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Business & Tech

Ten Over Six Moves to Melrose Avenue

The boutique has brought some much needed color and quirk to Melrose Avenue and co-owner Kristen Lee shares what's in store at their new location—literally.

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While some people may go to the beach when they feel stressed, or take a walk in nature to help them find peace and restore balance—I head straight to the boutique Ten Over Six.

Ten Over Six is my Zen, my happy place. And with just a glance at their new space on Melrose Avenue, it's hard not to smile.

The boutique, which is a lifestyle concept store, once sat on corner of Beverly Boulevard that didn't have much shopping around the area, naturally making Ten Over Six a destination store. Now, the move to the popular and much buzzed about Melrose makes certain that people will find it hard to miss my hidden gem of a store.

Co-owner Kristen Lee says that they are "expecting good spill over from the other fashion brands in the area."

With other high-end brands in the vicinity, Lee said, "Right now, I really like having things in the price point of the low $200. I feel like that is really a comfortable spot for people to shop. We'll always maintain that, but I'm curious to see if we can bring in some higher end pieces that I normally don't."

The boutique's new Melrose location has a bright mint green almost light blue exterior, and quite literally, slightly off kilter, there is a palpable charm that is hard to resist.

"We always had our eye on a couple prime retail areas. And when this came up, this is such a cute little building and we really like how it's a little off, or as off as you can be for Melrose," Lee said.

"There is an interesting mix that is kind of starting around here. There is a lot of new blood in the area so it's kind of an exciting time over here," she said.

Ten Over Six sits next to Diane von Fürstenberg and across the street from the French designer Vanessa Bruno's west coast flagship. There are also the recent additions of Helmut Lang and APC. The Vivienne Westwood boutique is months away from opening so there is definitely a transformation underway.

The more established brands like Marc Jacobs, Theory and the aforementioned Diane von Fürstenberg will be in store for some competition from some fresher faces in fashion.

As for Ten Over Six, they still seem fresher and newer than even all the new young designers popping up in the neighborhood. I think it's because Lee is uniquely primed to give her customers what they want—and items they don't even know they want.

Prior to owning Ten Over Six, Lee graduated Parsons and took a job designing for Theory. Her background is also in designing shoes, which has heavily lent to her boutique. The impotence for the store arose from noticing a real lack of accessories. "We specialize in accessorizes because it's the area of the industry we felt we couldn't find a great assortment of," Lee said.

"Our biggest category is shoes followed by handbags, jewelry, beauty, small pieces like sun glasses and we just introduced ready-to-wear two seasons ago. It's working out," she said.   

They also do home, life, and art. In the coming weeks they will also be introducing artist sanctioned multiples costing between $250-300, for a large reproduction of the painting.

I wonder how this boutique has managed to stay just under the radar? With such a keen eye for buying and designing—they alone have introduced to me to many designers I rarely find around Los Angeles or West Hollywood.

Ten Over Six has worked with jewelry designer Nomade Exquis and the Brooklyn and L.A. ready-to-wear designers Jesse Kamm and Rachel Comey; it's new, fresh and unique.  This year the boutique did also did collaboration with Vena Cava as well.

Lee also shared what the store is carrying and the trends to make note of, "Shapeless volume, voluminous pieces, lace and velvet, crushed velvet, the color caramel and ox-blood, volume in shoes along with crazy shape."

As for the meaning behind the stores name, "It comes from Alice and Wonderland and I was listening to the song White Rabbit the day we [partner and co-owner Brady Cunningham] started talking about this, so we decided to stay in that world. I really love that fable. But it's all about discovery and it's really surreal, interesting, it was a good place to draw a lot of influence from."

And I have fallen down the rabbit hole and Angelino's will be tumbling down as well snapping up one of a kind finds. My favorite store in Los Angeles has brought some much needed color and quirk to Melrose.

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