no place to go: 36 HOURS IN L.A.

After hearing about 80 degree weather in L.A. on Friday, Bernard & I booked last-minute flights down south. By Saturday morning we were in sunny Santa Monica in time for a breakfast at Urth Cafe!

Over tea, we plotted out our next two days in L.A. (On the left, my creepy Easter bunny.)

Our first stop was my favorite shop, Opening Ceremony, on La Cienega.

They have a huge space in L.A., but are expanding beyond their ginormous 10,000 sq ft. By May, they'll introduce shop-in-shops for Acne Jeans and Nom de Guerre. Super cool. In store currently was: Chloe Sevigny collaboration, Topshop, Acne, Grey Ant, Hussein Chalayan, Mayle, and the best ever: Alexandre Herchcovitch!! His prints and silhouettes are stunning. Here's the print dress I picked up:

Next we hit streetwear shops Union, Undefeated & Stussy on La Brea. Here's the Undefeated store billboard which features a new artist/designer each month: Barry McGee, Terry Richardson, Mike Mills, Kaws. This month: David Rathman. Check out the whole series here.

We explored some shops in Chinatown, and the most inspiring find was: Ooga Booga, a zine/art store tucked upstairs in suite 203. And they have a small zine museum next door, with some rare and incredible publications.

My favorite, Kim Gordon (of Sonic Youth) had a zine with her watercolor portraits of fans. She describes the dreamy back-lit faces in the crowd as she is performing.. her portraits of them are haunting and beautiful. She's my hero!

DAY TWO: We headed downtown to find the Comme des Garçons guerilla store, tucked down an alley next to Blendz.. but found it closed on Sunday. Boo.. So, a cute picture of Bernard instead:

Driving down Third Street in West Hollywood, we spot a Skullphone piece! Yes, yes!! Coincidentally, a few days later I read that he hacked into ten Clear Channel digital billboards around L.A., integrating his skull & phone icon into the ad rotation. Brilliant.

Last stop before the airport, a Kara Walker show at the Armand Hammer Museum on Wilshire. She works with large scale cut paper silhouettes, projections and video. Amazing, brave and challenging work. Read more about Kara Walker here.