Los Angeles Moving

Metro is going to invite proposals from any and all developers looking to build atop its subway station next to MacArthur Park.

It’s soliciting proposals after receiving an unsolicited plan from a developer for the Westlake/MacArthur Park station. The initial proposal was received in 2017, but in order for Metro to consider the project any further, it has to first publicize the call for proposals for the site.

Metro is expected to post the call within the next two weeks; the posting would run 30 days, says Metro spokesperson Brian Haas. Once that period is over, the agency will weigh its options, including, potentially, deciding not to pursue any of the proposals.

Because of the way Metro handles unsolicited proposals, it does not plan to the identity of the developer who reached out with a plan for a mixed-used project on the property.

The details of the project are also unclear, though any development proposed for the site would have to conform to Metro’s requirements for transit-oriented developments, including that 35 percent of any housing units in the project be affordable housing.

The desirable site was slated for a mixed-use development once before from developer McCormack Baron Salazar, which built 90 affordable apartments and about 15,000 square feet of retail just east of the station that opened in 2012.

The completed project was intended to be the first phase of development on the site, but phase B never quite got off the ground. The developer’s original proposal—which would have included 82 affordable apartments, 15,000 square feet of retail, and bike parking—came in about $5 million over budget. The agreement between the developer and Metro expired in 2013, but McCormack Baron Salazar lined up new funding sources and came back with another proposal in 2015.

However, by 2017, the joint development agreement between Metro and the developer had expired again, Haas says. At that point, both parties agreed the McCormack Baron Salazar project was probably not going to work.

Metro has a number of joint developments in the works now, including one on top of the Vermont/Santa Monica Red Line station, on two blocks at Exposition and Crenshaw boulevards, and at the Little Tokyo/Arts District station.

For Sun Child’s one-of-a-kind pieces, which are made from recycled materials, providing its customers with the opportunity to have an in-person experience the look and feel of its designs is imperative to grow the brand. For the brand, the best way to do that is through the form of a pop-up shop.

The brand announced that its pop-up shop with Venice brand and retail store The Piece Collective for the month of June. The pop-up shop will be utilized to further introduce Sun Child’s pieces, which range from 125 USD to 650 USD to customers old and new.

Currently Sun Child is available in specialty boutiques in Los Angeles and New York and on its own website, but founder and creative director Elissa Kravetz hopes this pop-up will give the brand’s customers a personalized experience with the products.

Below, FashionUnited spoke with Kravetz on Sun Child’s the brand, its pop-up with The Piece Collective and more.

Tell us about your brand, and how you came to create the pieces you're offering.

A passion for travel brought me on a trip throughout Asia and while on a yoga retreat in Goa, I met a family who sources vintage and new silk saris. My desire to help this family, paired with my passion for fashion, led to a working relationship nearly immediately. Within six months, I returned to Goa. Not even a monsoon could stop me from creating 100 dresses with the family. With my suitcase filled, I flew back to the states to sell to my friends and family.

With the dresses selling faster than I could have ever imagined and the demand for more daily, Sun Child was born. I returned to India, creating my next collection, expanding from dresses to jackets, jumpsuits, pants and tank tops. The current collection has 6 key bodies in a variety of prints and colors, with no two pieces being alike.

Sun Child provides jobs to people throughout a small village in Goa, employing individual artisans rather than large factories. Each silk is blessed, hand-sewn and curated with love.

The pieces we are offering during our pop-up with The Piece Collective is a carefully curated group of dresses, kimonos & jumpsuit sets selected specifically for the Abbot Kinney customer! We are thrilled to be able to have such a presence on this street. I was living in Venice when I started the brand & to have a pop-up shop feels full circle & magical!

Since these pieces are made from recycled materials, how do you confront the limited quantities and small batches (if there are any) for your brand?

We’re four years in and it hasn’t been a challenge yet. Our clients love the fact that each piece is one of a kind. Sometimes a dress will have a “twin” since each sari can cut two dresses. We are lucky that we work with people oversees who source an abundance of the best fabric from all around India.

Why did you decide to partner with The Piece Collective for your pop-up shop?

It’s a beautiful story of kismet. I used to walk into The Piece Collective years ago when I lived in Venice, dreaming to have some pieces in their stores. I received an email from Leron the co-owner mid-April and I didn’t respond right away because it was the day before my sweet dog Lillee passed away and I was being with her all day. I responded a few weeks later and then went to Palm Springs to grieve and spread some of Lillee’s fur. I was supposed to leave the desert on a Friday and last minute I extended my trip for one more night. I just felt that I was supposed to be there another night. On Saturday I was at the pool talking to a couple from LA. And it was Leron and Marine, The owners of The Piece Collective!! It was serendipitous. We talked non stop for almost 6 hours and felt as though we’ve known each other for years. Within a week we were curating the pop-up together!

