FASHION : Hollywood Boulevard--Flash Galore
Most people venture onto Hollywood Boulevard only when out-of-town guests insist on the obligatory photo at Mann’s Chinese Theatre. Maybe they stop at Frederick’s of Hollywood or one of the ubiquitous souvenir stands. Little do they know that a few blocks east of the famed footprints is one of the funkiest shopping areas in the city.
The blocks bounded by Ivar and Cherokee streets are lined with stores as trendy as any on Montana or Melrose. But on Hollywood Boulevard, most of the prices are lower and the local street scene more eccentric. And although some stores in this neighborhood were looted and torched during the recent riots--and Madonna’s bra still hasn’t been returned to Frederick’s bra museum--it looks like business as usual.
One of the best guides to the area is Michelle Cole, who haunts the five-block stretch of the boulevard on a regular basis. On any given day, she might be weighing, say, the merits of a bra-top embellished with cherries and bananas embedded in plastic whipped cream versus a red bra adorned with two giant yellow sunflowers. (Fruit is trampy, she decides; flowers are trendy.) Judgments like this are part of her job as costume designer for Fox TV’s “In Living Color.”
On a recent afternoon, Cole leads a shopping tour of the neighborhood, where classics are a rarity and moderately priced, trendy items are the mainstay.
The first stop on her route is Antenna, a store with moderate prices, knock-offs of European labels, and sportswear by fast-lane California designers. Cole steps into the store and sets a trajectory for a rack of Chanel-inspired garments. She tosses a salivating salesperson a body suit, white on top, black on the bottom, with a fabric camellia planted in the center of a black satin bow at the neckline.
“Put this on my personal account,” she says. Cole has gone from zero to $60 on her charge card in less than 10 seconds.
Throughout the day, the personnel at different stores zealously attend to Cole’s every need--she and assistant Julie Bennett drop a sizable chunk of change each week. (They spent $40,000 on basics before the season even began.) The show’s five dancers, the Flygirls, have two changes per episode, and each outfit costs between $100 and $600. A minimum of 25 changes are needed for the other “In Living Color” characters, but Cole says the total number of costumes can run as high as 100 per show.
Even though the Flygirls get all the fashion attention, Cole says she has more fun dressing the off-beat comic characters on the show: pimps, Las Vegas show girls, cross-dressers and nerds among them. She leaves the Flygirls’ wardrobe to Bennett.
Cole and Bennett are fast workers. They comb the racks on the women’s side of Antenna in a matter of minutes. They like the $69 baby doll dresses by Bisou Bisou, jackets by Kokaii that run from $100 to $189, and an $89 halter-neck body suit in pea green, by Antiflirt. The garment reminds them of an almost identical body suit they bought for more than $200 at another store earlier in the season.
Over in the men’s section, Cole looks at suits by Joe Da Hun and denims by Cross Colours, staples for the male stars of “In Living Color,” including series creator Keenan Wayans. When she finds something she likes, she often buys in bulk.
“All of the men in the cast have great bodies, and they are over 6 feet tall, so they can wear most anything,” Cole says. Damon Wayans, Keenan’s brother, is the show’s peacock, Cole adds, citing his penchant for clogs and scarves.
Before leaving the store, Cole cruises the shoe displays and gravitates to the $165 over-the-knee white boots with large black checks. They have low heels, which is imperative for the Flygirls. The rigors of their dancing do not permit any heel higher than 2 inches. A pair of $299 thigh-high imitation alligator boots with flat heels also get the once-over.
Cole and Bennett have spent less than five minutes in Antenna. But it’s time to move on.
As she scurries down the street, the costume designer shares shopping tips.
“You have to train your eye to the details,” says Cole, who can pick gems from mountains of slag. She says that a single find can dictate an entire outfit, like the two pairs of tights that were silk-screened with skulls and cross bones.
Cole picks up the pace as she nears another one of her favorite stores, J.C. Amber, a tony men’s and women’s emporium. “This is where we shop for Keenan’s and Damon’s personal (appearance) wardrobes,” she says. “The clothes are pricey, but beautiful.”
Suits are $600 to $1,400; shirts, $95 to $250. Most of the garments are imported from Italy, and although the silhouettes are European the fabrics are uncharacteristically dramatic. A black jacket is appliqued with bright purple flames. An orange-red suit in a novelty eyelash wool has flecks of bright blue and green in the weave. Another black jacket has white windowpane checks that are almost life-size.
Big, bold patterns and garish details work well for television costumes, Cole says. Small patterns and nuances are lost under the megawatt glare of studio lights.
“Costumers are our lifeblood,” says Michael Attie, owner of Playmates, where Cole found the sunflower bra. Here the colors are brighter, the fringe longer and the marabou trim on the satin dresses fluffier than anything you’d ever find in a mall.
