Stampd opens minimalist-luxe flagship on La Brea Avenue
Los Angeles-based minimalist-luxe streetwear label Stampd has made an indelible impression on the city’s retail landscape with the opening of its first stand-alone store, a 1,350-square-foot flagship on La Brea Avenue.
Located in a former acting studio and theater on the so-called guy’s gulch stretch of the street that includes American Rag, Aether Apparel, and the recently opened Stone Island boutique, the second-floor space is a natural architectural extension of the stripped-back aesthetic — and black-and-white color palette — of the avant-street clothes that landed the five-year-old brand’s founder and creative director Chris Stamp on GQ magazine’s list of the Best New Menswear Designers in America last year.
Brooklyn-based architecture and design studio Snarkitecture helped Stamp make his retail vision, one partially inspired by shopping jaunts to Tokyo, Amsterdam and Copenhagen, a reality. Using bare, white walls, exposed wood ceilings and a floor (and the cashwrap) covered in raw travertine tiles, the resulting space evokes a spare, almost museum-like feeling, an effect heightened by four wall-mounted vitrines containing limited-edition black-and-white surfboards (a hand-painted collaboration with artist Futura, those surfboards will set you back between $20,000 and $25,000 each), and a white painted brick wall upon which glowing white neon spells out the all-capital-letter mantra: “MADE TO MAKE IT.â€
The store, which officially opened May 7, stocks the label’s full assortment of men’s apparel (think $70 cotton T-shirts, $95 boardshorts and $215 distressed denim) and accessories (examples include $49 polka-dotted canvas totes, $60 snapback caps and $650 pebbled cowhide backpacks) as well as items from its ongoing collaboration with Puma. (Pieces from the recently launched women’s collection such as $55 cropped tees, $75 scalloped-hem athletic mesh jerseys and $275 cropped nylon bomber jackets with dangling straps aren’t currently being stocked but may be added to the merchandise mix in the near future.)
It also showcases pieces from the brand’s newly launched home goods collection, which puts the Stampd stamp on a range of otherwise mundane household objects including matte black, silicone-rubber-wrapped coat hangers ($20 and $25) and slatted apple crates crafted out of polished white marble instead of wood (price upon request).
There are also a few limited-edition pieces being sold exclusively at the new flagship. They include a stylish leather sneaker created in collaboration with Amsterdam-based footwear label Filling Pieces ($245) and a black, longsleeve T-shirt with a black-and-white map of Los Angeles screenprinted on the chest with the store’s address below and its geographical coordinates 34.072612° x -118.34387° printed on each sleeve (the Destination One T-shirt, $88).
For those not fluent in longitude and latitude, that puts the new Stampd flagship at 130 S. La Brea Ave.
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