Many of Entire Studios’s staff had to leave danger zones, including co-founder Dylan Richards Diaz. “As our house was in an evacuation area, my family and our dogs moved into our studio in Downtown LA,” he says. “I took the opportunity to order blow-up mattresses in bulk so that if there were ever another emergency like this, our studio space could serve as a refuge for staff, their families and friends.”
Pacific Palisades was one of the first communities to be hit and has suffered some of the worst damage. Churches, schools, businesses and homes are lost. People abandoned their cars near Walker’s store, running away on foot due to jammed traffic on the narrow hilly streets. Nearby, other stores, including Mother Denim and an upcoming La DoubleJ flagship — set to open in six weeks — also burned to the ground. Palisades Village, the upscale shopping mall owned by Rick Caruso that’s home to brands including Anine Bing, Brunello Cucinelli, Favorite Daughter, Saint Laurent and more, was damaged but remained standing.
“I think, first, of all the people who just lost their homes, because obviously that is the most devastating thing,” says La DoubleJ founder JJ Martin, who is based in Milan. Martin grew up in the Palisades, and her childhood home was lost in the wildfires. But when her mind turns to the store, which had been two years in the making and under construction for nine months, Martin says the team is crushed. “We’re heartbroken and devastated and flatlined.” No inventory or furnishings had yet been installed, and Martin says she intends to find a new LA location. “Maybe further east.”
For Walker, the fires may have wiped out half of her businesses. Fortunately, though, she is among a handful of independent luxury retailers who have expanded their stores around the country. She has new shops in New York City, a long-time store in Newport Beach, an online business and a Culver City distribution centre.
Walker says she spent Wednesday grieving on her sofa. Twenty-five years ago, she was one of the first — if not the first — retailers to recognise the potential in the sleepy-but-wealthy hillside community of Pacific Palisades north of Santa Monica. She brought luxury fashions, and more followed. Eventually, The Row, Bottega Veneta and other luxury brands opened spaces nearby. Walker’s store expanded and became something of a community hub, with large sofas on which kids and husbands communed while women shopped, often in groups.