You currently sell your clothing online. How do you think a pop-up shopping experience will benefit you and your customers?

In addition to selling online and in several incredible boutiques around the country, we also have a showroom in Topanga Canyon. That’s how we started the brand. Giving customers the opportunity to have a private one on one shopping experience in the showroom. This pop-up gives customers a chance to experience the world of Sun Child if they can’t make it up to Topanga. When you come into the Topanga cabin it’s an experience. We talk & learn about our clients, we often sit and have tea together. There’s an altar where I personally sit and meditate each morning. We recreated all of this at the pop-up in Venice.

What is the overall goal you have in mind for this month-long pop-up?

The overall goal is to share the brand and experience of the silks with as many people as possible. I started this company years ago with my deep desire to help a family in South India. I’ve watched them evolve and grow. I’ve collected hundreds of emails, messages and photos from women around the world in their Sun Child dress, how it makes them feel...this gives me such joy & fuel to grow!

Do you have plans to sell in other retail stores after the pop-up closes?

Yes! We will continue with the retailers that have been supporting us from the beginning!

Los Angeles (AFP) - Kevin Durant scored 28 points and unheralded Quinn Cook delivered 27 as the defending champion Golden State Warriors rallied without injured star Stephen Curry to beat the Brooklyn Nets 116-100.

Quinn's total was a season-high as he dressed in place of Curry, who missed the game after suffering a groin injury on Thursday in a loss to Milwaukee.

"I was trying the pick and roll, making great reads and trying to set great screens," Durant said.

Curry "doesn't feel entitled or like he has to play. When his number is called he is able to go out there and produce."

The Warriors were also without Draymond Green, but nine time all-star Durant carried the club on his back as they snapped Brooklyn's three-game winning streak.

Durant had 13 points in the first quarter, scored the final six of the second as the Warriors stretched their lead to 20 in the third.

Cook made 18 starts a year ago while Curry was injured. He nailed his first seven shots Saturday and matched Durant with 19 points in the first half.

Cook described Durant is a special talent. "I want to be like him some day -- a Hall of Famer."

- Lakers beat Kings -

Elsewhere, LeBron James scored 25 points and Tyson Chandler grabbed 12 rebounds as the Los Angeles Lakers clawed their way to a .500 record with a 101-86 victory over the Sacramento Kings.

The Lakers are now 6-6 on the season, the first time they have as many wins as losses.

"We didn't cave in on our principles," James said. "We had a hell of a game plan and we executed for 48 minutes."

Brandon Ingram finished with 12 points and eight rebounds for the Lakers, who have won four of their last five games.

James hit his first six of nine shots and finished 10-for-18 from the floor.

De'Aaron Fox led the Kings with 21 points but he didn't get much help from the rest of the Sacramento starters.

- Harrell stars in Bucks victory -

In Milwaukee, Montrezl Harrell provided the spark, coming off the bench to score 26 points as the Los Angeles Clippers edged the Milwaukee Bucks 128-126 in overtime.

Coach Doc Rivers, who had a pep talk with Harrell at halftime about his lack of defensive play, knew he could trust Harrell in the second half.

"He turned it around," Rivers said. "His energy was infectious."

Lou Williams hit a clutch driving layup with less than a second to go in overtime, but it was Harrell who set the table by diving for loose balls, barging his way through defenders and even wagging a finger after blocking a Bucks' shot.

"I come in here every night just looking to give my team the extra boost and that extra push to will us to win the game," said Harrell, who shot five of 15 from the field late in the game.

Harrell also finished with nine rebounds and 10 assists.

Giannis Antetokounmpo tallied 27 points and 18 rebounds in the loss as the Bucks dropped to 9-3 on the season.

"Offensively, I felt kind of weird going down in the fourth quarter and overtime because we've been blowing teams out this year," said Antetokounmpo.

Patrick Beverley had 21 points for Los Angeles, and Tobias Harris finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds.

"They're a top team in the whole league playing phenomenal basketball," Harris said. "We kept fighting and found a way."

In Toronto, Pascal Siakam scored a quickfire 23 points as the Toronto Raptors maintained their grip on the Eastern Conference standings with a 128-112 demolition of the New York Knicks.

Cameroonian international Siakam drained six field goals including a trio of three-pointers as Toronto romped to a comfortable victory at the Scotiabank Arena.

The win sees the Raptors improve to 12-1 at the top of the Eastern Conference, maintaining their lead over second place Milwaukee.

