Her Heart’s Desire

When Helena Stuart decided what she was going to do when she grew up, she followed her heart.

Or rather, hearts.

Stuart launched Only Hearts, a clothing line and boutique chainlet for girlie girls and the boys who love them. The bicoastal designer has shops in Santa Monica and New York that sell lingerie and other feminine must-haves such as candles and Limoges boxes, most of them decorated with or shaped like, well, you know.

Indeed, Stuart’s business has evolved into mostly hearts since she started it 20 years ago. Only Hearts, which is enjoying its seasonal rush in anticipation of Valentine’s Day, sprang from Stuart’s longtime love for hearts.

“I think it’s a very sensuous shape,” she says. “It’s not something that goes out of style. People are always falling in and out of love.”

Stuart fell in love with hearts as a child and started her collection at 12 with a ring of interlocking hearts, a gift from two of her brothers. Later, as a flight attendant, she scoured European and American cities for heart-shaped and embellished treasures such as jewelry, hot-water bottles, boxes, rugs and place mats. After a couple of years of foraging, Stuart opened her first Only Hearts store on New York’s Upper West Side.

“Back then I also had blond hair with black roots and the store was hot pink, and it’s grown up with me,” says Stuart, a part-time Pacific Palisades resident who’s married to lyricist Jonathan Stuart. “It’s evolved into a shop for the shameless romantic.”

Along the way, it made a stop at serving the merely shameless. In the early ‘80s, when Madonna led the way for women sporting bras to the grocery store, Stuart began designing her line of “inner outerwear,” undies suitable for public jaunts. Stuart’s had hearts on them, natch, but she ultimately decided that designing with only hearts was cramping her creative style.

Now the Only Hearts line includes lingerie and sportswear in sensuous fabrics such as stretch tulle and stretch linen, confections--some of them heart-free--that have been snapped up by celebrities such as Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts and Charlize Theron. Stores that carry the line include Barneys, Tracey Ross, Fred Segal on Melrose and in Santa Monica, and Diane Merrick on Melrose.

Of course, Stuart’s designs and gifts are also available at her 10-year-old Only Hearts on Montana Avenue. The hottest sellers for this Valentine’s Day include lingerie; silver-plated heart compacts; heart-shaped candles, night lights and tea sets; and chocolate body powder, which comes with a lavender feather.

“I guess you just feather it over your lover,” Stuart says, “or you can make hot chocolate with it.”

Cheers.