Selling High-End Zen
Donna Karan may be the quintessential New Yorker, but her soul is in L.A.
“I’m a Malibu freak,” she said last week, walking into her new Urban Zen pop-up shop on Robertson Boulevard, dressed in jodhpur pants, a twist-front jersey top and a fringed cardigan, all from her Urban Zen line, and a leather bead necklace from Senegal. “All my friends tell me to move here, but it’s hard to tell that to Mayor Bloomberg.”
By friends, she means Barbra Streisand, at whose Malibu house she is a frequent guest, Demi and Ashton, and the rest of Hollywood’s spiritually enlightened set.
The store, which smells of an incense called Thieves and glows with natural light, is right up their alley. It’s a New Age temple, holistic spa and art gallery rolled into one. It’s also Karan’s take on conscientious consumption: selling luxury items such as $2,495 Indian cashmere blankets and $95 T-shirts made by children in Kenya living with HIV, with 10% of the profits benefiting charity.
The space is filled with pieces from L.A. artists, as well as artifacts from Africa, India, Thailand and Tibet that Karan has collected on her travels. A long, rustic table on loan from Ray Azoulay’s store Obsolete Inc. in Venice displays masks by Los Angeles sculptor Bill Lagattuta. Shelves are made from wood pieces salvaged from Alice Tully Hall in New York. Lining the walls are black-and-white photos by Karan’s dear friend Lynn Kohlman, a fashion model and photographer who died of breast and brain cancer this year. There are large, beanbag-like Tibetan cushions ($6,500) to sit on, and yogi tea is always brewing.
It’s easy to see why Karan is so at home in Southern California. Her devotion to Eastern philosophy and yoga and her nomadic lifestyle over the last decade (she travels often to Africa and Asia to do humanitarian work) have made her less about Seventh Avenue and more about the Seventh Ray.
So, the Urban Zen line features the kind of pieces that Streisand and her posse might wear on chilly Malibu nights, or mornings on the way to yoga. Think cashmere bodysuits ($495), leggings ($995) and tie-dyed scarves ($995), perfect for layering; fringed suede jackets ($3,495) and utilitarian jumpsuits ($1,295), all with an artisanal feel. Many of the fabrics are recycled and re-dyed.
“I wanted fashion that wasn’t fashion, that wasn’t about being dictated to or what’s new, that’s another life from the runway,” says Karan, who launched the Donna Karan brand in 1984 with “seven easy pieces” designed to take women to the boardroom and beyond. She developed that idea into a billion-dollar business with a runway collection and numerous brand extensions, including DKNY and Urban Zen.
The store, which Karan says will be open until mid-January, also sells children’s wear by Bonnie Young (another pal), including adorable rosette-trimmed cardigan sweaters; menswear by Koeun Park; bath products from the Como Shambhala Retreat at Parrot Cay in the Turks and Caicos Islands; and essential oils from Young Living, Karan’s favorite. There are leather goods by Lebanese designer Johnny Farah and silver bracelets from Venice-based Nagual.
“That jumpsuit looks like you lived in it forever!” Karan says to a customer just out of the fitting room, before moving on to a rack of jersey gowns. “I know not all these clothes have hanger appeal, but they look great on the body.”
Urban Zen isn’t just a store -- it’s an initiative created by Karan to raise funds and awareness for causes close to her heart, including alternative healing therapies, child welfare and the preservation of cultures.
Karan founded the Urban Zen Foundation in 2006 with a friend, British fashion designer Sonja Nuttall, after becoming frustrated with the medical system when her late husband, Stephen Weiss, and friend Kohlman were battling cancer. The clothing line, launched four years ago, now supports the foundation’s work. There is also an Urban Zen store in New York.
If it sounds like a lot to take on at one time, it is. So, Karan says well-being is her first priority, with the goal of introducing programs into hospitals that will teach medical professionals how to incorporate nontraditional healing (including yoga, reiki and organic nutrition) into patient care.
This year, Karan donated $850,000 for such a program at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. In Southern California, City of Hope and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center have expressed interest, she says.
She would also like to host forums about healthcare here, something she has done in New York at her husband’s former art studio, bringing together doctors, yoga teachers, alternative healers and celebrity friends.
“What I care about is creating a community of consciousness, collaborating with existing charities -- all the ‘C’ words.
“It is a lot. I’m not going to deny it,” Karan says. “But would I rather be sitting on the beach somewhere? No. Except maybe in Malibu for a day.”
Urban Zen, 614 N. Robertson Blvd., West Hollywood, (310) 659-5300, www.urbanzen.org.
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