To reside in Los Angeles is to be a seeker. There are those that come to the town seeking the limelight and affluence. There are others who crave temperate climate and lengthy for accessible seashores. The checklist goes on. A few of these needs are simply glad, whereas others are left unfulfilled or forgotten. However for these born and raised on this atypical metropolis, like Shirley Kurata, the search is unending.
The costume designer tells me the important thing to loving this metropolis is to by no means cease venturing round. We sit within the shaded again patio of Virgil Regular, a twenty first century life-style store she owns together with her husband, Charlie Staunton. She wears a vibrant pink getup — a classic high and Issey Miyake pants — full with small pleats and optimum for the unavoidable August warmth wave. Her signature pair of black round glasses sits completely on the bridge of her nostril. It’s a mode of eyewear she owns in a number of colours.
“I at all times inform folks, L.A. is like going to a flea market. There’s some digging to do, however you’ll positively discover some gems,” says the stylist and costume designer, as she’s frequently looking out for up-and-coming inventive hubs and attention-grabbing storefronts. “It received’t be handed to you. You must dig.”
In a technique or one other, “digging” has marked Kurata’s inventive livelihood. Whether or not she’s conjuring wardrobes for the massive display, like within the Oscar-winning “Every part All over the place All at As soon as,” or styling musicians like Billie Eilish, Florence and the Machine and ASAP Rocky for picture shoots and music movies, the hunt for the proper look retains her on her toes.
Over the summer season, Kurata spent quite a lot of time contained in the Costco-size Western Costume Co., pulling seems to be for Vogue World, the journal’s annual touring runway extravaganza. This 12 months, the style spectacle is centered round Hollywood and can happen at Paramount Footage Studios in late October. She is likely one of the eight costume designers requested to current on the occasion — others embody Colleen Atwood of “Edward Scissorhands,” Ruth E. Carter of “Black Panther” and Arianne Phillips of “As soon as Upon a Time in Hollywood.” Kurata might be styling background performers and taking inspiration from the invited costume designers.
Shirley wears classic hat, Meals Clothes high, shirt and gown, We Love Colours tights, Opening Ceremony x Robert Clergerie sneakers and l.a. Eyeworks sun shades.
“[Vogue] wished somebody that could be a stylist and costume designer who has labored each in trend and movie. As a result of quite a lot of costume designers work primarily in TV and movie, they don’t do the style styling for editorial shoots,” says Kurata. “I’m approaching and dealing with what different costume designers have accomplished.”
Since her begin within the enterprise, Kurata has gained popularity of her skill to infuse daring prints and vibrant colour into the narrative worlds she offers with. Her maximalist sense of experimentation took heart stage in “Every part All over the place All at As soon as” and earned her an Academy Award nomination for costume design. From a bejeweled Elvis jumpsuit to a glance made completely of neon inexperienced tassels meant to resemble an amoeba, her imaginative and prescient was avant-garde, playful and undeniably multidimensional.
When Kurata isn’t on set or within the troves of a dressing up home, she’s seemingly tending to Virgil Regular. Housed in a former moped store, the Virgil Village retailer presents a collection of novelty gadgets and streetwear treasures, curated by each Kurata and Staunton. Although Staunton jokes that he’s always searching for her approval when sourcing stock: “If it’s not cool sufficient for her, it doesn’t are available in.”
The couple first met on the Rose Bowl Flea Market by means of mutual mates. At first sight, Staunton remembers being enthralled by her perpetually “cool” demeanor. Early of their relationship, he even floated the concept of beginning a clothes line collectively, simply to “knock off her closet.”
Shirley wears Leeann Huang t-shirt, skirt and sneakers, We Love Colours tights and l.a. Eyeworks glasses right here and in photographs beneath.
“She’s like a peacock. It’s not like she’s making an attempt to get consideration. However she has her personal imaginative and prescient and doesn’t actually care what’s happening. She is aware of what’s cool,” says Staunton, who cites Kurata as the largest “inspiration” for the shop.
Contained in the quaint pink brick constructing, blue L.A. hats are embroidered to learn “Larry David,” acrylic cabinets are full of Snoopy collectible figurines (for show solely), trays of l.a. Eyeworks frames fill the tables and every clothes tag is a special elaborate doodle illustrated by Staunton. He provides that every little thing within the retailer is supposed to have a “rabbit gap” impact, the place buyers can provide in to their curiosities.
“We wished a spot the place like-minded folks might come right here and have or not it’s an area to hang around. They don’t have to purchase something,” says Kurata. The hooked up patio is full with a mural of a person floating in house, pipe in hand, and the coolers are nonetheless crammed with chilled beers and glowing waters from their most up-to-date get-together. She tells me about what number of occasions they’ve allowed musicians and artists to rework this peaceable out of doors house right into a energetic venue.
