Palisades Village is a love letter to L.A. fashion, with a tenant mix that’s a who’s who of homegrown brands. Plus, power retailer Elyse Walker is back and better than ever. Fashion-world fixtures the Elevator Boys are aiming to become the next digital content creators to cross over into mainstream scripted entertainment. And it’s time to book your table at Skywalker Grill.
Palisades Village Tenants Offer a Who’s Who of Contemporary L.A. Fashion Brands
Rick Caruso’s Palisades Village reopened with much fanfare last weekend following $100 million in environmental remediation and renovations, reintroducing itself as a gathering place for a community still rebuilding and healing from last year’s fires.
The refreshed retail tenant list is a concentration of some of the most successful homegrown labels of the past two decades, making the shopping center a compelling destination for L.A. fashion and different visions of its trademark ease, as conceived by founders who are denim industry veterans, Hollywood stylists, digital influencers and more.
One of the must-sees is the first West Coast store for Leset, the L.A. brand founded by Lili Chemla in 2019 that moves beyond athleisure to marry the ease of loungewear with the polish of ready-to-wear.
Its popular Margo boxy tees, pointelle knits, Kyoto carpenter pants, cropped cardigans and oversized merino sweaters, available in classic colors and punchy brights, can be worn as part of matching sets for an everyday tonal uniform or pulled apart to wear with other things. In addition to its basics, the brand now also has slip skirts, shorts, outerwear, shoes and even some patterns in the mix, like fall’s cheery marigold jacquard.
The brand’s effortless essentials have a devoted following that includes Hailey Bieber, Dakota Johnson, Sofia Richie Grainge and other tastemakers who have turned Leset’s deceptively simple staples into cult pieces.
Designed by Phoebe Little, the store feels like a closet in a luxe coastal California home, with washed-out hues, warm woods, stone floors, custom millwork, vintage light fixtures and gorgeous, minimal floral arrangements, all of which add to the experience.
Next door, you’ll find the first-ever store from Xirena, Dierdre Roffoni and Tony Graham’s stalwart L.A. brand, built on relaxed washed cotton poplin shirts and shirt dresses, crinkly gauze dresses and drawstring pants.
The L.A. fashion veterans founded Xírena (pronounced “sirena”) in 2011, and it has been on an upward trajectory since, transitioning from its beginnings in cotton lingerie to delightfully lived-in shirting and eventually a full lifestyle offering with boho floral dresses and skirts, corduroy jackets, denim and more.
All of it is on display in the boutique, which has a lovely organic feel with an artificial skylight made from fabric, hand carved travertine flooring, and curved textured walls. There’s also a fun selection of accessories from third-party brands in the mix, including shell necklaces from Gachon Pothier, metallic socks and embroidered raffia bags by Maria La Rosa.
Hollywood stylist-turned-designer Andrea Lieberman’s sophisticated California contemporary label ALC has reopened across the way, as has L.A. model-influencer Anine Bing‘s store, which stocks denim, tailoring and shoes with a rock ‘n’ roll edge, plus her popular “Los Angeles” University sweatshirts showing hometown pride.
In a huge storefront on the main drag of Swarthmore Avenue is Reformation, the L.A.-born label Yael Aflalo launched in 2009 with reworked vintage and grew into a powerhouse that helped redefine sustainable fashion — culminating in an IPO last month at an eye-popping $886 million valuation.
And coming in January: Staud, founded by L.A. native Sarah Staudinger after she was fashion director of Reformation. She has built an impressive business with her cheerful, vintage-inspired resort wear, beaded bags and covetable shoes, not to mention collabs with Birkenstock, New Balance, American Express and more.
Just across the way, Cult Gaia opens next month. That’s Jasmin Larian Hekmat’s label, born in L.A. in 2012, which has turned accessories and clothing into sometimes-surrealist objets d’art, beginning with the bamboo Ark bag that became an emblem of Instagram-era style.
On the denim front is Paige, former fit model Paige Adams-Geller’s brand that grew out of L.A.’s early-aughts premium denim boom. And soon-to-open Mother, founded by denim veterans Lela Becker and Tim Kaeding, channels mischievous irreverence and 1970s nostalgia into vintage-inspired jeans and ready-to-wear. The brand lost its original Palisades location in the fire days before it was due to open, and this store follows on the heels of a Beverly Hills boutique that opened last month.
