A profile of Melody Barnett, proprietor of rental home Palace Costume

Each time a younger Melody Barnett attended church, she was awestruck. One thing in regards to the congregation’s elegant headwear at all times caught her eye. The ladies would typically put on these extravagant, floral hats or don a extra refined pillbox type. And Barnett, proprietor of Hollywood rental home Palace Costume, remembers being fully entranced.

“I might sit and simply look,” Barnett says. “That’s one of many few issues I bear in mind about church, simply all of the hats.”

This fashion-leaning fascination, she says, is part of her heritage. Coming from a lineage of collectors, the 83-year-old has devoted her life to the garments of the previous. For almost 50 years, Palace Costume, an area open solely by appointment to stylists and costume designers, has supplied a wearable trend archive relationship again to the Eighteen Eighties. It’s turn into a one-stop store for hanging inspiration and embracing a timeless sense of glamour.

Since Palace Costume’s inception, Barnett’s clothes has appeared in basic movies similar to “Chinatown,” “Bonnie and Clyde,” “The Godfather,” and newer Oscar winners like “La La Land” and “All the pieces In every single place All at As soon as.” Past the silver display, Beyoncé wore heart-shaped, reflective underwear on the duvet of “Texas Maintain ‘Em,” Chappell Roan sported a sequined marching band leotard for the “Scorching to Go!” music video, and dangly, yellow earrings accomplished Billie Eilish’s look within the “What Was I Made For?” video — all items pulled from Palace.

The Fairfax Avenue storefront is surrounded by a form of mystical vitality. Tucked between a contemporary condominium complicated and a wellness heart, it’s straightforward to drive by and by no means discover the atypical citadel facade, full with fairy tale-esque murals of animal-faced figures, sheet ghosts and stone partitions.

The Fairfax Avenue storefront of Palace Costume is surrounded by a form of mystical vitality.

Inside, the appeal continues. Behind the entrance desk, pathways resembling that of a labyrinth lead buyers all through the shop’s 4 flooring. Relying on which manner you flip, it’s possible you’ll find yourself within the jewellery room, the place brightly coloured costume bangles, heavy steel silver chokers and gold chains are piled excessive inside glass circumstances, or within the promenade gown part the place the aisles are suffocated by petticoats. With over half 1,000,000 objects in Barnett’s stock, the gathering seems to be countless. Round every twist and switch, there’s a room solely for vacation put on, a walk-in dedicated to fur coats, and several other hallways lined with laundry baskets of handbags and gown footwear ready to be picked by means of.

On an early July morning, digicam lights, extra racks of designer clothes and a staff of creatives squeezed into the organized however cluttered house to formulate Barnett’s personal second of glamour. Her kitchen house, full with brightly coloured dishware and ceramic meals replicas, was swiftly remodeled right into a makeshift vainness house the place she sat to get a full face of make-up and her hair braided. Barnett was hesitant, at first, in entrance of the digicam — asking photographer Tyler Matthew Oyer the place to place her palms and whether or not she ought to smile.

Melody wears Fendi jacket, Stella McCartney footwear, and Alexis Bittar jewellery.

However because the day went on and he or she traded a leather-based Fendi trench coat for a multicolored Loewe one, Barnett’s eyes began to mild up in another way. The rolling ladders meant to succeed in the best hanging clothes turned her stage. Lingering hats and sun shades turned impromptu props. She started to lean into her rigorously curated emporium because the vivacious backdrop it’s.

It additionally helped that Barnett was within the palms of these she trusted. Erik Ziemba, who’s been coming to Palace Costume for the final decade, styled the shoot. He calls the house “the last word glam dress-up room” and mentions the whispers he hears of main trend homes stopping by Palace to collect inspiration.

“It’s the style library,” Ziemba says. “Folks [like Barnett and her business partner, Lee Ramstead], who actually perceive durations, silhouettes and materials, are true trend historians and it’s extraordinarily essential that these people who find themselves so well-versed in data and costuming are concerned within the course of.”

Palace covers all the things individuals have worn over 125 years and the gathering continues to develop.

“I maintain it updated yearly,” Barnett says. “It doesn’t should be classic. I’ve a complete part that dates from 2001 to 2025. I’m not stopping anytime quickly. Generally it’s even simpler to gather when individuals are nonetheless carrying it as an alternative of ready and it will get costlier.”

Barnett credit her massive household with serving to her construct out the inventory, particularly the youngsters’s part. As she walks between the floor-to-ceiling clothes racks, she factors out her highschool commencement gown (a strappy, pink and white polka dot sundress), previous coveralls she used to put on and a few of her son’s clothes.

Each time Shelley Barnett, Melody’s daughter, involves Palace, she’s taken again to her childhood. From a younger age, she remembers her mom and grandmother each having “unimaginable senses of fashion.” They’d typically all dig by means of property gross sales and vintage shops, with Shelley serving to pick which classic garments to buy. These days, she gravitates most towards the youngsters’s part, the place her child garments and previous Halloween costumes can be found to hire.

“My mother is such a passionate individual. With the ability to watch her simply construct this enterprise by means of the years and have it’s what she loves means a lot,” says Shelley, 56, who lives on a ranch in Wildomar the place she boards horses. “All of us look as much as her a lot. She’s very family-oriented — she’d by no means miss a celebration. However when she’s at Palace, she runs circles round us all. She doesn’t cease. That’s her factor.”

Carousel horses and toy planes fill the youngsters’s ground airspace. Every staircase is a maximalist’s dream as nearly each inch of the wall is lined with displayed clothes, framed memorabilia and an illustrated version of “The Timeline of World Costume.” Within her Hawaii room, the place Barnett boasts having a number of the first-ever rayon Hawaiian shirts, there’s even a closet stockpiled with tiki souvenirs, images of Elvis Presley and ornamental masks.