“Having that reference to a group of creatives within the metropolis is important. Having that kind of human interplay is admittedly good on your soul, and on your creativity,” she shares. “Having this retailer has been one of the fulfilling issues that I’ve accomplished, and it’s not like we’re not making a ton of cash off it.”
From the cactus out entrance, which Kurata and Staunton planted themselves, to grabbing lunch on the taqueria down the road, she explains cultivating an area like this and being an energetic a part of the neighborhood has made her right into a extra “enriched particular person.” Kurata, who’s of Japanese descent, brings up the lesser recognized historical past of East Hollywood. Within the early 1900s, the neighborhood, then referred to as J-Flats, was the place a large group of Japanese immigrants settled. It was as soon as a bustling group with Japanese boarding homes that provided reasonably priced lease and home-cooked meals. Right this moment, solely certainly one of these properties is working.
“Having that reference to a group of creatives within the metropolis is important. Having that kind of human interplay is admittedly good on your soul, and on your creativity,”
For Kurata, being part of this legacy means trimming the close by overgrown vegetation to maintain the sidewalks clear and operating over to the regionally owned comfort retailer when Virgil Regular wants provides, as a substitute of instantly turning to Amazon. She pours every little thing she discovered from being raised on this metropolis again into the shop, and in flip, its environment.
Kurata was born and raised in Monterey Park, a area within the San Gabriel Valley with a primarily Asian inhabitants. The neighborhood is a small, homey stretch of land, recognized for its eating tradition, hilly roads and suburban feeling (however not-so-suburban location). Nowadays, she’ll usually discover herself within the space, as her mom and sister nonetheless reside there. Collectively, they take pleasure in lots of the surrounding dim sum-style eating places.
Even from a younger age, she was inspired to deal with the whole metropolis as her stomping grounds. She attended elementary college within the Arts District, which she describes as quieter and “extra industrial than it’s at present.” She additionally spent quite a lot of her childhood in Little Tokyo, looking for Japanese magazines (the place she discovered quite a lot of her early inspiration), enjoying within the arcade and grocery buying together with her household.
Shirley wears Leeann Huang lenticular gown and sneakers, Mary Quant tights and l.a. Eyeworks sun shades.
For highschool, she determined to department out even additional, making the trek to an all-girls Catholic college in La Cañada Flintridge. “It was the primary time the place I felt like an outsider,” Kurata says, as she had solely beforehand attended predominantly Asian colleges. She laughs somewhat about being one of many uncommon “Japanese Catholics.”
“While you’re raised in one thing, you associate with it as a result of your dad and mom inform you, and it’s a part of your training,” Kurata says. Her non secular upbringing started to succeed in a degree the place she wasn’t connecting with it anymore. “Having that kind of awakening is sweet for you. I used to be in a position to have a look at myself, early in life, and notice that I don’t assume that is for me.”
Her senior 12 months, she found classic shops. (She at all times knew that she had an affinity for clothes of the previous, as she gravitated towards hand-me-down Barbies from the ’60s.) Her coming-of-age fashion consisted of layering skirts with different oversize items — and every little thing was dishevelled, “as a result of it was the ’80s.” With this ignited ardour for classic and thrifting, Kurata started to combine gadgets spanning throughout many years into one look.
“All the colours, the prints, the variability. It simply appeared extra enjoyable. I might combine a ’60s gown with a jacket from the ’70s and possibly one thing from the ’40s,” says Kurata. It’s a follow that has remained a serious a part of her inventive Rolodex.
Her lifelong curiosity in trend led her to get a summer season job at American Rag Cie on La Brea Avenue. On the time, the high-end retailer primarily offered a mixture of well-curated timeless items, sourced from all around the world. It was the primary time she encountered the total vary of L.A.’s trend scene. She labored alongside Christophe Loiron of Mister Freedom and different “rockabilly and edgier, barely goth” varieties of individuals.
“Residing overseas is such an necessary means of broadening your thoughts, being uncovered to different cultures and even studying one other language. It helps you develop as an individual. It’s one of the best factor I ever did.”
“Time moved actually slowly in that place. However simply the creativity that I used to be round, from each the individuals who labored there and shopped there, was nice publicity,” says Kurata, who remembers seeing faces like Winona Ryder and Johnny Depp looking the choice and Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington making an attempt on denims.
Kurata continued her L.A. expedition to Cal State Lengthy Seaside, the place she started her artwork diploma. It wasn’t lengthy earlier than Studio Berçot, a now-closed trend college in Paris recognized for its avant-garde curriculum, began calling her identify.