Like several of the brands with stores in Palisades Village, Mother makes much of its clothing in L.A., as does Buck Mason, which has a men’s store and will soon have a women’s store here as well. Sasha Koehn and Erik Allen Ford founded Buck Mason in Venice in 2013, focusing on American classics, including perfect white tees, chinos, button-downs and chore jackets. (Leanne Ford, who is married to Erik, designs their chic stores and is a formidable creative force herself, having done interior collaborations with Crate & Barrel and other brands.)
On the luxury side, Jacques Marie Mage, Jérôme Mage’s wildly successful 10-year-old L.A. eyewear label, is opening an outpost for its collectible eyeglasses and design objects that pair iconoclastic swagger with Japanese craft.
And anchoring a particularly visible corner, L.A. native Jennifer Meyer is back. After founding her fine-jewelry line in 2005, her breakthrough came when Jennifer Aniston wore her leaf necklace in the 2006 film “The Break-Up.”
If L.A. style is defined by polished ease, Meyer has translated that idea into jewelry. Her nameplate, palm tree, initial and charm pendant necklaces have been part of the off-duty, everyday wardrobes of Hollywood celebrities for two decades. When it came time to open her first flagship store, Meyer chose Palisades Village, and she lent her support through the devastating fires, even designing an “L.A.” pendant with proceeds benefiting the Los Angeles Fire Department. In store now, she’s continuing her neighborhood cheer with a new “Palisades” pendant necklace.
These local brands tell a feel-good story of creativity and entrepreneurship, reflecting distinct facets of the city’s style and different generations of brand building. Together, they offer a fitting reminder of what good can happen when the city comes together.
Palisades Village, 15225 Palisades Village Lane, Pacific Palisades.
Palisades Fashion Icon Back in Business
Elyse Walker brought high-end designer clothing to the Pacific Palisades in 1999, opening her namesake store on Antioch Street and giving the Westside neighborhood the fashion clubhouse it needed.
She set the standard for personal service, shopping the collections in Europe with specific clients in mind, delivering clothes to their homes for them to try on and launching an in-house styling program. All of it helped her grow Elyse Walker to a fleet of eight stores from New York to the Napa Valley, including her more casual Towne stores. All the while, she nurtured a core community of women in the Palisades who shopped for shoes, showed off new babies and cried over relationships in her midst.
Last year, when Walker lost the mothership in the Palisades Fire, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to reopen. Then Rick Caruso came calling, offering her the prime space fronting Sunset Boulevard at the entrance to Palisades Village.
Now located at 1000 Swarthmore with nearly 8,000 square feet of retail space, the store has a sophisticated salon feel and was designed by architecture firm Janson Scuro, which was also responsible for the Madison Avenue flagship in New York and Walker’s store in St. Helena, Calif.
Spanning three rooms, Walker’s curation of luxury brands is as sharp as ever, dictated by clients rather than trends. The selection includes tailoring from Celine, Gucci and Saint Laurent; knitwear from Walker’s own namesake line; mixed-print skirts and gold-embroidered shirts from Dries Van Noten; and sexy, silky evening dresses from Silvia Tcherassi. She also stocks up-and-coming brands such as High Sport, Jacquemus and Jude, alongside fine jewelry from Gucci, Jenna Blake, Spinelli Kilcollin and Sophie Bille Brahe, among others.
Walker got her start in shoes and still has the best selection in town, from Phoebe Philo ballet flats to Alaïa’s latest suede cutout slippers and Khaite’s whipstitched moccasin kitten heels.
The heart of the store is a central living room with a large, welcoming couch designed to spark conversation, just as the space always has. Etched in stone on the floor at the entrance to the store is “Palisades Forever.”
“I want to thank every client, friend and retail partner who stood by us and supported us through the challenges post fire,” Walker told guests gathered for the opening hosted by Rick Caruso on Saturday. “It all led to this point where we celebrate this momentous occasion not just for the store, but for the entire Palisades community that now has a place to gather and call home.”
Elyse Walker, 1000 Swarthmore Street, Pacific Palisades, CA.
Elevator Boys Make Their Film Debut
Addison Rae, Noah Beck and … the Elevator Boys?
