Fifty years ago, Fred Hayman, founder of the legendary Beverly Hills boutique and fragrance Giorgio, had a big idea: to transform Rodeo Drive into America's answer to London's New Bond Street, Paris’s Faubourg St-Honoré and Rome's Via Condotti. So he founded a group of retailers and hoteliers devoted to realizing this vision.

Now, the Rodeo Drive Committee celebrates a half-century for the three blocks of luxe, with a year of special events, activations, and toasts to continued growth, as Hermès expands with the largest-ever retail real estate acquisition on the street, LVMH builds a massive flagship store with museum, exhibition and rooftop dining spaces designed by the late Frank Gehry, and leading brands and fashion houses continue to build on the creative retail concepts that originated at Giorgio.

“They had all the ingredients at the time. They had great hotels, they had phenomenal restaurants, they had the beginnings of great retail stores, and they had all the celebrities who were there as well. All of that combined to create what has very quickly become one of the top streets in the world,” Fred Hayman’s son Robert tells Lyn Winter on a special anniversary episode of Rodeo Drive – The Podcast.

Headlining the podcast is one of the latest arrivals on the Drive: the legendary chef Dominique Crenn, creator of Monsieur Dior by Dominique Crenn, the restaurant within the Dior flagship boutique.

“I had a dream about walking down the street with Mr. Dior, and holding his hand and…asking him, what will be his vision?,” recalls Crenn, owner of Atelier Crenn and Bar Crenn in San Francisco and the only female chef in the United States to attain three Michelin stars.

Crenn explains that she matched haute cuisine to haute couture by doing a lot of research on Dior dresses from the 1950s up to now. “And every dish is a representation of a piece of a dress.”

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Italian style and craftsmanship are synonymous with Rodeo Drive, evidenced in Canali, the luxury menswear brand that just reopened its flagship lifestyle store on the high fashion Beverly Hills thoroughfare, with a party attended by some of LA’s leading men, including Chace Crawford, Paul Downs, James Marsden, and Regé-Jean Page.

The company is helmed by Stefano Canali, the third generation principal of the brand that was established more than 90 years ago. His task is to maintain the family company’s legendary sartorial mastery and stay nimble for the future, he told Lyn Winter, host of Rodeo Drive–The Podcast, when they met at the company headquarters designed as a welcoming home and garden in central Milan.

“Consistency is a word these days, so you must make sure that whatever represents a brand is fully consistent with the brand itself,” Canali said.

Consistency extends into the design and execution of the new boutique on Rodeo Drive, with its warm hues, green-veined cipollino marble and wood paneling carved to evoke stitching. Such details are “very much linked to the way we manufacture suits and garments,” says Canali, adding that one of the main attractions just might be its VIP lounge complete with Canali mixologists.

The clear branding also plays out in an exciting new partnership for the company – with the famed Inter Milan soccer team. While Canali’s designers created a formal collection for the management, they created a more relaxed collection for the players that emphasizes functional fabrics and refined craftsmanship.

Decked from head to toe in this sporty spin on haute couture, the cheerful young players have been “very effective in delivering this new image of Canali, and the evolution that Canali is going through,” says the company’s President and CEO.

Finally, Canali refuses to offshore production. Keeping its fabrication at home, says Stefano Canali, reinforces the power of his country’s “Made in Italy” brand. It also supports the suitmaker’s sustainability goals. Canali quantifies its environmental footprint, from the sourcing of raw materials to the final disposal of the product. In keeping production very high quality and close to home, the firm is able to support local craftspeople, minimize their carbon footprint, and stay profitable, says Stefano Canali. “By deciding to stay in Italy, no matter what, allowed us to be 100% sustainable towards the planet and towards the people.”

Finally, asked Winter, “When you think about the Canali man today, whether he's in Milan or Beverly Hills or anywhere else in the world, how would you describe him?”

The answer lies in timelessness and inner confidence. The Canali man, says the man charged with dressing him, is “a successful person that values understatement and is very much focused on the substance of things out there. So somebody who's very much interested in buying something that will last over time, that… allows our final consumer to express himself in a very subtle, still important, effective way.”

This episode of Rodeo Drive: The Podcast is presented by the Rodeo Drive Committee.

Episode Credits

Executive Producer and Host: Lyn Winter

On behalf of the Rodeo Drive Committee: Kathy Gohari

Scriptwriter and Editorial Advisor: Frances Anderton

Editor: Hans Fjellestad

Theme music by Brian Banks

Listen, subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Visit the website: https://rodeodrive-bh.com/podcast/

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Thirty years ago high schoolers dressed down, and then came the movie Clueless. In her yellow plaid kilt and many other colorful and stylish outfits, Cher Horowitz, the good-natured if meddlesome high-schooler played by Alicia Silverstone, made audiences laugh with her, love her, and envy the looks created by costume designer Mona May.

“Everybody dressed grunge in 1994 when we were preparing the movie, and the movie set a new rule of dressing. You know, I created a whole other fashion landscape,” May tells Lyn Winter, host of Rodeo Drive –The Podcast, in a special episode to coincide with the 30-year anniversary of the movie and the launch of the third annual week-long Rodeo Drive Celebrates Fashion program spotlighting the unmatched craftsmanship and innovation in fashion on the legendary “street of dreams”.

May is joined by Beverly Hills Mayor Sharona R. Nazarian PsyD, who shares her fond memories of the film, her personal love of fashion, as well as pride in the leading role played by Beverly Hills in Clueless, which was shot in multiple locations including the Electric Fountain, the Witch's House and, of course, the iconic street of high fashion - Rodeo Drive. “I think what makes Rodeo Drive so special is that people still want to be able to come and walk here as Cher did in the movie, that it's still relevant. The stores are still spectacular. I mean, where else can you find Frank Gehry and Louis Vuitton coming together to make these beautiful buildings come to life? It's just so exciting,” says Mayor Nazarian.

May also shares her journey to becoming a costume designer and getting her big break with Clueless, followed by work on movies including Romy and Michelle, Never Been Kissed, Wedding Singer, Enchanted, House Bunny, and Stuart Little.

May was born in India and then moved with her family to Europe and then New York. She studied fashion before moving into costume design, and met Clueless writer/director Amy Heckerling while collaborating on a pilot about two party girls in New York City.

“The pilot didn't get picked up, but we formed this incredibly creative relationship. Amy is an incredible writer, an incredible artist. She loves fashion, so we were like two birds together. So when she wrote Clueless, she called me and said, ‘I really want you to do this film. I need a very different point of view, something that's going to last a long time’.”

May created a timeless look for the teens in the movie that took cues from L.A.’s sunny spirit and its greenery and flowers, from fashion icons, and even from the period of the book that inspired the movie, Emma, by Jane Austen. Think, empire waists and cap sleeves. Her goal was to make the young actresses feel “quintessentially feminine” while empowered. Then there was Cher’s unforgettable plaid skirt. On eyeballing “Jean Paul Gaultier yellow,” recalls May, “We had the vision. And it was perfect, because she became the queen bee, yellow sunshine, and completely the queen of the school.”

Now a new generation is getting to enjoy the film once again.

As she welcomes Clueless fans both young and old, Mayor Nazarian says of the film, “It just makes you feel really good. It uplifts you, and we need that now, I think. Everybody needs it.”

This special edition of Rodeo Drive – The Podcast is presented by the Rodeo Drive Committee with the support of Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel.

Executive Producer and Host: Lyn Winter

On behalf of the Rodeo Drive Committee: Kathy Gohari

Scriptwriter and Editorial Advisor: Frances Anderton

Editor and Videographer: Hans Fjellestad

Theme music by Brian Banks

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