Trina Turk launches 20th anniversary collection, pop-up at Parker Palm Springs
L.A.-based designer Trina Turk has been the unofficial fashion ambassador for Palm Springs for almost as long as she’s been in the business, which is two decades this year.
She’s an enthusiast of the area’s midcentury aesthetic, which inspires her California chic label, and its architecture (her gleaming 1936 Ship of the Desert weekend home has been photographed numerous times for magazines).
Turk opened her first store in Palm Springs in 2002, housed in a 1960s low-slung, glass-walled Albert Frey building. It’s since become a destination for stylish travelers, and expanded into three storefronts carrying women’s wear, home goods and the Mr. Turk collection.
And now, just in time for Coachella, she’s increasing her retail footprint in the desert with a 300-square-foot pop-up shop at the Parker Palm Springs, the happy chic hotel redesigned in 2004 by Jonathan Adler, which has been sorely in need of a retail upgrade.
“We’ve been talking to the Parker about doing something on and off for years,” says Turk. “But nothing gelled until now. We opened last Thursday and we’re carrying a very edited selection of swimwear, patio dresses, a little bit of Trina Turk Recreation. … It’s basically what you would want to wear when you’re staying at the Parker.”
The pop-up shop will be open until the Fourth of July, if all goes well.
The space is also stocking Turk’s 20th anniversary collection designed around a single sunny Tahitian floral print, which is also available at her other stores and online. The capsule ($72 to $348) includes a range of styles — a silk georgette tunic dress, jacquard shorts, a knit jersey tank top, a triangle bikini, a zip-around wallet and more — that demonstrate how the designer’s brand has grown since she started it in her spare bedroom with a few printed silk separates all those years ago.
Turk sees a lot of momentum in Palm Springs. “We’re really benefiting from the wave of activity. Our store location [in the Upper Design District] used to be a no man’s land, but now there’s a lot going on around us. Restaurant-wise, it used to be really slim pickings. But things are perking up on that front. And there’s a new hotel opening from the ground up, the Arrive Palm Springs. The Parker is getting a spruce-up, too. “
Then there’s Coachella down the road in Indio, which has become spring style central. A festival regular, Turk is looking forward this year to hearing Tame Impala and St. Vincent.
“What Coachella has done is bring young people to the desert like never before,” she says. “It’s been going on long enough that it’s part of the culture now, and it’s affected fashion.”
Trina Turk at Parker Palm Springs, 4200 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, (760) 770-5000.
