A reflection of Echo Park
Designer Beatrice Valenzuela, co-founder of the Echo Park Craft Fair, has been championing the creative spirit of her Los Angeles neighborhood by celebrating local artists and designers for years. In 2009, the longtime Echo Park resident launched her self-named line of sandals, and recently, she added a ready-to-wear women’s collection of vibrantly colored dresses and floral prints reminiscent of her Mexican heritage. ¶ The year she started her line, Valenzuela, 36, invited her designer friends to gather for wine and cheese and to trade their products. That gathering has blossomed into the craft fair.
Why she matters
Valenzuela embodies the freespirited nature inherent to Los Angeles while incorporating her upbringing in Mexico, L.A. and Paris. Her designs reflect a rawness that still coats Echo Park but with an ease and refinement that appeals to busy, creative women.
Collection highlights
Her Sandalia is a simple slide sandal made with a sculpted foam sole with lambskin leather uppers that cover just the top portion of the foot. The silhouette is like a pool slide but made from leather. It comes in colors such as turmeric, lavender and olive green. The Sandalia has been Valenzuela’s biggest hit, selling locally at General Store and abroad at Beams in Japan. The idea came to the designer out of necessity when she was looking for an easy slip-on shoe.
“I just made a prototype for myself that I wore all the time because it was the easiest thing for me to slide on,” Valenzuela says. “I started wearing them out and every girl was like, ‘Wait, what are those?’ ”
She now manufactures her shoe line at a factory downtown. A newer sandal called Conder Valenzuela, a leather style with a thick band across the foot and a toe strap, is a collaboration with longtime partner, furniture and hardware designer Ramsey Conder.
In the studio
In Valenzuela’s Echo Park home, the kitchen tiles’ bright blue and orange and the throw pillows’ vivid pink are directly reflected in the dresses, blouses and skirts that hang from a rack in her living room. (Valenzuela’s line ranges from $240 for sandals to $1,060 for select pieces of ready-to-wear.)
“I love color, and I wasn’t finding the colors out there,” Valenzuela says. “It’s from my Mexican heritage. It’s so in me.”
The collection is largely dresses that are undeniably feminine and party-ready. Many have ruffle details on the strap or cascading down the skirt. The bougainvillea dress features vertically flowing ruffles and reminds Valenzuela of the bright, climbing plant ubiquitous in Mexico and Los Angeles.
She departs from bright color when it comes to a cotton jumpsuit, button-down blouses and a linen menswear-inspired suit reminiscent of a zoot suit.
“To me, I think about if I could wear my grandfather’s suit, it would be this,” Valenzuela says.
Where she finds inspiration in L.A.
Cactus Store Officine Brera Echo Park Lake Echo Park Craft Fair Eating Alejandra’s quesadillas