“Residing overseas is such an necessary means of broadening your thoughts, being uncovered to different cultures and even studying one other language. It helps you develop as an individual,” says Kurata. “It’s one of the best factor I ever did.”
Her Parisian research lasted round three years and it was the closest she had ever gotten to excessive trend. Typically, she would be capable of see runway reveals by promoting magazines contained in the venue or volunteering to work backstage. Different occasions, she relied on well-intentioned shenanigans. She used to cross round and reuse an invite inside her group of mates. She as soon as snuck in by means of a big, unattended gap in a fence. In a single occasion, she merely charged on the entrance when it started to rain. All issues she did within the identify of trend.
“I might simply do what I might to see as many reveals as potential. The entire pleasure is tough to clarify. Once I labored backstage, there’s this labor of affection that’s put in direction of the present. It’s this contagious vitality that you can really feel when the fashions begin coming,” says Kurata, who noticed every little thing from Jean Paul Gaultier to John Galliano and Yves Saint Laurent. When she was backstage for a Vivienne Westwood present, she recollects seeing this “shorter mannequin, and considering, ‘Oh, she’s so tiny,’ after which realizing that it was Kate Moss who was nonetheless pretty new at that time.”
“We wished a spot the place like-minded folks might come right here and have or not it’s an area to hang around. Having this retailer has been one of the fulfilling issues that I’ve accomplished.”
Staying in France was intriguing to a younger Kurata, however the struggles of visas and paperwork deterred her. She as a substitute returned to L.A., freshly impressed, and accomplished her bachelor’s diploma in artwork (to her dad and mom’ satisfaction). She didn’t plan to get into costume design, Kurata explains. However when it turned clear that designing her personal line would require shifting to someplace like New York or again to Europe, she realized, “Perhaps trend just isn’t the world I need to get into; possibly it’s costumes.”
“I felt comfy with that call,” shares Kurata. “I do love movie, so it was only a transition I made. It was nonetheless linked [to everything that I wanted to do].”
With out the help of social media, she despatched letters to costume designers, hoping to get mentored, and began engaged on low-budget jobs. She rapidly fell in love with how a lot the job modified day-to-day. Now and again, there are 12-hour days that may be “depressing,” however her subsequent job could be completely completely different. At some point she’s styling the seasonal campaigns for her longtime mates Kate and Laura Mulleavy, homeowners of Rodarte, and the subsequent she may very well be styling for the duvet of W Journal, the place a larger-than-life Jennifer Coolidge stomps by means of a miniature metropolis in a neon polka-dot coat.
Every time Kurata takes on a mission, Staunton says she “simply doesn’t cease.” Typically, he’ll get up at 3 within the morning and she or he’s emailing folks in Europe, making an attempt to search out a uncommon classic piece. Her ardour is the type that concurrently consumes and fuels her.
“There’s quite a lot of occasions [with her work] the place I’m like, ‘That’s simply straight out of Shirley’s closet.’ It’s not like she has to compromise. It’s one thing she would put on herself. She doesn’t should comply with developments,” explains Staunton. “Individuals search her out, as a result of she has such a singular imaginative and prescient.”
“I at all times inform folks, L.A. is like going to a flea market. There’s some digging to do, however you’ll positively discover some gems.”
Kurata thinks of herself as “somebody who will get bored simply.” It’s a top quality that’s mirrored in her eclectic fashion, busy journey schedule, Virgil Regular’s always altering choice and even the frequent feeling she will get when she’s sick of all of her garments. It’s a very good factor being bored and being in Los Angeles don’t go hand in hand.
I ask Kurata a considerably daunting query for a born-and-bred Angeleno.
“Do you assume you can ever see your self calling one other place house?”
She lets out a deep sigh and tells me it’s not one thing she’s closed off to. Although, she takes a second to replicate on how everybody got here collectively to supply assist throughout the Palisades and Eaton fires earlier this 12 months. Or how good it feels after they have occasions at Virgil Regular, to be surrounded by a various group of inventive minds “who don’t decide.” She even thinks about how she at present lives in a Franklin Hills home, a neighborhood she by no means thought she would be capable of afford.
Time and time once more, Kurata and this sprawling city-state have appeared out for one another. From the way in which she speaks of various areas with such an intrinsic care, to showcasing her distinctive inventive eye in Tinseltown, L.A. has made her right into a everlasting seeker. Whether or not she chooses to remain in Franklin Hills for the remainder of her life or packs up every little thing tomorrow, she’ll at all times preserve a watch out for hidden gems — similar to on the flea market.