Toronto, who topped last year's Eastern Conference only to be swept in the playoff semi-finals by Cleveland, are determined to improve on their recent record of postseason failures this year.

One more fashion week season is behind us, time to look back at the main trends from the New York, London, Milan and Paris runways. To determine which of the trending themes, colors, fabrics and prints are most likely to be picked up by major fashion retailers, data analytics firm Edited has taken a look at retailers’ product offering and newsletter content over the past year. Here are their conclusions:

Photos: Anrealage AW19; Tory Burch AW19; Tibi AW19. All pictures by Catwalk Pictures

50 shades of beige

Think beige is boring? Think again. Head-to-toe beige looks dominated this catwalk season, a trend expected to remain strong in the Spring and Summer of 2020 as well. Neutral tones, especially those coming from natural, organic fibers are expected to rise in popularity as consumers long to simplify and declutter their lives.

Edited noticed an 11 percent increase year on year in new beige items in UK mass retailers. Newsletters from British fashion retailers also featured 14 percent more beige items in the last 12 months, compared to the previous year. The beige trend is even stronger in the United States, where mass retailers have increased their offering of apparel and accessories in this color by 27 percent. As for newsletter mentions, Edited reports a 10 percent increase. Time to tone it down!

Beige is more likely to appear in tops (42 percent of new beige arrivals were tops, considering the US and UK combined), followed by dresses (15 percent), bottoms (14 percent) and outerwear (10 percent).

Apart from beige, deep autumnal tones such as maroons, rust, mustard and olive greens were very popular this season. Those colors were often contrasted with hot pink, another shade we’ll probably see everyone wearing soon. Hot pink was the color of this year’s Academy Awards, worn by more than 10 actresses, and consumers are already demonstrating an interest in the color.

Images: Tod’s AW19; Versace AW19; Marni AW 19. All photos by Catwalk Pictures.

Croc texture is making a comeback

Croc texture is already on the rise in footwear and accessories. Edited reports a 200 percent increase in new products with croc embossed textures from Fall 2017, most of them shoes and accessories. The latest fashion weeks show us that the texture is likely to rise in apparel too: Versace, Marni and Tod’s used it abundantly in skirts and outerwear.

Fluffy textures had a strong presence on this season’s catwalks too. One cannot talk about Autumn/Winter 2019 without mentioning plush coats and faux fur. One of the most popular fashion items of 2018, teddy fabrics are still going strong, having appeared on the MaxMara, MiuMiu, Shrimps and Balenciaga shows. Edited reports a 42 percent increase in teddy fabric apparel from Fall 2017.

Akris AW 19; Oscar de La Renta AW 19; Prabal Gurung AW 19. All pictures by Catwalk Pictures

Velvet continues to enjoy a popularity wave. Over the past three months, there has been a 60 percent increase in the sell out of velvet in the mass market, driven by jumpsuits and slip dresses, according to Edited. While we’re only looking into womenswear here, the Oscars’ red carpet serves as proof that the fabric will be popular among men too. Velvet was spotted on the Miu Miu, Tom Ford and Alexa Chung fashion shows, to name but a few.

Images: Altuzarra AW 19; 3.1 Phillip Lim AW 19; Andrew Gn AW 19. All photos by Catwalk Pictures

Animal print still reigning supreme

Animal print isn’t going anywhere either. Asos reported a 233 percent increase in animal print sales last year, but Edited shows the UK-based retailer is far from being the only one. The graph below shows how animal print has grown year on year in each category:

While leopard print dominated last year’s offering, this year it looks like zebras are taking over. Analyzing the data from December 2018 to February 2019, Edited reports there’s been a 15 percent increase in zebra print in the UK and 11 percent increase in the US. Top performing products in zebra across markets include knitwear, midi dresses, shoulder bags, and belts.

Animal prints are set to dominate footwear as well. Snakeskin boots still reign supreme on the runway with slouchy silhouettes dominant. Edited has seen a 293 percent increase in new snakeskin boots styles in the UK & US mass markets from Fall 2017.

A meeting Thursday of West Hollywood’s Planning Commission that was expected to be lengthy turned out to be short when the developer of the massive retail-residential project at 8555 Santa Monica Blvd. at West Knoll Drive asked that the Commission postpone its review of the project. Thus the highlight of the meeting was the swearing in of new Commissioner John Erickson.

An appointee of Councilmember John Heilman, Erickson is currently the director of public affairs at Planned Parenthood Los Angeles. He also serves as the president of Hollywood Chapter of the National Organization of Women (NOW).

The 32-year-old Erickson told the commissioners he looks forward to working with them and thanked them for the warm welcome.

