TAKE US TO EASY STREET

LOS FELIZ

ON RETRO ROW

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While the average holiday shopping excursion feels like an exercise in soul-sucking commerce, flexing your retail muscles on and around Hillhurst Avenue in Los Feliz feels like taking a spin in the Wayback Machine to a happier time when the streets were wide and not yet overflowing with the disgruntled masses, and owners and designers worked their own stores -- and seemed genuinely happy to see you.

Setting the dial for the late ‘70s and early ‘80s would drop you on the doorstep of White Trash Charms, a spare boutique chock-full of charms, necklaces and rings influenced by the trappings of the “Me Decade,” including 45 RPM record adapter inserts, cassette tapes and lightning bolts. In addition to her own line, designer Brooke Dulien has created pieces for Playboy (a rounded rabbit-head design in sterling silver, $100) and Disney Couture (Tinkerbell perched on a pearl runs $50). One of Dulien’s newest arrivals can help celebrate yours -- a tiny version of the diamond-shaped “baby on board” sign in pink or blue enamel ($75) -- a kitschy yet cool holiday gift for that expectant mother in your life. And lest you think White Trash Charms is for ladies only, offerings include dressy silver cuff links (in the shape of a bow tie) and chunky, masculine-looking rings made by L.A.’s Han Cholo depicting turreted castles ($325) or Battlestar Galactica Cylons ($225).

White Trash Charms, 1951 Hillhurst Ave., (323) 666-9585.

A few feet away at Undesigned by Carol Young, it’s the early ‘70s eco-consciousness vibe that’s taken root. Young, a former architecture student, focuses on sustainable and eco-friendly apparel, which she designs in the back and sells in the front of her postage-stamp-sized boutique. Among the popular gift items are handmade critters (stuffed squirrels, kittens, fish and owls, $40 to $44) made from cast-off scraps of organic bamboo denim and polka-dotted silk. Other nifty gifts are the handbags designed by Young’s former architecture school classmate Josh Jakus that repurpose factory excess wool felt (and unzip to lie flat as a single piece for dry cleaning or storage).

Undesigned by Carol Young, 1953 1/2 Hillhurst Ave., (323) 663-0088.

A couple of cranks further back in the time machine -- and a short car ride away to the stretch of Hollywood Boulevard between Vermont and Hillhurst avenues -- will put you on the doorstep of the Kennedy administration and a new upscale men’s vintage boutique called Everything’s Jake. Owner Jonathan Kanarek (a 2007 finalist in Esquire magazine’s “Best Dressed Real Men in America” contest) opened his doors in September.

And though most of his merchandise is high-end clothing from the ‘40s through the ‘70s, including tuxedo and suit jackets ($150 to $180), full tuxedos ($400), dress shirts ($65 to $100) and the occasional silk robe (in a burgundy hunting print, $225), there is a host of accessories suitable for gifting the retro-dad: mink-lined drink coasters (four for $225); hand-painted silk ties from the ‘40s ($100 to $150); and a wide selection of vintage leather valets, humidors, cigar cutters, cuff links and pens.

Everything’s Jake, 4644 Hollywood Blvd., (323) 662-5253.