Photo by Angela + Ithyle

Bri Emery, uberblogger

Erika Brechtel's kid is only 3 years old, but she knows the perils of being raised by a fashion blogger. "Mom, put your iPad down," she'll say. Or rather, scream: "Mom! Put! Your! iPad! Down!"

Brechtel, 38, is a mom, homeowner and full-time graphic designer married to "a workaholic architect husband." She is also a blogger: She started posting about fashion on her "brand styling" company Small Shop Studio's website a year and a half ago. Her most successful posts deconstruct a particular trend. "How to wear the gray tee," for instance, or "how to wear red jeans."

"Thousands of hits a day," she says incredulously. "For those!"

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Kevin Scanlon

Two of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2012 issue. Check out our entire People 2012 issue here.

Kit Quinn and Tallest Silver keep their legal names off the record. The best friends' fear is that, as their images circle the web, boundaries blur. Online, strangers want to get too personal. And they've already been recognized at stores and amusement parks.
Quinn and Silver are 23-year-old cosplayers, showing up at such conventions as San Diego Comic-Con dressed as pop culture icons in stunningly accurate detail. Silver, a pretty redhead, does a mean Poison Ivy. Fittingly, Quinn often plays Ivy's best friend and fellow Batman nemesis, Harley Quinn.

At conventions, photographers swarm as though they're celebrities. "Some things are more socially acceptable in that situation," Silver says, "but when you step away from it, that would have been really creepy and not OK" in regular life.

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Kevin Scanlon

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2012 issue. Check out our entire People 2012 issue here.

The girl with the pretty face and the big ass -- that's what they called model Rosie Mercado in high school. To become a model, she didn't lose the weight. She embraced it. Mercado is 5 feet 9 inches and weighs 293 pounds. She actually weighed 350 pounds when she was chosen to be the face of Full Figured Fashion Week 2010, barely a year after she started modeling.

As a kid growing up in Riverside, she always wanted to be the girl on the catwalk but never imagined it was possible. Instead, she was the one beautifying her skinny friends, doing their hair and makeup. She didn't date, or dance, or go to concerts or prom.
Things only changed for her when she stopped hiding and started living. She turned her makeup skills into a career. Her confidence grew. Now, at 31, her motto is: "If you close the door, I'll find a window."

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Brendan A. Murray

An American tradition since 1875, the annual Kentucky Derby is a high-profile horse-racing event in Louisville, Ky., and the first installment of the U.S. Triple Crown -- the equine equivalent of the Super Bowl, World Series and NBA Finals. But here in Los Angeles, more than 2,000 miles from the Churchill Downs racetrack, it's an excuse to drink mint juleps and wear crazy hats.

To celebrate the 100-plus years of horse-racing history, the Los Angeles Athletic Club hosted its second annual Kentucky Derby Viewing Party, featuring Southern-inspired cuisine, side bets and specialty whiskey-based cocktails by Marcos Tello.

Multiple monitors screened the Kentucky Derby live, but it's not like anyone was really watching the so-called "most important two minutes in sports history," because people were too busy checking out the hats -- like these fancy numbers from the Pooka Queen pop-up hat shop.

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Shannon Cottrell

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu makes her L.A. debut at Royal/T.

Royal/T is preparing to close its Culver City digs. The popular restaurant/art gallery cultivated a unique vibe with a staff dressed in costumes inspired by Japanese maid cafes and a variety of unusual events. While the physical location is closing, there's more in store for the popular local brand.

"Although Royal/T's Culver City location will be closing after five amazing years, this moment marks an exciting time for an expansion on what Royal/T has always done," says owner Susan Hancock. "Royal/T will be announcing in the near future an upcoming series of roaming special events, exhibits, shows, brand partnerships and pop-ups in Los Angeles and around the world, so please stay tuned."

An official closing date has not been announced, but the venue's final show, "The Art of Cooking" will run April 27 through Aug. 1.

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Ted Soqui

Ashley Ross, left, and Lindsay Klimitz at the Colony Nightclub with their shoe vending machine.

Salvation has come to the high-heeled hordes of L.A. nightlife, in the form of the city's first flat-shoe vending machine. Squat, unobtrusive, the size of a dresser, the thing is currently located beside the women's restroom at the Colony in Hollywood.

"We did six or seven pairs last week, not a whole lot," says distributor Ashley Ross, glancing brightly at the machine. "But it's still early. We're a little bit new to the L.A. scene. This is the first of many, is the plan."

It's a Thursday night at the club, and Ross and business partner Lindsay Klimitz are restocking shoes. Called Rollasoles, they cost $19.95 (or "an easy $20"). They are basically ballet flats. Soft and squashy, they drop out of the machine rolled up in a plastic can.

"The first time we came to L.A., we had no idea the streets were so bad," Klimitz says, popping cans into the machine.

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Lina Lecaro

Los Angeles Fashion Week is still but a blip on the stylemonger radar -- compared with New York's big bang last month -- but that doesn't mean our local fashionistas and designers aren't donning or doing anything creative, fresh or fun here. At Concept FW this past weekend, held at Ace Gallery on Wilshire, the shows and installations for the most part offered wearable yet arty pieces styled and set up with imagination and panache. And that goes for the crowd as well.

Last night, Vibiana was the locale for the retro-inspired looks of Stop Staring, a company that epitomizes a more streamlined style statement and one that L.A. ladies are known for: Va-va-voom!

In fact, shooting the ensembles at Concept and Stop Staring was an exercise in the polarity of L.A. women's fashion sensibilities. It highlighted the two main ways most of us choose to express ourselves here: (1) sexy, glamorous and very put-together, and (2) edgy, mismatched and kinda all over the place.

Check out our top 10 hottest looks (from on and off the runway) to see how each diverse style is done right.

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Elise Montecastro

Every second Sunday of the month in Pasadena is the famous Rose Bowl Flea Market, one of L.A.'s longest-running flea markets, featuring tons of vendors selling their goods, from vintage and period clothing to antique furnishings.

Something about outdoor flea markets always attracts people with amazing and eclectic sartorial taste. I saw so many trends all in one place yesterday -- brightly colored denim, floppy Western fedoras, studded loafers -- everything under that hot blazing sun.

The outfits that stood out the most yesterday actually came in groups. Friends and couples with like-minded tastes in dressing made for amazing compositions of colors, textures and proportions. Click through to see what I mean.

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Elise Montecastro

The Melrose Trading Post is one of L.A.'s best vintage and collectibles flea markets. It takes place every Sunday at Fairfax High School and is the perfect place to spend an afternoon.

It's also an ongoing fundraising event for student clubs and organizations at Fairfax High, so you can feel good about blowing your paycheck. You'll find everything here, like vintage clothing and handmade jewelry, as well as every kind of tchotchke and knick-knack imaginable.

This week for street wear, it was all about the details that made these treasure hunters' outfits unique. From accessories to DIY embellishments, this flea market's shoppers had it all.

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Elise Montecastro

Everyone knows that the Downtown Art Walk isn't really about the art so much -- it's more about the crowded bar-hopping and people-watching, and oh how I do love the latter.

L.A. is known for its laid-back, casual style. I noticed tons of jersey dresses on the ladies, and the go-to flannel button-down on the men.

What I was looking for tonight were individual interpretations of "easy dressing," and that usually meant wearing a favorite item.

Click through to see how L.A. dresses down for a night to "view art" and romp over to Bar 107, or La Cita, or Pete's...

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