If these walls could talk

The Fifi & Romeo lifestyle brand had its flagship boutique poised in a classic 1939 Art Deco building on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles.

“I designed the brand and its store’s concept to be a little Breakfast at Tiffany’s meets Eloise at the Plaza, all tossed with a heaping spoonful of a French-flair with a delicate hint of a Ladurée macaroon! The space was a long narrow storefront with a two-story foyer and Juliet balcony. It felt like a grand apartment overlooking the Seine. I anchored the long space with a mammoth antique crystal chandelier smack in the center. Aqua-colored swagged drapes were hung to hide industrial structural I-beams, and the walls were painted in pink-on-pink stripes framed at the top by a large stencil border. The stencil looked like beautiful French ironwork and was an incredible detail I had found years earlier stored away in my period Normandy-style home. Like a dusty treasure, I found the pristinely rolled wallpaper section in my 1920s Hancock Park attic. Just waiting to be discovered, the wallpaper roll had 1954 hand-scribbled in pencil on the outside.

The store was designed with various intimate spaces to gather, appointed with antiques, twentieth-century finds, and a pair of modern lounge chairs evoking a stylish French apartment. I intended the experience to take you on a whimsical journey, perhaps one that made you feel as if you had time traveled and landed in Paris sometime in the 40s or 50s.”

Location: Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles
Scope: Creative Director; Interior Design and Decoration
Retail: Approximately 2454 sq. ft.
Set Producer, Decorative Painter: Peter Politanoff
Completion Date: 2000