Courtesy of Ampersand

Ampersand

See also:
*10 Best Vintage and Second-Hand Boutiques in L.A.
*10 Best Women's Shoe Stores in Los Angeles
*Top 10 Weirdest Stores in L.A.

Finding the right women's clothing boutique means a lot of trial and error. Somewhere between the dingy storefronts packed with poorly-made clothing in sizes that only fit Keira Knightley and the intimidating, overly priced booths that cater to those in that actress's tax bracket are reasonably priced boutiques where a size four doesn't mean an extra large. Here are a few of our favorites.

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Kevin Scanlon

Alicia Estrada

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2013 issue. Check out our entire People 2013 issue here.

When an acquaintance delivered Alicia Estrada a message from God in late 2011, it wasn't the first time that a man she hardly knew told her something that would change her life forever.

The first was back in the early '90s, when Estrada was at Cal State Fullerton studying accounting and one of her professors told her to drop out of school. Drop out? "But I'm great at numbers!" she protested.

His message had nothing to do with her aptitude for accounting. He'd noticed that she had a talent for fashion.

See also:
*10 Best Vintage and Second-Hand Boutiques in L.A.

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Kevin Scanlon

Philippa Price & Smiley Stevens

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2013 issue. Check out our entire People 2013 issue here.

Six-foot-something Philippa Price glanced across a New York City bar and locked eyes with a fellow skyscraper, a blonde named Smiley Stevens. That night, as the young women conversed, they realized they had more in common than just stature. Both were avid readers. Both grew up in Los Angeles. And both shared a fancy for fashion.

A student at Parsons The New School for Design, Price was pursuing a major in integrated design. Born in Hampshire, England, to Brits who later emigrated to L.A., she drew inspiration from her aunt, Maureen Baker, who'd designed clothing for the royal family in the '60s and '70s.

Stevens' path was a bit more meandering. Majoring in environmental studies and urban planning at NYU, she dabbled in modeling on the side.

The two developed a sisterly bond over the next few months.

"We started by making wallets in the metal studio at Parsons," Price says. "Smiley would sneak into the [metal] shop, and we'd lock ourselves inside. At first we were making the wallets for friends, and it just grew from there."

See also:
*10 Best Vintage and Second-Hand Boutiques in L.A.

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Kevin Scanlon

Anna Greer & Tina Stormberg

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2013 issue. Check out our entire People 2013 issue here.

Best friends since preschool, Anna Dewey Greer and Christine (Tina) Stormberg moved from Omaha to Los Angeles to open a bikini shop that was also a life/art project and also a girly wonderland, a place where they could have haircut parties, fortune-telling parties and craft parties, even drink margaritas outside. They called it Dog Show. And in the year and a half it's been open in Echo Park, it has become something of a scene.

It's hard to open a business in Los Angeles. Many fold within the first year. The success has come even though the two art-school grads had no formal business classes. No sewing classes, for that matter. And no retail experience, unless you count the time Greer worked at a balloon store.

What they had was a wad of money, squirreled away from a year of bartending and sharing a super-cheap Omaha apartment. They also had a ReloCube full of clothes — their own personal wardrobe, from years of obsessive thrifting — and a giant unicorn head.

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Kevin Scanlon

Jessie Andrews

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2013 issue. Check out our entire People 2013 issue here.

Jessie Andrews was a 17-year-old American Apparel salesgirl in Miami Beach when company founder Dov Charney, impressed with her abilities, hired her to instruct the other area employees. She later began modeling for the company and then, at 18, was recruited by elite porn agent Mark Spiegler, who manages high-profile adult stars, including former client Sasha Grey.

By 2012 Andrews was so successful in that industry that the AVN Awards named her best actress for her title role in Portrait of a Call Girl, which finds her engaging in a six–person "blowbang," bondage, sadomasochism and all.

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Creative Age Communications/Armando Sanchez

Controversial winner Amy Becker

See also:
*5 Artsy Things to Do in L.A. This Week *Top 10 Weirdest Stores in L.A.
*10 Best Vintage and Second-Hand Boutiques in L.A.