The other six commissioners applauded his appointment. Commissioner Stacey Jones, a longtime friend of Erickson, said, “I have every expectation that you will be approaching this post with the comments, vigor and enthusiasm that you employ in everything you do and you do a lot.”

Erickson replaces David Aghaei who has moved out of the city. Aghaei, an attorney and real estate developer, served seven years as Heilman’s appointee, joining in July 2011.

After the meeting, Erickson said he was honored and excited to be joining the Planning Commission.

“Being on the Planning Commission is a great opportunity, and I’m so thankful to Councilmember Heilman for appointing me, as well as for serving as Councilmember Lindsey Horvath’s appointee to the Lesbian and Gay Advisory Board,” Erickson told WEHOville. “Being on the Planning Commission, there is a lot that comes before us that involves community input and hearing very intricate details of projects that will change the face of our community, and I’m very excited to serve the City of West Hollywood in that way.”

Erickson has a special interest in affordable housing and said he is keeping a keen eye on various state laws regarding housing for moderate, low and very low income residents.

“Affordable housing is needed, and it serves a real purpose and we need more of it in West Hollywood,” Erickson said. “I look forward to making sure the projects that come before us really address that issue.”

Erickson lives on Fountain Avenue near Plummer Park and is also concerned about changes to that thoroughfare.

“The issues on Fountain Avenue are of big importance to me,” he said. “As you are aware, Fountain is changing, and it needs to be updated and improved for public safety.”

A native of Ripon, Wisc., Erickson holds two master’s degrees from Claremont Graduate Universiety – one in gender and sexuality studies, the other in religion. He is currently working on his PhD at Claremont in American religious history with an emphasis on politics, policy and religion.

Erickson moved to West Hollywood in 2011 when he was hired as an intern at City Hall. He served as the interim deputy for former Councilmember Abbe Land and later for Councilmember Heilman, while their full-time deputies were on maternity leave and medical leave, respectively. After that, he was hired full time by the city and served as the community events technician. He also served as president of the West Hollywood Municipal Employees Union (WEHOME).

He left City Hall in 2017 to work as the legislative representative for Los Angeles International Airport, and joined Planned Parenthood earlier this year. In 2017, Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Erickson to the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls, the first man to be appointed. He also is on the board of the ACLU of Southern California and is chair of the legislative committee for the Stonewall Democratic Club.

Even though he was relieved not to have to tackle as huge a project as the 8555 Santa Monica Blvd. development at his very first meeting, Erickson said he felt aptly prepared for it, having studied the 400+ page staff report diligently. He showed WEHOville his agenda packet with many handwritten notes, turned down pages and post-it notes inserted.

In talking about the postponement, he joked to his fellow commissioners that he was accustomed to making complicated decisions.

“What I thought was going to be a very difficult decision [on 8555 Santa Monica Boulevard] was mirrored by the fact that I had to judge the youth carnival this weekend at Plummer Park,” he said. “If I thought the decision that we were going to make tonight was going to be complicated and complex and full of ins and outs, you were not judging the same carnival that I was.”

The five-story, 139,000 square foot 8555 Santa Monica Blvd. development covers the area from West Knoll Drive to the Ramada Plaza hotel, land currently occupied by a parking lot, the Collar & Leash pet store and several other small businesses. It also incorporates three residential properties immediately behind it on West Knoll Drive.

The developer is Soto Capital LP, one of several companies owned by Behnam (Ben) Soroudi, a Beverly Hills developer who also has extensive real estate interests through his Ruby Group, Harper Enterprises and other companies.

As proposed, the project will have 95 residential units, six of which will be for very low income residents and six for moderate income residents. It will also have 15 “live-work” units, 5,000 square feet for restaurant/cafes, 13,000 square feet of retail space and 7,000 square feet of office space on the second floor.

The new hearing date for the 8555 Santa Monica Boulevard project has not yet been scheduled, but it likely will return in early 2019. There was no official word why Soto Capital requested the continuation.

With the added bonus of Kevin Porter Jr.’s return from suspension Thursday night, the Trojans can now rotate nine players who are on scholarship. Even during Porter’s suspension, he was able to practice, which allowed USC a string of practices with 10 available players, a rare treat for Enfield during this injury riddled season.

Otherwise, Buehler, working off a fastball he was commanding with precision, did not encounter peril. The 24-year-old didn’t surrender a second hit until Idelmaro Vargas smacked a single with two outs in the eighth inning. The closest he came to issuing a walk was in the fifth inning when he fired a 98-mph fastball to Vargas with the count full. Vargas thought the pitch, down and in, was ball four. Home-plate umpire Gary Cederstrom called it a strike to end the inning. Buehler took exception to Vargas’ opinion of the pitch, barking at him, expletive included, as he strutted off the mound.