Fashion and culture blog for Los Angeles

The times are a’changin’ at Confederacy in Los Feliz, where the boutique and supermodel Ageyness Deyn hosted a cool kid-packed party on Tuesday night to celebrate Rebecca Minkoff’s new shop-in-shop and the store’s new focus on menswear.

Minkoff’s collaboration with Confederacy co-owner and uber-stylist Ilaria Urbinati stems back to 2009, when she helped design Minkoff’s re-relaunched ready to wear collection.

“Becky is one of my oldest friends,” Urbinati said at her Tuesday night soiree, which brought out boldfacers including Ashton Kutcher, Chris Pine, Lauren Conrad and Glee star Jayma Mays. “I think it’s the perfect line for this area in L.A., because her stuff is very ‘downtown New York girl.’ That’s very Silverlake.”

Confederacy, which previously carried an assortment of womenswear by the likes of  Proenza Schouler and Phillip Lim, is now devoting the entire front half of the shop to Minkoff’s flirty skirts, dresses, blazers and covetable leather goods (Urbinati admitted to owning over 30 of the designer’s bags). While the back of the store will continue to serve the boys with dapper Albert Hammond Jr. suiting, Simon Spurr button downs and Band of Outsiders bowties. The simplified merchandise mix will allow Urbinati to more easily focus on styling, which she still does full time  (client Chris Evans has been keeping her quite busy with Captain America premieres on both coasts this week).

“I should have ‘overwhelmed.com’ stamped on my forehead,” she mused, hiding any signs of stress in a pretty high-neck fuchsia dress from Zara.

Of course we can’t forget party co-host Agyness Deyn, who met Minkoff on a New York street corner four years ago during a purse exchange, which Minkoff jokingly compared to a drug deal.

“She has such a great mind for design,” Deyn said of Minkoff’s aesthetic. “It’s very fierce in a subtly kind of way.” The British model, who once dated Strokes member and friend-of-Confederacy Albert Hammond Jr., is currently enjoying an L.A. summer filled with hiking and surfing.

Urbinati seemed to be enjoying herself, too, as she and Lauren Conrad complemented each other’s outfits and carried on about Urbinati’s April wedding, when she married photographer Eric Ray Davidson at a rented out summer camp in Texas.

And of course she seemed excited about her store’s new trajectory.

“We’ve had the same designers for the past couple of seasons,” she said. “It’s time to do some fresh meat.”

Photos: From top left, Lauren Conrad in Rebecca Minkoff with the about-to-pop designer. Top right, Agyness Deyn. Bottom right, Minkoff with Ilaria Urbinati. Images courtesy of Rebecca Minkoff/Getty 

Read the full article »