Hail to the King
F
a s h i o n ’s unchalleng ed “King of Bling” is a scruffy Kenny Rogers lookalike. He has decades behind him with a lineage as a rag merchant to match. He lives and works in the fashionable environment of San Diego’s Coronado Island. And instead of becoming the the king of an accessory market that reaps millions worldwide, he could just as easily have remained an upscale shopkeeper working in the shadows of one of the world’s
Fashion Icon, Bob Kipperman, turned a family business and a personal tragedy into a gilded fashion empire.
32 HORSEBACK MAGAZINE - November 2012
grand hotels, The Hotel del Coronado. Kippy’s (www. kippys.com) began on Coronado Island as an uppity women’s shop catering to movie stars and their fans. Nearby, at Del Mar Race Track, the old crooner himself, Bing Crosby, played the ponies. It was a magic time in 1948 when the store was opened. Regulars in San Diego and on the island were Dorothy Lamour, W. C. Fields, Paulette Goddard, Edgar Bergen, June Haver, Ann Miller, Don Ameche, Ava Gardner, www.horsebackmagazine.com