Today, inside 9800 Wilshire Blvd., a team of workmen battle against the clock to realize the plans of Kulapat Yantrasast, architect of the Marciano Art Foundation, installing custom-made marble-top desks and burnished-brass midcentury lamps (a nod to the Brazilian modernism of Spring Place’s original brutalist Tribeca site) for 42 resident
“All the best fashion talent is moving to L.A., all the most important photographers and models,” Costa says. “Of the top models in the world, there are now more in L.A. than in New York,” he insists, citing Alessandra Ambrosio, Irina Shayk, Stella Maxwell and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who is a member of Spring Place Beverly Hills. “LVMH, Prada and Valentino are all
A rendering of SPRING PLACE BEVERLY HILLS, set to open in October. Above: A rendering of Spring Place’s Downtown Los Angeles location, slated to debut within 18 months.
“PROVIDING A COMMUNITY OF LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE IS SO POWERFUL RIGHT NOW.” —
desks, 56 hot desks, 18 private offices, 11 conference rooms and showrooms, and a photography studio. These will soon be inhabited by native fashion brands and serve as a trusted base camp for the Spring Place members on the Paris-Milan-New York-London fashion circuit, now that L.A. is firmly on the map. Spring Place’s patrons in Manhattan include Leonardo DiCaprio, Steven Kolb (president and CEO of the Council of Fashion Designers of America), Jason Wu, Irina Shayk and Nicole Kidman. With its grand lobby and wood-slatted spiral staircase, Spring Place brings fashion industry gravitas to Beverly Hills. It opened in Manhattan in 2016 as a sister business of the creative agency Spring Studios, the official host to New York Fashion Week, Tribeca Film Festival and the Independent Art Fair, events around which Spring Place has since provided additional programming. Francesco Costa, the co-founder of Spring Place and majority shareholder of Spring Studios—which originated in London in 1995—has chosen L.A. for the first expansion of his clubs, rolling out to Paris, London and Milan in the coming years. (A second L.A. site is planned to open in the Arts District within 18 months.)
Pre-Well members
C 138 SEPTEMBER 2018
[reportedly] opening offices in L.A. The biggest [creative industry] crossover now is Hollywood and fashion.” Costa sees the need for centralization for a fashion community growing in international importance, in the absence of an equivalent to New York’s CFDA or London’s British Fashion Council. “I want us to be the hub of the L.A. fashion industry, part of the infrastructure,” he says. “We Clockwise from above: SOHO HOUSE WEST HOLLYWOOD. Spring Place member IRINA SHAYK. The original HOSPITAL CLUB building in London. H CLUB co-founder DAVE STEWART. A rendering of the SAN VICENTE BUNGALOWS.
SPRING PLACE RENDERINGS (2): COURTESY OF SPRING PLACE. SHAYK: BABIRADPICTURE/SHUTTERSTOCK. STEWART: ELLIOT PHOTOGRAPHY. SOHO HOUSE INTERIOR: DAVE BURK. SAN VICENTE BUNGALOWS ILLUSTRATION: MITA BLAND.
JEFF KLEIN