Melody wears Loewe jacket, her personal pants, and Loewe footwear.

“My entire focus is being eclectic. I like mixing issues. I don’t need only one set look. I need to mix it,” says Barnett. “My mom and grandmother have been extra basic than I’m. I’ve at all times been an eccentric individual.”

Her favourite items are those she’s sourced from all around the world. As she flips by means of the racks, she remarks a few previous romantic companion she traveled with and the way most of those items will “by no means be made ever once more.” Although her assortment delves into the posh finish of trend — with archival Moschino and Yves Saint Laurent at her fingertips — she says, “I don’t base something off what it’s price.”

She brings over a beaded, floral skirt she obtained as a young person from Mexico within the Nineteen Fifties. Subsequent, she pulls down a few of her favourite Japanese European clothes, with conventional embroidery, from international locations similar to Hungary and Poland. She additionally factors out her in depth African part, which options heavy, hand-beaded neckpieces and Kente material clothes — a few of which have been worn in “Black Panther.”

Her grandmother, who ignited the household’s collector gene, had an array of vintage Tiffany lamps and complicated coats, and ran a clothes store of her personal. In the meantime, Barnett’s mom made her youngsters’s garments and labored in a army store, the place Barnett first discovered a love for thrifting.

The Palace Costume assortment started someday in her late 20s. She was residing in Laguna Seaside when she stumbled upon a field of Victorian clothes at a neighborhood swap meet. On the time, her neighbor Robert Becker owned an vintage retailer in L.A. and had informed Barnett that individuals within the metropolis “have been simply starting to promote classic clothes.”

Melody wears Sportmax jacket, Brooks Brothers pants, Bode footwear and Alexis Bittar jewellery.

“We obtained into classic, proper when it started to be a giant factor,” says Barnett, who shares that on the time, individuals weren’t seeking to the previous for inspiration simply but. The duo then set off to create one of many first classic shops on Melrose Avenue, referred to as the Crystal Palace, which stood the place the Pacific Design Middle does at present.

Earlier than settling into the present Fairfax storefront, they offered classic at a couple of different places on Melrose. Fortuitously, one of many spots was throughout the road from Wolfgang Puck’s career-launching restaurant, Ma Maison. With Barnett’s extravagant window shows, she lured the eating crowd over and started to construct a celeb clientele from there.

As costume designers made their rounds, searching for interval items, they regularly informed Barnett that she must be renting as an alternative of promoting.

“I believed that was a good suggestion. Throughout filming, you aren’t carrying it every single day. It’s only for a sure scene. I figured we might assist restore and preserve the gathering,” says Barnett. Then, within the late ‘70s, she purchased the Fairfax location, and Ramstead, a fellow antiquarian, supplied to assist run the enterprise.

To at the present time, Ramstead prides himself on doing all the things and realizing everybody within the enterprise. Commanding the entrance desk with a protracted, swinging ponytail and a belt buckle which reads “Lee,” he juggles the ringing telephone, factors confused prospects in the correct route and helps handle the stock.

“I’ve watched it develop. Now we’re bursting on the seams out of right here,” says Ramstead as he checks out a dressing up designer searching for the upcoming season of “Abbott Elementary.” “I imply, I’m 73. I might retire if I didn’t like my job. However I really feel very protecting of this place. Anyone has to observe over it.”

Melody wears Issey Miyake high, pants, and hat, Bode footwear and Palace Costume sun shades.

Picture’s trend director at massive, Keyla Marquez, considers Ramstead to be the gatekeeper of the priceless assortment. Each time anybody calls to make an appointment at Palace, they’re greeted with a complete checklist of questions: What’s the mission? Who will put on the garments? Who do you’re employed with, and have you ever labored with Palace earlier than?

“This place is simply so particular, and the garments are so essential. Not everybody respects garments the way in which that these garments must be revered,” says Marquez. “If somebody pulls one thing and so they damage it or don’t return it, that’s it. It’s misplaced for all of us. Nobody has the flexibility to tug it anymore.”

On one of many compounded constructing’s high flooring, Barnett lives a portion of her week in a tightly packed condominium house (she splits the rest of her week residing at her completely different SoCal properties, which she hopes to show into occasion areas). Throughout from her waterbed, she has a analysis library, full with a swiveling ladder, filled with trend books. Her front room partitions are lined with old-timey lace-up heels that she says have been solely ever worn by Bette Midler, as she was the one actor with ft sufficiently small to put on them.

Although the world is designated as her personal quarters, there’s not a transparent separation between her work and her life. There are clothes racks, full of leather-based jackets and neon bras, in the midst of the room. Packing containers and luggage with objects to be sorted designate a transparent strolling path, and the additional bedrooms are deemed the lingerie part, which dates again to the Victorian period.

Melody wears Dolce & Gabbana jacket, Alexis Bittar jewellery and her personal footwear.

Lynn McQuown, an worker who has labored with Palace since 1992, thinks of the gathering as a residing murals.

“It’s one individual’s life’s work. She’s an artist, not an organization. She’s constructed it up fully from a field of Victorian garments. She labored 20-hour days for many years and many years,” McQuown says.

And Barnett exhibits no indicators of slowing down. Each time she’s on the store, she’ll settle right into a spot that wants organizing and work by means of the objects herself. She browses property gross sales and swap meets seeking hidden gems. She’s nonetheless brainstorming methods on enhance Palace and broaden the gathering. She goals of repatterning a few of her oldest, most fragile items and reproducing them, giving them a brand new life.

“My household will proceed the enterprise and proceed to rent competent individuals to run it. I’ve no plans to stop, as a result of I take pleasure in it. I find it irresistible, particularly the acquisition half,” Barnett says. “I intend to work until I’m 100.”