WHETHER you call it nouveau hippie or psychedelic garden party, you've probably seen the look on hip L.A. girls from Silver Lake to Laurel Canyon
-- feathers, fur and spangles, leather, chiffon and hand-crocheted lace. And long before it was trendy, it was at Kime Buzzelli's tiny Show Pony boutique, which reopens this weekend after a three-month renovation.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday, April 11, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 52 words Type of Material: Correction
Kime Buzzelli: Sunday's Image article about the reopening of the Show Pony boutique in Echo Park gave the age of store owner Kime Buzzelli as 39. She is 38. The article also said Buzzelli painted a self-portrait for posters announcing the reopening. She was the artist, but it was not a self-portrait.
Eight years ago, when Echo Park was better known for drive-by shootings than designer shops, Buzzelli was a pioneer. She approached Show Pony as an art space first, a retail store second, and lived and made her art in an apartment upstairs.
Selling one-of-a-kind pieces that often took weeks to make, work by fledgling designers as well as now-familiar names such as Magda Berliner and Brian Lichtenberg, Buzzelli built Show Pony's reputation as a source for -- as she puts it -- "the thing that tricks out your wardrobe," and it soon became a favorite destination for stylists. Once a month she invited artists and performers to participate in themed events exploring topics as diverse as pets and teen lust. Some days, she wouldn't open at all.
"It had a sort of Factory feel about it," says Buzzelli, 39, who painted a portrait of herself in a ruffled yellow frock and green fishnet tights riding a purple carousel horse, for a poster announcing the store's reopening. She and the horse both wear flowers in their hair.
A distinct Show Pony aesthetic developed, where more is definitely more. The 1974 book "Native Funk & Flash," featuring costumes worn by the outrageous performance troupe the Cockettes, is a bible for Buzzelli, who also has a blog, the Moldy Doily (themoldydoily. typepad.com). "All the girls I'm friends with have macrame books from yard sales, but they also love the '20s and gypsies and the Marquesa Casati and Edie [Beale] from 'Grey Gardens,' " she says. In short, the Show Pony girl is someone "who isn't afraid to wear the things she loves, all at once."
Change in store, neighborhood
Stylist Gena Tuso, a regular contributor to Nylon and Anthem, has pulled pieces from the shop for singers Pink and Regina Spektor. "Now you can go to Urban Outfitters and Forever 21 and you'll see little leather strings with feathers and beads that you can put in your hair," she says. But Show Pony "was the first store that I saw that stuff in."
