DORÉ

If you were here on Friday, it’s likely you saw the story we published at Heidi Merrick’s perfectly interesting (and very beautiful) Silver Lake home. Seriously, dream house. Today we’re back with Heidi’s downtown Los Angeles store that has both nods to her home and an abundance of individuality as an extension of her modern and elegant brand. Ok, we’ll let Heidi take it from here.

Can you describe your brand in a few words?
Oh goodness. A California lifestyle collection steeped in silouette and craftsmanship? I’d add cool in there somewhere because I like the concept of being cool.

Who is the Heidi Merrick woman?
The woman who plays on the beach and puts on a gown in the same day. The one who likes to be both cool and elegant but doesn’t take herself too seriously. Who’s playful and bold enough to look lovely and not need to apologize. She’s a woman who loves to know where and how the clothes she wears are made.

Where was the brand born, and what was the catalyst?
I made my wedding dress with my mother, on the day of my wedding a few people told me I was “wasting my life” if I wasn’t “making dresses.” Ha.

How is the interior design of your store an extension of the brand? I love how even the surfboards are sort of a modern interpretation, it seems very in line with your contemporary California style.
I think it feels like extension of my design studio but hopefully cleaner and more livable. There are definite references to my house, the bed, the surfboards. Downtown, at the time, felt generally urban to me and I thought a little more of an authentic California-as-a-whole vibe would be a positive addition. Growing up in a surf shop made me love the feel of surfboards around, these boards are such a satisfying mix of siloutte and sexy.

[Editor’s note: The surf shop Heidi grew up in was Channel Islands, founded in 1969 by her dad Al Merrick. Al is both a surfer and one of most prominent surfboard shapers / makers in the world. Cool is in their blood.]

Where do you draw inspiration?
Life and more directly nature. Also, people and insecurities, I’d like to help heal woman of their troubled thoughts about not feeling beautiful. Feeling put together and elegant does wonders on the psyche. I often work from the place of, “What would make me feel beautiful right now?”

You’ve been running your brand from LA way before LA became a fashion city. How did you make that decision?
Los Angeles is the place where I found love and life and it’s just the type of place where you can make your vision happen in your own way without having to please an establishment. I don’t think it ever mattered to me what was considered a fashion city and what wasn’t.

If your next store could be anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Ibiza? Paris? Biarritz? Santa Barbara? Napa? Those to start.