Think of It as L.A. Brea

When Gerard Santana was a bass player in an English rock band called Zodiac Mindwarp, he used to shop at British designer Lloyd Johnson’s signature men’s store on London’s Kings Road in search of iridescent silk suits and ruffled “Vegas” shirts that would give him a mod look all his own.

Over the years, Santana became enthralled with Johnson’s retro fashions, which have been sold to rockers such as Rod Stewart and the Rolling Stones under the La Rocka label. When he and partner Maggie Arana decided to move back home to Los Angeles last year, they came toting dozens of Johnson’s designs.

“I don’t know why, but we both felt there was a real niche for Lloyd’s clothes in Los Angeles,” Santana says. His men’s store Volcano, which opened on La Brea Avenue in December, has an ample supply of Lloyd’s body-hugging suits, shirts and sweaters.

“Lloyd’s clothes were just the germ of the idea,” says Arana, who escorts a customer through Volcano’s eclectic mix of reissued Da Vinci brand Ban-Lon pullovers, Avanti paradise print silk camp shirts and Johnson’s zip-front embroidered knit cardigans and velvet dandy suits, all priced between $54 and $289.

“The idea was to give the store a sort of ‘Swingers’-ish look. And we thought La Brea was the place to do it,” says Arana, who with Santana painted one half of Volcano’s tiny interior emerald green, installed a faux stone wall and scattered a fish tank, vintage Playboy magazines and Bruce Lee posters.

Santana and Arana are certainly not the first to discover the lure of La Brea. More than a decade ago, when American Rag Cie clothing store opened here, many thought La Brea would be the next L.A. street to metamorphose into a shopper’s mecca. But because of the shortage of parking and number of car dealerships, art galleries and large graphic design houses that landlocked onto major chunks of real estate, it never happened. Instead, over the years a smattering of vintage clothing stores, used furniture shops, lighting and home hardware boutiques have opened--and in some cases closed.

Now, on a three-block stretch between Melrose Avenue and 2nd Street, a handful of kitschy young one-name clothing stores such as Volcano, NV and Suburban have been gathering around more established fashion retailers such as Stussy, Union, Lucky and Swell for the past few months.

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Together, they are helping to turn the east side of La Brea into an enclave of stores tailor-made for the man who wants more than the mall look. Here, he can find everything from authentic men’s 1950s Ban-Lon shirts and logo-emblazoned sweatshirts to blue suede shoes and funky denims, many of which are the store owners’ own designs.

“We like to zig when other people zag, and we just thought we always liked La Brea,” says Gene Montesano, co-owner of the 4-year-old Lucky Brand store, which carries the L.A.-based company’s men’s and women’s jeans and casual sportswear. “At the time we first opened, it seemed like more of an anti-street, and it had a better vibe to us than Melrose.”

The influx of newcomers is breathing new life into this long-established neighborhood. La Brea is a destination street.

“Shoppers have to make the effort to come here. It’s a good place to build a loyal customer base,” explains Wayne Parnell, who with friends John Bernards and Bryce Cole recently started a wholesale men’s clothing company called Suburban. In December, they opened a signature store--a narrow, white-walled space replete with video-projected images of street scenes.

In addition to its own collection of men’s striped knitwear, gray flannel sweats and cargo-pocketed trousers, Suburban sells active wear from Puma and Adidas. The more popular labels are mixed alongside relative newcomers such as Drawls, Stepson and Redsand, all brands that cater to the surf and skate lifestyle.

Parnell says La Brea offered store owners a location alternative. “There is something of a European influence. . . . But it is also very minimal, like something you might see in Japan. So I guess you’d call it a real mixture of urban street styles.”

Says Stussy and Union owner Eddie Cruise, “We sell things from young designers who aren’t really commercial, things you can’t find on other streets like Melrose or Robertson or Rodeo.”

At Stussy, for instance, the store carries only the collection of Irvine-based surfer / designer Shawn Stussy, who has a reputation for catering only to hard-core surf and skateboard shops. The Union store, on the other hand, features more hard-to-find underground labels such as Sarcastic, Dedication, Joker and 68 Brothers.

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Jacques Kevorkian, designer of Planet U.S.A. clubwear, took that idea one step further, with his newly opened store, NV. In addition to carrying men’s and women’s clubwear by other young designers such as Bill Hallman and Greg Sneider, he has encouraged fashion students to use his tiny La Brea shop as a testing ground.

“For me, NV stands for ‘new vision,’ and I really wanted to use the store to attract new fashion talent,” says Kevorkian.

“The clothes we sell target my generation, that Generation X,” says Joel Fitzpatrick, a former sculptor and lighting designer who opened the Swell store a few years ago. Swell, which takes its name from Fitzpatrick’s young men’s sportswear brand Pleasure Swell, is divided into two rooms. One, the “pigskin lounge,” is set up exclusively to sell men’s and women’s shoes--everything from multicolored sneakers and suede Hush Puppies to more clunky styles by Seattle designer John Fluevog. The other is lined with racks of clubwear and street gear under such labels as Arkun, Craig Joseph, O and Gene Meyer for men, and Nisa and Wyt for women.

“It’s not trashy Melrose, but it’s not hoity-toity Beverly Hills either,” Fitzpatrick says. “I don’t think we could sell this if we were in Old Town Pasadena. People are still pretty square there.”

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DIRECTORY:

Here’s a directory of La Brea Avenue men’s clothing stores from north to south. Most stores are open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Call for specific hours.

Volcano, 338 N. La Brea Ave.; (213) 934-9928: retro men’s suits, shirts and sweaters.

NV, 134 N. La Brea Ave.; (213) 939-0390: contemporary clubwear for men and women. Carries items from student designers.

Swell, 126 N. La Brea Ave.; (213) 937-2097: men’s and women’s contemporary streetwear, clubwear and shoes.

Union, 110 S. La Brea Ave.; (213) 549-6950: men’s and women’s casual clothes and active wear made by new and hard-to-find young designers.

Stussy, 112 1/2 S. La Brea Ave.; (213) 937-6077: full collection of surf- and skate-inspired clothes from designer Shawn Stussy.

Lucky Brand, 120 S. La Brea Ave.; (213) 933-0722: full collection of men’s and women’s Lucky jeans and denim-related sportswear.

Suburban, 126 S. La Brea Ave.; (213) 933-1779: young men’s casual clothes and active wear.

American Rag Cie, 150 S. La Brea Ave.; (213) 935-3154: vintage and new men’s, women’s and children’s clothes, housewares.