IN REVIEW : Center of Hip Fashions Ranges Into the Home

Long a shrine of cutting-edge European designer clothes, most of them black, the Maxfield boutique on Melrose Avenue is notoriously serious and expensive, with an atmosphere often described as cold--a result of the architecture (exposed concrete) and the chilly air emanating from the sales staff (unless you’re a regular, or famous).

What’s new and different this season is not the clothing. It’s the other stuff. Owners Tommy and Anne-Marie Perse have filled the store with grown-up toys, furniture and fascinating objects for the home, from ‘30s light fixtures and silver tableware to ‘90s Daum crystal “cactus” decanters. They’ve turned the store into a decorative arts gallery that feels like an F.A.O. Schwarz for the over-30 set.

There are gag gadgets, like the stuffed monster slippers that transmit a crunching sound when you walk ($38), and more practical items, such as Swiss pocket knives ($20 and up). There are sterling silver tea services made for the store in England, artist-designed chairs and tables, priced from about $500 to more than $2,000, and an assortment of new and old art books in French and Japanese.

Part of the delight is stumbling across the unusual merchandise where you don’t expect it: at the cash register (silver skull tree ornaments, $20), in the courtyard entry ($36,000 artist-painted fluorescent motorcycles), and on top of clothing racks (handmade, wire-net wastebaskets, $35).

The “Yohji room,” where designer Yohji Yamamoto’s clothes for men and women are displayed, has been transformed into a concentration of baroque crystal chandeliers (not for sale), unusual contemporary glass tables ($1,500 to $6,000), and flower arrangements (live and for sale, including a “ball of ivy,” $60).

The only downer is the service, still inexcusably unfriendly. I got the usual cold shoulder. Where, I wondered, did I go wrong? Did I dress wrong? Act wrong? There was only one other customer around, a well-known television actress, and she was being helped.

When I practically stood on my head, however, to read the prices of the Swiss knives locked in a display case, a sales person did arrive. And he turned out to be quite cordial.

*** 1/2

MAXFIELD

8825 Melrose Ave . Los Angeles Rated on a scale of * to **** (best).