Melrose blooming

The shopping district known as Melrose Heights is not as obvious as label-obsessed Rodeo Drive or as celebrity-greased as the see-and-be-seen Robertson Boulevard. There is no shoulder-to-shoulder foot traffic and crowds don't clamor to get into the stores. In fact, for many a lazy afternoon hour, the leafy sidewalks on Melrose between La Cienega and Fairfax are empty, except for the valet perched on a lawn chair in front of the Marc Jacobs boutique with little more to do than study Star magazine, and a musician strolling along while strumming a guitar.

And yet Melrose Heights has emerged as L.A.'s hottest retail thoroughfare by flying under the radar -- like many of the fashion brands that set up shop here -- and appealing to those in the know. Fred Segal, at Melrose Avenue and Crescent Heights Boulevard, used to be one of the only high-end hubs. But now that the Marc Jacobs, Marni and Tracy Feith boutiques have opened, the area is seriously heating up. A second wave will follow this fall with Diane von Furstenberg, Paul Smith, Tarina Tarantino, Suzanne Felsen, Antik Denim and London-based Temperley opening stores along the stretch.

Don't expect the kind of pierced-and-tattooed street scene that Melrose is known for east of Fairfax Avenue. Melrose Heights is where the one-of-a-kind vintage look of the Eastside meets the designer chic of Beverly Hills. That means empire-waist tops, skinny Bermuda shorts, boho sandals and bags that aren't instantly recognizable by their designer, though buying them might still require blowing the rent. The mood on the street is in step with fashion's new air of discovery -- the feeling that the only way to be stylish in an over-hyped, over-photographed, over-marketed world is to wear something nobody has ever heard of.

Like so much of L.A., Melrose Heights has a behind-the-scenes aura that suggests the person behind that pair of oversized sunglasses could be famous. The appeal of shopping here is not the overt hustle and bustle but the possibility of discovery -- that Kirsten Dunst could walk into Miss Sixty trailed by a phalanx of paparazzi, that Johnny Depp might drop into his office above the Kate Somerville salon or that a wardrobe stylist could pop into Marni exclaiming that she's there to pull clothes for a shoot with Kate Hudson.

Long a destination for the best-tressed visiting the Sally Hershberger salon, Melrose Place is now home to several high-end clothing boutiques -- if you can find them hidden back in the quaint, European-style piazzas, climbing with hot-pink bougainvillea vines.