Gone coastal

As you might remember, I went to LA (my first time) last month for a long weekend with my boyfriend and our friends at Mishka to celebrate their west coast store opening. We stayed downtown at the trendy Standard hotel, and dumb me failed to get any pictures or try out the sexy pool...there's always next time. I met up with the super radtastic Tania, who took me near and far around greater LA, without the use of a car I might add. We seriously covered some ground & track. I forgot to eat any tacos (whoops) but did melt when I tasted these evil portobello fries...I'd have these overnighted to NY they were so good. They came from Bottega Louie, a "gourmet market" downtown that always rewarded us with some deLICIOUS macarons.



Passing through LA's diamond district, this sign caught my eye that reminded me of the giant Margiela diamond top Tiffany of Six Six Sick rocked out.



Guess where I am?



Duh, Chinatown...come on! We took turns awkwardly riding the gator, but Tania looked far less creepy than me.



Chinatown, if you haven't heard, houses two of the coolest shops in LA. First stop was Oooga Booga where I spent quite some time picking up everything in the store. A graphic design/magazine/fashion junkie (aka myself) might describe this as a little chunk of paradise.



This is where I got my Bless bracelet, and they have the Puff sandals too (the only other stockist in the US I know of besides where I got mine)! The ceramic apples were also really cool.



In the same plaza as Ooga Booga was Welcome Hunters, a dope shop I've wanted to visit for quite some time. They are definitely your go to place for Cheap Monday around those parts, and carry quite a cool roster of designers like KTZ, Daniel Palillo, and Skyward.



The Project White T-shirt exhibition was on display when I was there, and I got up close and personal with the stunning transformations.


Doktor Doktor/ A Bug Collection


Narelle Dore


Kumiko Watari (aka Migh-t)

The following day, I trekked through Hollywood, where I didn't even blink at the sight of wax museums and cracked-out street performers....I have that stuff in my own town. Instead, I was on a mission to find Prism, a large superbly-designed gallery on the western end of Sunset. It was the last day of the Mind the Gap exhibit, which featured the works of Phil Frost and Barry McGee. I missed Barry McGee's endless neon painted cube patterns when he exhibited at Deitch several years back so was stoked to catch this!





That night was the Mishka opening party. Those guys love their toys...



Tania's friend brought out an OG Mishka sweater with bloody graphic- needless to say I was jealous I never got my hands on this one.



Oh hey Rick!



Finally, I got a snap outside the party of this guy's giant foxtail. He had no idea how relevant his steez was to this season, referencing the Spring '10 Louis Vuitton bags with giant dangling fur tails. He didn't care and made it clear LA dudes have owned this look for awhile!



Tokyo recaps coming soon!!