which provided the financing for the Thousand Oaks facility.
Terry Heuer, owner of Townsgate Financial in Westlake Village and developer of Westshore Medical Plaza, says, “The idea has probably been around for 10 or 15 years, but it’s been a difficult one for developers because of a lack of available financing. Residential condos in the ‘60s and early ‘70s had the same problems.”
“It’s most common to find doctors renting, less common to find them having ownership interest in a building, and least common to find them purchasing medical office condominiums,” says Michael Zugsmith, president of Zugsmith and Associates, a commercial real estate brokerage with two offices in the Valley.
Hesselgesser views the purchase as a business investment. “Real estate in California only goes up, and plus we’re in control here. No one can come in down the road and tell us they’re raising our rent or they sold the building and we have to move out.”
The 51,000-square-foot, two-story Westshore Medical Plaza has 30 units, two of which are unsold. Prices ranged from $160,000 to more than $1 million, depending on size. Heuer’s company is in various stages of developing four other medical condominiums in Southern California, with a combined value in excess of $55 million.
What got him started on this path?
“Demand,” he says simply.
Halloween’s New Status
It used to be a simple occasion requiring only a few bags of candy, a pumpkin and a costume. But Halloween is moving in to the major leagues of merchandising, according to retailers across the Valley.
“We have everything: Halloween ribbons, wreaths, tole painting, shirt designs or plasterwear you can paint yourself, decorative picks to stick in plants, lapel pins, you name it,” enthuses Susan Thomson of Judy’s Carousel Crafts in Burbank.
“Halloween is becoming more cute rather than scary. The manufacturers are trying to make it a more fun holiday. A lot of our ghosts and witches have smiles.”
Kids aren’t the exclusive target audience of this merchandising blitz.
“It’s so much more commercialized now,” states Monique Bourget, manager of Aahs, a card and gift shop in Sherman Oaks. “The prices are higher too. People are paying more this year for Halloween decorations. Among the best-selling items in the store are mechanically operated Draculas and bats for $210 apiece that light up and flail around.
Bourget also notes that many parents are buying small knickknacks such as wind-up toys, key chains or plastic eyeballs to hand out to trick-or-treaters instead of candy.
This year, Party World in Van Nuys has doubled the amount of store space devoted to Halloween merchandise. “There are a lot of new families nowadays with the baby boom,” theorizes manager Jeff Goodman on the occasion’s growing importance.
Halloween fashion accessories are popular impulse items. “We sell Halloween hairpieces, clip-on ties, earrings--things employees can wear to work,” says Fred McPhillips, owner of Rainbow Stationers in Sun Valley. “Hallmark even has a new line this year for infants--shirts, bibs and little caps with devil horns.”
All you need now is extra storage space in your closet.
Overheard at. . . .
“I’m beginning to think of dust as a legitimate decorating statement.”
--Woman customer at Creative Floors in Van Nuys
