Some summer sole
Holly DUNLAP knows that cocktails and shoes are two of a girl’s favorite things. So she started weekly happy hours at the bar Star Shoes, where her Hollywould line of colorful slides and stilettos is now being sold.
The parties, every Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m. through the summer, feature drink specials and promotions. The concept is based on a series of weekly keg parties the designer held in her SoHo store last summer that, she says, “ended up being 70% guys because they knew there would be booze and chicks.”
Dunlap, 32, who grew up in a family of five kids in Scottsdale, Ariz., had an extensive fashion background before she launched her shoe line in 2000. Her first job was as an intern for Carolyne Roehm in New York, where she was paid in Manolo Blahnik shoes, some of which she still wears. She worked at Christian Lacroix in Paris designing prints for his Bazaar line before moving to London to work with Vivienne Westwood on her couture collection. “I have sewn a hem on Linda Evangelista’s skirt as she walked out onto the runway,” she says.
Dunlap also spent two years at Lily Pulitzer designing the prints that are that label’s namesake. “I wanted to make the brand cooler, like a Fred Segal brand, but they have a huge base of customers who are moms in Connecticut who didn’t want sexy shifts.”
All that before the tender age of 28, when she launched her business. “At the time, there was only Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo,” she says. “Now Brian Atwood and Alexandra Neel are my competitors. But there wasn’t a young-designer category back then.”
One of her first accounts was Diavolina, the shoe boutique on La Brea Avenue, where Madonna, Gwen Stefani and Marisa Tomei bought Dunlap’s first designs -- Candies-style, wood-soled platform shoes she describes as “very Dolly Parton.”
Her style has evolved since then. Now she leans more toward Palm Beach socialite, with scarf-print slides, jeweled seersucker flats with plenty of toe cleavage and beaded stilettos with multicolored ribbons for ankle ties. Prices range from $345 for flats to $900 for boots.
Dunlap splits her time between Tuscany, where the shoes are manufactured, and New York’s Washington Square Park, where she shares an apartment with two roommates. And she never travels without a sketchbook. Recently, she found herself at a Picasso exhibit in Paris, where she scribbled drawings of jungle plants. Perhaps palm fronds will be coming to a Hollywould shoe soon.
“Every once in a while I design something avant-garde,” she says. “But usually I think about whether or not my brother would look at my shoes and think they were weird. That’s my test.”
Hollywould at Star Shoes is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from noon to 7 p.m. and Thursdays until 9 p.m.
Comfortable in a London flat
A new shop in Santa Monica is catering to the fashion pack’s appetite for pancake-flat shoes. London Sole serves up nothing but ballet shoes ($150 to $280) in every color, texture and hide, including faux red crocodile, ocean blue snakeskin, metallic fuchsia lizard and pink moire satin -- Sarah Jessica Parker’s fave. The Montana Avenue shop is the first American outpost for the London brand, founded in 1989.
Lucy Choi, who travels between L.A. and London doing publicity for the line and is stiletto-king Jimmy Choo’s niece, says flats can be a hard sell. “At first people can’t see the concept. They think flats are unattractive and high heels are sexy. But when they try them on and see the low-cut toe cleavage, they see they’re sexy too. And they’re as comfortable as flip-flops.”
Perfume with a past
The story goes like this: In 1966, the Arno River flooded the shop of Dr. Giovanni di Massimo, the Florentine perfumer and founder of i Profumi di Firenze. While cleaning up, he discovered the secret perfume recipes of Catherine de Medici. He named a scent after her, trademarking her Italian name, Caterina de Medici. This perfume and others made with natural ingredients such as pomegranate blossoms and Sicilian lemon have arrived at Barneys New York in Beverly Hills. The summer-light fragrances are $69 for 1.75 ounces.
Getting a handle on style
Juicy COUTURE’S Gela Taylor and Pamela Skaist-Levy helped define casual California chic when they debuted the curve-gripping terry tracksuit in 1999. Now they’ve expanded their Juicy universe into accessories: double-handled satchels and soft-sided totes in sunny shades of melon, yellow, blue, basic white and black leather, along with terrycloth makeup pouches and barrel bags with gold chain handles and the Juicy crest. The line, $48 to $475, is available at Bloomingdale’s and at www.shopbop.com. Up next: Juicy swimwear.
