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Love Adorned creates captivating jewelry and rare finds perfect for the sartorial explorer. While we love a good scroll through their website, there’s something about being inside a brand’s space that offers a cool connection. With NYC locations already in place, Love Adorned recently expanded west, to Santa Monica, and the store is a showstopper. We chatted with owner Lori Leven about her stunning, inspired space.
CONGRATS ON THE NEW STORE! CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT WHY YOU’VE EXPANDED TO THE WEST COAST?
For several reasons.. First is that our customer asked us to. So often I would be working on the floor and people visiting NY would ask if we would open there. So I started to think about it, and of course my thinking became accelerated sometime around January while trudging through the NYC streets in many many layers of clothing. Another reason was to open myself up to new experience. Over the recent years Love Adorned has become a hotbed for artists and designers, and while craft has always been an integral part of California, the current generation of craftspeople really incorporate a modern sensibility that appeals to a sophisticated aesthetic standard. Doing studio visits is infinitely inspiring to me and helps me to develop as a curator.
HOW DOES YOUR WEST COAST LOCATION DIFFER FROM NYC, FROM A DECOR STANDPOINT?
It’s actually quite different. When I first opened our NYC location, the design was informed by my lifestyle. I spend a ton of time in the flea markets and come across some really beautiful fixtures. My friends are all antiques nerds so I was able to acquire many unusual, old cases. To throw in a twist, we took all of these old cases and put them on speedrail pipe legs. Over the years it’s gotten very popular for stores to display jewelry in these old cases so I wanted to do something different that still harkened back to what we were doing in our other locations. I contacted an old friend of mine named Trevor Wade, who is the guy that interiors people call when they have an impossible project. I wanted him to recreate the shapes of our antique cases but in narrow metal rod and glass. Also to use the same materials to create repetitive, geometric cases that would be repeated on each side of the room. Looking through them to the stark white of our gloss white epoxy floor, the outcome is stunning.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DESIGN ELEMENT USED IN THE STORE?
The unusual use of glass. The idea of having our jewelry cases be glass bottomed so that the jewelry is basically being displayed on the white of the floor is slightly unnerving but very effective.
ANY FAVORITE MEMORIES OF THE DESIGN PROCESS YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE?
The day we could finally take the paper off the floor to see if the concept worked. I nearly cried when I saw how well it did…
WHAT WAS THE GREATEST CHALLENGE?
Creating a space from 3000 miles away.
CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE STORE’S AESTHETIC IN THREE WORDS?
The single word I used when explaining it to any person who was helping us to build the space was ‘invisible’. I wanted to the space to seem so light and airy that the product would be the loudest element in the room. Wait, that is 3. Light, airy..invisible.
WHAT PRODUCTS PEOPLE LOVING AT THE SANTA MONICA STORE?
Do you notice any initial differences from your NYC shoppers? I think that people are really loving the artisan made items that aren’t readily available in Los Angeles. They are also very into the antique and vintage jewelry selection, especially the men’s collection. As for the differences in our West Coast to East Coast customer, the difference I am seeing is that LA people are used to endless summer and are drawn to brighter colors and lighter fragrances. But we’re still so new. We will see what develops…