LAGUNA BEACH
LAGUNA BEACH is the place where art and surf meet. The area’s luxury resorts and annual summer-long arts festival guarantee a steady stream of visitors. When it comes to fashion, there are concept shops, boutiques and one of Southern California’s best independent surf shops to tempt them.
When surf industry vets Dana Marron and Laura Hart quit their day jobs and opened their store Laguna Supply (210 Beach St.) in 2008, they brought contemporary fashion to Laguna Beach in a big way. Today, their boutique is full of dresses and tops from A.L.C., Isabel Marant and Tucker; Maison Scotch striped T-shirts, Closed Denim, Lemlem caftans and Painted Bird crocheted shoes.
But before them, Fetneh Blake (427 N. Coast Highway and 1476 S. Coast Highway) was a true fashion pioneer. When she opened her shop in 2001, she introduced Laguna Beach to high-end, avant-garde European designers such as Ann Demeulemeester, Rick Owens and Olivier Theyskens. Since then, she’s added a second location and several other lines. A few of her current favorites are Japanese rock ’n’ roll line If 6 was 9, oxidized diamond jewelry by Irit (worn by Michelle Obama) and scarves by Faliero Sarti.
Anastasia (470 Ocean Ave.), also on the cutting edge, is a cafe and concept store featuring artfully ripped and draped clothing by Vivienne Westwood, Lost and Found, Plein Sud and Unconditional.
H. Laguna Beach (1045 S. Coast Highway), owned by the same people who run H. Lorenzo in L.A., mixes high fashion and boho beach to spectacular effect, with tribal-print sundresses and maxi-skirts by Mara Hoffman and Haute Hippie, as well as relaxed tailored jackets from Iro, linen and lace cardigans from Japanese brand Vlas Blomme and lace trench coats by Sacai.
Continuing on the boho beat, Lala (1145 S. Coast Highway) is textile designer and Laguna local Kerry Cassill’s lifestyle boutique, featuring Indian inspired ikat, floral and dot prints on everything for the body and home, including tunic tops, robes, placemats, napkins, pillows, bedding and upholstery fabric.
Another gem, Hillary Kids (374 Ocean Ave.) offers a sublime selection of sweet, European-style children’s clothing for infants, girls and boys, including Liberty print bloomers from Caramel Baby & Child, organic cotton ribbon dresses and cotton polo shirts from Go Gently Baby, rompers by Stella Mccartney and ballet flats by Bloch.
Thalia Surf Shop (903 S. Coast Highway) is one of Southern California’s coolest independent surf stores, with hard-to-find retro style surfboards, Japanese wetsuits and plenty of limitededition finds, including the recently launched Vans x Rit Dye board shorts and Reef’s closed-toe Resrv collection. Also, don’t miss the retro-style women’s wetsuits and swimwear by Seea, ponchos and bikinis by Tallow and the tropical print Van Doren sneaker collection in the Vans shop-in-shop.
Of course, these days, stand-up paddle-boarding is giving surfing a run for its money. Founded in 2010, Stand Up Paddle Co. (1103 S. Coast Highway) is Laguna’s very own burgeoning stand-up paddleboard lifestyle brand, offering boards, rentals and lessons, as well as paddleboard-related apparel such as T-shirts with the slogan “Get Up, Stand Up.”
For lunch, stop at Zinc Cafe & Market (350 Ocean Ave.) where the tofu Thai salad and the coconut chocolate chip cookies are out of this world. Grab a little beach reading at laguna Beach Books (1200 S. Coast Highway), which has an entire section devoted to surfing lit.