Bennett and Cole could shop at the famous Frederick’s of Hollywood landmark store, but the clothes there are too tame, they say. Cole prefers Playmates because it has lots of trendy underwear that can be worn as outerwear.
“We find lots of good knockoff lines in here,” says Bennett. She picks out a net top that reminds her of a Dolce & Gabbana shirt, and notes, “It’s by Tripp. He’s from New York and is one of the best knock-off designers. We get net tops, gloves, and fishnet hose and thigh-high hose here.”
Most items at Playmates cost less than $50.
While Bennet cruises the racks of stockings, Cole fingers some cheeky blue denim short shorts hemmed with white eyelet lace.
“Cute,” she says. But too short for the Flygirls. “Keenan would never allow this. Plus, the Flygirls always worry about what their mothers will think.”
A rack of turtleneck, sleeveless, cotton-knit body suits with underwire support is carefully considered. At $16 each, Bennett and Cole say they want one in each of the five colors.
Then they discover the embellished bras. They hoot and laugh at the $60 red number with sunflowers, but choose it over others with fruit, religious figurines or doll heads glued to the cups. Cole picks up a $42 flower-print rave hat to go with the sunflower bra top and Bennett throws in a $16 black garter belt.
A few doors down the street a display in the windows of The Spot, a skateboard and in-line skate shop, provides Cole and Bennett with a nostalgic moment and they briefly reminisce about the Flygirl get-up they put together using protective knee pads from this store. “It was a good look, but they couldn’t dance in them,” Cole said sadly.
They pause in front of Giorgio Cosani, a men’s store where they buy “Arsenio Hall suits” for sketches that lampoon the late-night talk show host, and Cole surveys the street.
Deciding that she has covered all her bases, she heads off to the Aloha parking lot on Cahuenga Boulevard across from the Security Pacific Bank, a $3.50 lot she recommends because it has an attendant from 8:30 a.m. until midnight.
The sunflower bra get-up is the last purchase she will make for the “In Living Color” season, but come August she’ll be back on the boulevard gearing up for fall.
Shopper’s Guide to Haute Hollywood Blvd.
Michelle Cole’s favorite Hollywood haunts include:
Antenna, 6363 Hollywood Blvd., (213) 463-5363. Open Monday through Thursday, 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m.; Sunday, 11:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m.
Giorgio Cosani, 6400 1/2 Hollywood Blvd., (213) 462-8228. Open Monday through Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-8:00 p.m.; Sunday, 1-6 p.m.
The Spot for Skates, 6402 Hollywood Blvd., (213) 466-2381. Open Monday through Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m.; Sunday, noon-5 p.m.
F. W. Woolworth, 6410 Hollywood Blvd., (213) 463-8822. Open Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m.-7 p.m.; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. “It’s great for smocks, old lady hats, handkerchiefs with embroidered flowers, the kinds of things you can’t readily find anymore,” says Cole’s assistant, Julie Bennett.
Playmates, 6438 Hollywood Blvd., (213) 464-7636. Open Monday through Friday, 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-7:30 p.m.; Sunday, noon-7 p.m.
Tony Shoes & Bags, 6515 Hollywood Blvd., (213) 467-5604. Open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sunday, noon-6 p.m. Merchandise includes trendy Doc Marten-type shoes and boots. Early in the season Cole bought $65 steel-toed Alpine boots for many of the “In Living Color” cast here.
Blaxx, 6524 Hollywood Blvd., (213) 460-4599. Open daily, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. The store specializes in black club-crawling clothes silk-screened with the names of headbanger bands. Accessories run to chains and nail heads.
The World of Jeans, 6529 Hollywood Blvd., (213) 465-1691. Open daily, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Cole says she buys costumes for “everyday characters and old ladies” here.
Ziganne of California, 6538 Hollywood Blvd., (213) 464-3446. Open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sunday, noon-7 p.m. Occasionally Cole will buy bathing suits at this store, but they are of such tiny proportions--more like tiny semaphore flags on floss--they rarely pass the modesty muster. The price of such brevity ranges from $26 to $80.
Fame Fashion, 6558 Hollywood Blvd., (213) 856-9811. Open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m.-7:30 p.m.; and, according to a store spokesperson, “sometimes we’re open on Sunday.” This is a tiny store where Cole buys traditional jewelry. Most things are under $10. The sales person doesn’t even try to pass it off as costume jewelry; she calls it “imitation jewelry.”
Je T’aime: 6611 1/2 Hollywood Blvd., (213) 465-2148. Open daily, noon-9 p.m. “Good for party dresses, Las Vegas sketches or Monte Carlo kind of looks,” Cole says.
J. C. Amber, 6640 Hollywood Blvd., (213) 465-5928. Open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.
The Supply Sergeant, 6664 Hollywood Blvd., (213) 463-4730. Open Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m.- 9 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. According to Cole, it’s good for boots, hoods, gloves and Army jackets.
