RETAIL ROUNDUP

What’s clunky, overwhelming heavy and extremely chic?

That would be metal furniture, the interior decorating trend of the

moment. For hipsters tired of velour couches and inflatable easy chairs,

heavy metal is proving to be this season’s must-have material.

Fortunately, there is a place in Costa Mesa -- Urban Refurban -- that

specializes in all things steel.

Urban Refurban stocks chairs, tables, file cabinets and other pieces of

one-time business furniture that have been refurbished to restore their

mid-century glory.

Mallory Nicholson, who opened the shop in February, says the boxy,

quasi-bureaucratic feel of the furniture is particularly appealing to the

ironic sensibilities of dot-com workers and other youngsters who are

“excited by the retro look.”

And though the pieces were originally intended for use by secretaries and

clerks in staid offices, Nicholson insists that metal’s uses are “only

limited to individual imagination.”

Not like that nasty velour, which we were very tired of anyway ...

IT’S IN THE BAG

How frustrating it is to go the airport and experience the humiliation of

substandard luggage! Toting a backpack can do a number on one’s

self-esteem, and a duffel bag just doesn’t cut it anymore.

Thank goodness, therefore, that Louis Vuitton will open a new expanded

shop in South Coast Plaza this summer. The purveyor of luxurious luggage

is slated to move its wares to a larger spot in the Costa Mesa mall

starting in August.

But wait, you say.

Will there be Vuitton apparel available at the shop as well? And what

about shoes?

All that and more, organizers promise.

So now, even though we live in Orange County, we can head offon our

vacations looking like denizens of Upper East Side Manhattan.

Tra la la!