Through A Lens
A clutch of bespectacled Angelenos joined luxury eyewear brand Oliver Peoples on Thursday to fete the launch of the Assouline tome “California as We See It.” Cohosted by photographer and Los Angeles style arbiter Lisa Eisner, who penned the book's foreword, the party drew Shaun Ross, Levi Dylan, William Peltz, Stormi Henley, Markus Molinari, Brad Elterman, Lorenza Izzo, Ivan Olita and Tasya van Ree, along with Oliver Peoples chief executive officer Rocco Basilico and creative director Giampiero Tagliaferri.
“Do you remember their first shop?” asked Eisner of the Sunset Plaza store a few blocks down the street. “It was right in the middle of all this history — George Hurrell's studio, Billy Haines' showroom, Adrian's shop. Then there were all the rock clubs like The Whiskey a Go Go and The Roxy.” She also pointed out the pioneering retailer Charles Gallay — the first boutique in the U.S. to carry Azzedine Alaïa — and the location used for the apartment of Richard Gere's character in “American Gigolo.”
“That's sort of the area in which we played, and when I bought my first pair of Oliver Peoples in the Eighties, we were like this clique,” she said. Eisner has also photographed several campaigns for the brand over the years, and these, along with iconic images of the city and other famous faces wearing the eyewear on- and off-screen, fill the book's pages.
As Tagliaferri explained, “We divided the book into three parts: ‘Our Peoples,' ‘Facing West' and ‘Never a Trend, Always a Style.'” There are connections between each frame and the Los Angeles architecture pictured in the book, and even the colors of the Rome boutique, which Tagliaferri designed, are taken from the landmark Hunt House designed by Craig Ellwood in Malibu.
In honor of the book's release, Assouline and Oliver Peoples designed a limited-edition octagonal optical style with a clipon sun lens and bright red custom case. The brand also pledged a 50 percent donation from sales of the book to the California Community Foundation's Wildfire Relief Fund. — MARCY MEDINA the schedule will be Thursday through Sunday, noon to 6 p.m., through Dec. 23.
A menu of cult classics will be served, including a special drink for Barneys, the two-tone Matcha in Blue, a green-and-blue concoction made from matcha, almond milk, butterfly blossom, mint, lavender and vanilla ($7); Matchacano ($5), and Earl Grey, jasmine and peach blossom teas. There are also custom teas and a chocolate bar with organic Venezuelan cacao cocoa shells and another with organic American peppermint.
Alfred operates two tea rooms in L.A. and two in Tokyo, where three more are slated to open in the spring. It's looking to open units in Hong Kong and mainland China as part of a major Asian expansion.
The brand didn't start out as a teetotaling establishment. Its first incarnation was as the Alfred Coffee Shop on Melrose Avenue. “I realized we were doing a certain number of teas in the coffee shop, said chief executive officer Josh Zad. “I created a footprint for a modern tea room. Tea has an image issue, so we dressed it up in pink tile from head to toe and neon. People realize it's not stodgy.”
Alfred collaborated with Barneys on a selection of caps, mugs and T-shirts with the
Alfred New York Logo printed in Barneys' typeface. “Our brands align very well and our customers align very well,” Zad said.
— SHARON EDELSON