DesignLA: Celebrating the interesting, weird and complex

When Gustavo Dudamel made his U.S. debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl in 2005, word had already gotten out about the 24-year-old Venezuelan conductor who had won a major conducting competition in Germany the year before.

It’s true what they say about appearances.

It’s hard to imagine a less likely place to find a pair of $1,375 hot-pink velvet Alberta Ferretti mules, trimmed in citron-green mink, than down a side street from the La Brea Avenue Target store.

Imagine the quintessential contemporary Los Angeles hotel, and it might look something like the new Kimpton La Peer.

“This exhibition is the first in a series of international touring shows that is meant to convey the Hermès heritage to the public,” say Bruno Gaudichon, designer of the luxury brand’s Harnessing the Roots installation at Hermès Beverly Hills, which opens March 31 and runs through April 7.

Turn onto the wrong street from Riverside Drive and you might never find it.

Los Angeles architect William Pereira designed the Firestone House in Palm Springs in 1957 for tire magnate Leonard Firestone.

George Esquivel has quietly carved out a name for himself as the premier shoemaker in Los Angeles: His handcrafted shoes command prices starting at $495 for ready-made suede oxfords to upward of $19,000 for bespoke crocodile boots.

In the wake of a torrential downpour in early January, a sizeable and slightly random group of artists, collectors and art-curious celebrities descended upon the L.A.

Frederick Fisher is something of an invisible man among L.A. architects: He creates buildings that are acclaimed by their users but have often gone unnoticed by the world at large.