Century City Plaza
The reason I like writing store profiles so much is they include everything I love about fashion, retail and writing in one package. Creatively there’s the colorful, adjective-laden prose, photos, and illustrations that visually make it appealing. Economically there’s the thrill of discovery and journalistically there’s the joy of flexing my brainstorming, researching and interviewing techniques.
My first exposure to writing store profiles happened when I was taking a Retailing class as part of my Fashion Merchandising program at CSULA. I had to write a three-store profile for my Mid-term paper, so for the assignment, I chose three furniture businesses, Civilization for the high end, Plummer’s for the mid-range, and a discount store for the low end. Throughout my writing career, I’ve duplicated the process I was taught to use, in this class, of researching a company before interviewing the owner or owners and sales staff, describing the interiors and exteriors of the site, describing the merchandise and displays, and explaining how they fit into the current retail climate.
Fabulous L.A. Store Displays
Lasta Icelandic Fashion Shop
While working as a fashion columnist for Culver City News, in 2014, I wrote a store profile about Lasta Icelandic Fashion Shop (Lasta Icelandic Fashion Shop is a wonderful source for an individualist. It remains one of my favorite experiences as a writer.
Iceland was really “trending” in 2014, and the co-founder and major proponent of Icelandic and Nordic fashion, Helga Olaffsson, was a fascinating interviewee and businesswoman. Besides being a big fan of mystery writers Steig Larsson, Henning Mankell, Jo Nesbo and Karin Folsum, the other pop culture element that influenced my decision to write about Lasta were the T.V. shows, The Killing, Wallander, and Borgen. Finally, the reason this profile really stood out for me is the individuality of the designs represented and the lovely way they were displayed.
Stylish Musings and Inspirations 