the PIPELINE: Style on Tap

• PreviousMorning Java: Chomsky on Trends, Tokyo Topshop, and Thakoon for Christmas
• Warrior Princess: Gemma Degara's S/S 09 Lookbook Next

• October 16, 2008 9:51 AM
• Just Opened

Confederacy: An alliance of fashion, art, and design blossoms in L.A.'s forgotten Los Feliz

By Sydney Pfaff

Most of Landmark-heavy Hollywood Boulevard is the exact opposite of glamorous—it's nitty and it's gritty. Recent years have seen transformations in the area in an effort to reduce drug use and crime, but toward the east is where the most exciting changes have been taking place, slowly, but surely.

Confederacy opened its doors on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Feliz this week to much anticipation. On the same block as one of the millions of American Apparel shops in and around Hollywood, the 5,000-square-foot store is made up of two buildings—the front, serving just women, and the back building, which stocks menswear, tons of gorgeous shoes, and other accessories—complete with a newsstand, tea room, and vintage telephone booths for fitting rooms, equipped with old-fashioned phones that dial the front desk for service. The 1940s-inspired buildings are decked out in rotating art from established and emerging artists, and divided by a cozy deck that will soon function as seating for the store's café, slated to open in December.

Stylist Ilaria Urbinati and actor-cum-DJ Danny Masterson, along with a third partner, Aly Mawji, teamed up to create an alliance of fashion, art, and design. The name, Confederacy, was inspired from the title of John Kennedy Toole's novel A Confederacy of Dunces. And get this—the staff is outfitted in custom uniforms designed by in-shop favorite Rag & Bone.

For women, labels like Proenza Schouler, Zac Posen, Burberry Prorsum, Luella, and Martin Margiela are complemented by indie labels like Mayle, Opening Ceremony, and Sretsis. Men can browse classics from Band of Outsiders and Nom de Guerre or pick up more unique items from Michael Bastian, Tim Hamilton, and Benjamin Bixby. Urbinati is busy with other projects as well—she's collaborating with the Strokes' Albert Hammond Jr. on a private label collection of men's suits and co-designing a line of handbags with Rebecca Minkoff, which will be available exclusively at Confederacy.



Confederacy, 4661 Hollywood Bvld, Los Angeles, 323-913-3040; available at shopconfederacy.com.

More Posts:
Morning Java: Chomsky on Trends, Tokyo Topshop, and Thakoon for Christmas
Crew Cut: J.Crew Houses Women's Collection on UES