When the German boy band, which surged to popularity on TikTok, signed with CAA last spring, it was clear they had Hollywood ambitions.
With more than 48 million social media followers, the five members — Bene Schulz, Jacob Rott, Julien Brown, Luis Freitag and Tim Schaecker — have gone from being content creators just starting out to firmly establishing themselves in the pop music world with singles such as “Runaway,” “I Like It” and “Love Me Better” — all in just five years.
They have also become fashion-world fixtures, partnering with Gucci, Prada, Armani, Ralph Lauren, Hublot, L’Oréal Paris and Rabanne Beauty, among other brands, and have become regulars in the front row at fashion weeks. Rott in particular has emerged as a red carpet risk-taker and style setter and even walked the Versace runway as a model in 2024.
Now, the Elevator Boys have turned their attention to acting, with their first film, “Back to the ’90s,” debuting Friday on Prime Video in German with English subtitles.
The time-travel film is of the “Back to the Future” genre, only the time machine isn’t a DeLorean, it’s … you guessed it, an elevator.
Art imitates life in that the film follows five friends who dream of making it as a boy band. When one member threatens to walk away just as their big break is in play, the group unexpectedly finds itself transported back to 1995.
Cue the gags about life pre-tech (a telephone book is mistaken for an instruction manual, cassette tapes abound, navigation to a party must be done without Google) and the throwback fashion, including space buns, choker necklaces and Veruca Salt T-shirts, all of which look au courant thanks to today’s ’90s nostalgia craze.
The story is light, blending music (alt and pop), friendship and romance. The film, which was directed by Facundo Scalerandi, also introduces a new Elevator Boys track, “1995,” cleverly written and produced by Gary Barlow of Take That, the 1990s British boy band that also featured Robbie Williams.
Will “Back to the ’90s” be enough to lift the Elevator Boys’ acting prospects in Hollywood? Let’s put it this way: It’s a start.
Reserve Lunch (and Dinner) at the Lucas Now
Following the David Geffen Galleries at LACMA opening, L.A.’s next hotly anticipated museum opening is the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, and it’s just around the corner on Sept. 22.
While I love museums, I love museum shops and restaurants almost as much. And the Lucas’ newly announced Skywalker Grill looks incredible.
The restaurant opening atop the futuristic-looking 300,000-square-foot building is giving serious Mos Eisley Cantina vibes — as in, the “wretched hive of scum and villainy” that first appeared in the 1977 original film, “Star Wars.”
Maybe it’s the way the cherry wood paneling curves to resemble the walls of Tatooine’s no-droids-allowed watering hole. Or it could be the gleaming white, futuristic slabs of Corian stone that accent some surfaces. But it’s probably the sculptural bar that anchors the room, reminiscent of the horseshoe-shaped one that welcomes a who’s who of the galactic underworld.
The space was designed by Rockwell Group (of the Las Vegas Cosmopolitan and Nobu Hotels, Warner Music Group headquarters and many more dazzling spaces). And it will also serve up a neat sci-fi-worthy trick: a private dining room with walls that switch from clear to frosted for added privacy. Skywalker Grill will also boast an outdoor terrace described in press materials as “nestled among lush landscaping that offer panoramic views of Los Angeles” (more Forest Moon of Endor vibes, really).
The menu, by comparison, is much more down to earth and skews toward classic American cuisine, with an emphasis on California-grown ingredients. Shareable plates include Dungeness crab cakes, pigs in a blanket and lobster corn dogs, and among the signature entrées on the menu are crispy chicken Milanese, honey-miso-glazed salmon and the Skywalker Ranch Wagyu Burger. Here’s hoping there will be a fun-themed cocktail menu, at least.
The restaurant will welcome guests for lunch, dinner and weekend brunch, and it’s worth noting that Skywalker Grill will be accessible to the general public as well as museumgoers — and after regular museum hours.
Although the restaurant isn’t scheduled to open until the museum officially does, it’s currently accepting reservations online through Resy. As of this writing, though, the first available table for two doesn’t appear to be until early November. So you might just need to use a Jedi mind trick to score the table you’re looking for.
Skywalker Grill at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, 1 Lucas Plaza, Los Angeles, open starting Sept. 22, 2026.
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