At the competition to determine the World's Fastest Set of Acrylic Sculptured Nails, the air is thick with the smell of acetone and ambition. Eight contestants sit at long folding tables, heads bowed as if in prayer. Hosted by the Nailpro Trade Show, the contest is being held at the Pasadena Convention Center on a spring day so lovely and carefree it gives little indication of the tension inside.

Preparation has been intense. Contestant No. 112, Shannon McCown, for instance, sat in front of the TV all night every night for a month doing her 19-year-old daughter's nails, driving her family crazy with nail talk. She now fiddles anxiously with bottles of sanitizing solution and Tammy Taylor conditioning cuticle oil.

Two tables over, as if the pressure weren't bad enough, sits contestant No. 113: Tammy Taylor herself, holder of the unofficial record for fastest set of acrylic nails, author of the beauty school standard The Complete Guide to Manicuring and Advanced Nail Technology, inventor of the flattened brush ferrule and Dazzle Rocks White Twinkling Stars nail powder, and president of Tammy Taylor Nails Inc., "where nails are always fun, and never feel like work." Word is that Taylor has this thing in the bag.

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Paul Ulukpo

Customers get into the pile at 2 Dollar Clothing.

See also:
*10 Best Vintage and Second-Hand Boutiques in L.A.
*At This West Hollywood Fashion Library, the Prada Dress You Rent Could Save Your Life

Nothing at the 2 Dollar Clothing store in West Hollywood costs more than $2. Not the new Marc Jacobs or DKNY tops, not the BCBG skirt or the Michael Kors boots, not the Gucci, Miu Miu, Armani or Jimmy Choo — not even the pair of pants a man once found that inexplicably had $800 in the pocket. He tried to return the money, but the owners wouldn't have it. 

"If you buy that for $2, it's yours. Whatever comes in it is yours, too," says Joe, who opened the storefront in October with his siblings Destiny and Alex. He describes himself as the brain behind the store.

Destiny, his younger sister, is the heart, and the one who keeps the store chugging along. "I don't care if you're the homeless guy, you can get the Gucci item," she says.

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Whitney Friedlander

Vamp Shoes

Whether you're indulging your inner Carrie Bradshaw's need for Manolo Blahnik or looking for your sneaker holy grail, Los Angeles has a shoe store for you. Here's a rundown of where to find the pumps, loafers, trainers, wedges, slingbacks, flats and everything in between to satisfy anyone's retifism.

See also:
*10 Best Vintage and Second-Hand Boutiques in L.A.
*10 Best L.A. Art Galleries For Partying
*Top 10 Weirdest Stores in L.A.

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Photo by Eve Weston

After weeks of controversy and much public comment, the West Hollywood City Council gave final approval last night to its ban on flannel. This ban comes hot on the heels of West Hollywood's ban on fur sales, voted into law in 2012 and effective earlier this year.

One important difference is that the flannel ban is not just on sales of the cotton-wool blend, most commonly seen in plaid, but on wearing it as well. "We staged several fashion shows specifically for focus groups and, not knowing it was just a test, attendees were visibly nauseated," recounted city councilman John D'Amico. "Snickers and whispers of, 'Grunge went out with the '90s' and 'Now I know why Cobain was so depressed' filled the ballroom. It was harsh."

In the press release addressing the ban, it was noted that "residents' well being" was an important consideration in bringing the ban into law, in addition to the recently adopted notion of "vision pollution." D'Amico explained, "If government has the right to curb noise pollution by limiting the volume and discordance of sounds in the city, it likewise should have the right to limit ugliness and tackiness. Vision is hardly a lesser sense than hearing."

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LA Opera

The evil stepsisters (Ronnita Nicole Miller, Stacey Tappan) flank their evil father (Alessandro Corbelli)

L.A. Opera's current production of Rossini's La Cenerentola (aka Cinderella) has no glass slippers, no coach that turns into a pumpkin, no evil stepmother and absolutely no bippity boppity boo.

But it is a fun visual feast, a comic opera in cartoon colors, thanks largely to the work of set and costume designer Joan Guillén. Guillén, who has taught set design in Barcelona for 40 years, makes his L.A. Opera debut with La Cenerentola, which opened to a sold-out house at the Dorothy Chandler on March 23.

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