When pressed for the primary time, Simply One Eye’s huge double doorways look like locked. Then you definately hear the short flick and mild click on of the deadbolt, and the left door opens with the assistance of a burly, suit-clad safety guard. This rigorously choreographed dance feels intentional.
“It’s thrilling to stroll by means of two big doorways and be confronted with all this excessive magnificence and elegance in downtown Los Angeles,” mentioned Brett Robinson, a Los Angeles furnishings maker whose work debuted final yr. Simply One Eye is now accessible. . “You are excited.”
The world inside is an ethereal but intimate two-story house, crammed with gentle and intelligent proportions. The again wall is roofed with Damien Hirst’s huge 2019 “Cherry Blossoms” portray. On either side are retail areas designed to encourage exploration: furnishings, together with a Pierre Jeanneret file rack, a Franco Albini rocking chair and a pair of Nineteen Sixties rattan chairs by Joaquim Tenreiro; Cartier jewellery (Les Berlingots de Cartier assortment) in 18-karat pink gold , chalcedony and garnet rings beginning at $3,200), Azlee charms (from $2,300) and Venyx Small manufacturers like Excessive Sport (from $860 for kicks) and Excessive Sport (from $860 for kicks).
“Whenever you stroll into an idea retailer, you are virtually all the time disenchanted,” French dressmaker Alexandre Vauthier mentioned by telephone from his studio in Paris. “However Simply One Eye is extra about life as artwork. It is Greater than only a clothes retailer, it’s Paola’s distinctive imaginative and prescient.”
He was referring to Paola Russo, who based Simply One Eye in 2011 with a silent associate, Victoria Niarchos. Ms. Russo was born in Tunisia, raised in Paris, and has lived in Los Angeles for greater than 30 years. Throughout her eight years as creative director of the Maxfield boutique in Los Angeles, she rose to prominence within the worlds of style and artwork, “creating an plain repute,” Mr. Vauthier mentioned.
Though Simply One Eye initially launched as an e-commerce website adorned with Ed Ruscha’s digital paintings, it shortly took off within the early Thirties in a bit of Howard Hughes’ headquarters on Romaine Avenue. A bodily retailer is present in an Artwork Deco constructing.
The shop gained early consideration for Ms. Russo’s menswear choice and collaborations like a $55,000 backpack designed by Damien Hirst and the Row in 2012 that was the product of her private relationships with designers and artists. “We’re nonetheless early on these fronts,” Ms. Russo mentioned. “Folks did not get the polka dot sample from the Damien Hirst on the Row crocodile bag. It was actually good, however the timing was improper. Our thought was too massive and too avant-garde.”
Within the decade since, Ms. Russo has reassessed: “I’m attempting to decelerate and take into consideration our subsequent transfer, our subsequent collaboration.”
Simply earlier than the pandemic, the shop moved to its present location within the Sycamore District of downtown. The 13,000-square-foot floor flooring consists of the gross sales space and the Serrano Salon, a hair salon run by celeb stylist Jorge Serrano; the 9,300-square-foot higher flooring homes the shop’s places of work and storage. and the Gyrotonic gym-system studio, run by Ms. Russo’s daughter Luna.
Mr. Robinson, the furnishings maker, mentioned Ms. Russo “introduced pleasure to the group simply by being right here.” “You may by no means see this sort of refined magnificence mixed with dignified perspective and vibrant vitality. Plus, the style is impeccable.”
At Ms. Russo’s request, Mr. Robinson created his personal SV_7 couch for the shop’s 2023 Frieze Los Angeles celebration in February, paying homage to the Louis XV wing-back couch in a particular colorway.
Wearing an all-white swimsuit and black Prada platform sandals, with ringlets flowing down her again, Ms. Russo, who declined to provide her age, just lately wandered the shop speaking about stability and wonder.
“My energy is discoveries, and the economic system is slowing down these discoveries,” she mentioned as she walked by means of the shop, ensuring some hangers have been straight and garments have been in simply the best place. “I am speaking to my group about cleansing up subsequent season. Not precisely due to the economic system, however due to the world, the style world.
“We went from all indicators to no indicators in a minute. Wait a minute,” she added. “So all of us must revise, rethink, observe. It is time to make adjustments.”
