My secret new hideaway, shhh dont tell, is Church Boutique at 7277 Santa Monica Boulevard. The front door (not-in-service) is shrouded by a dead end sign meant for the cul de sac cross street of Greenacre Avenue.
It’s the perfect decoy for monsters and villains who pass on by, while friends and family go ’round the back through the secret passage that leads inside the clubhouse of Rodney Burns and David Malvaney ~ partners in this discrete boutique ~ where you are welcome to have a seat, make a friend, meet a boy, pet a dog, drink a coke, charge your phone, have a laugh and watch the light pour in dusty windows like St. Peter’s cathedral all day long, somehow even when it’s dark outside.
Down this rabbit hole, you will find ~ designers from far off lands like Dutch architect Rem D. Koolhaas‘ architectural shoe line, United Nude, former Commes des Garcon pop-up store boutique mistro Brett Westfall‘s new line, and the elegant design team behind Literature Noir, Kaya B from Turkey and husband Elliot Hans, a local here from L.A., and my cousin!
Hooks and lines hold the store in place like a web of treasure from across the land. Grab on a rope and swing through time, there’s your doll house, your tricycle, your bronzed baby shoes .. and look, the there’s that Chanel number your mother use to wear!
Abandoned parachutes hang in the rafters that are reclaimed materials made into into soft and beautiful dresses, (label reads “Dress“) that billow out behind you, and with the slightest gust of wind.
Piles of pillows and over sized cow hide couches await you under the swinging racks of taffeta dresses … Reach for the rafters, tug down a gown, or bag, or shoes, or head pieces, feathers, jewels, day time, night time, anytime anything and more!
Here’s who I met:
An adorable, gorgeous 8-year-old boy playing iTouch Skeeball.
A woman who spilts her time between Florence and L.A., occupation unknown, who bought three pairs of Koolhaas’ United Nude modernistic shoes in green, white snakeskin and and gunmetal gray snakeskin (Church is the ONLY store in LA that sells this brand aside from one other store near Pico)
An interior designer, Liana Reid, who told me about a a crocodile leather farm in South Africa, 100% owner operated by aboriginal South Africans.
Russian models, travelers, shoppers,sellers, buyers, puppies, children, artists, actors, and on and on!
Go see Rodney Burns and David Malvaney, Teri & Derrick at Church Boutique at 7277 Santa Monica Boulevard, (cross street and entrance is Greenacre Avenue), West Hollywood, 323-876-8887. Mondays through Saturdays, 10am – 7pm. Closed Sunday, after all, this ain’t yo mama’s Church.
Church Boutique launches website today! http://churchboutique.com/
We went to Church to do a photo shoot with artists Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell, www.jeremycorbell.com and friend Tracy Bjelland who modeled and our own Lauren Brokaw who did the make-up and held it down!
amazing! beautiful! wow!