FROM LEFT: The interior of the boutique; food trucks lined up at First Friday on Abbot Kinney. BELOW: David Arquette, David Bedwell and Ben Harper at Bloomingdale’s.
If you haven't been to Abbot Kinney in Venice on the first Friday of every month, you are missing out on a street scene that seldom occurs in Los Angeles. Live bands play everything from blues to bluegrass right on the sidewalk; eclectic art galleries host events; delicious mobile restaurants serve up Korean barbecue, traditional barbecue, Mexican food and hybrids of all the above, not to mention a little sushi (yes, sushi) to boot— sushi that’s as fresh as anything you find on Ventura Boulevard.
For one night a month Venice transforms from a Southern California beach community into its own rock ’n’ roll version of Austin or Bourbon Street: Drunkards stumble down the packed-to-the-gills walkways, people are dressed to turn heads and an overall feeling of celebration is in the air—a much-needed distraction from our daily Hollywood hustle.
I have to admit I have my own reasons why I would like to invite you down there. Four months ago I opened a small boutique with my business partners, Ben Harper and David Bedwell, for our clothing line, Propr. The shop is filled with rare collectibles, fine midcentury furniture, unique music, books and art, but most importantly it contains our entire collection of clothing from Propr’s current season—men’s and women’s fashions made mostly in America, using a large percentage of organic cotton and constructed with a fine eye toward detail and an emphasis on quality and classic design.
I am very proud of Propr. More than a year and a half ago I asked my dear friend and favorite musician, Ben Harper, to join me and David (the former creative director of Original Penguin clothing) in creating an affordable luxury brand that reflected our personal style. We are all passionate about what we wear, what we like to see our wives in and what we want to create for the people we consider cool. We all have our own unique style, and we felt it would be great if we could design a brand that reflected our similarities but still allowed us to remain individuals.
We named the brand Propr, which you can see we spell with no “e” because we like the letters better that way and because it is rumored to be an old French spelling—but we have yet to confirm that fact. Still, we gave the line its name to bring back the days when a gentleman was a gentleman and a lady was a lady. That’s not to say our clothes are overly conservative (we did produce a fabulous poncho for fall ’09), but it does say we believe in chivalry and dressing “Propr-ly” for the occasion.
I hope you have a chance to stop by the store on a First Friday or just any old day and take a look at our clothes. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. 1306 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, 424-744-8232; proprclothing.com
LEFT: A look from Propr.
