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To live in Los Angeles is to be a seeker. There are those who come to the city in search of the limelight and affluence. There are others who crave temperate weather and long for accessible beaches. The list goes on. Some of these desires are easily satisfied, while others are left unfulfilled or forgotten. But for those born and raised in this atypical metropolis, like Shirley Kurata<\/a>, the search is never-ending.<\/p>\n The costume designer tells me the key to loving this city is to never stop venturing around. We sit in the shaded back patio of Virgil Normal<\/a>, a 21st century lifestyle shop she owns with her husband, Charlie Staunton<\/a>. She wears a vibrant pink getup \u2014 a vintage top and Issey Miyake pants \u2014 complete with small pleats and optimal for the unavoidable August heat wave. Her signature pair of black circular glasses sits perfectly on the bridge of her nose. It\u2019s a style of eyewear she owns in several colors.<\/p>\n \u201cI always tell people, L.A. is like going to a flea market. There\u2019s some digging to do, but you\u2019ll definitely find some gems,\u201d says the stylist and costume designer, as she\u2019s regularly on the lookout for up-and-coming creative hubs and eye-catching storefronts. \u201cIt won\u2019t be handed to you. You have to dig.\u201d<\/p>\n In one way or another, \u201cdigging\u201d has marked Kurata\u2019s creative livelihood. Whether she\u2019s conjuring wardrobes for the big screen, like in the Oscar-winning \u201cEverything Everywhere All at Once,\u201d or styling musicians like Billie Eilish, Florence and the Machine and ASAP Rocky for photo shoots and music videos, the hunt for the perfect look keeps her on her toes.<\/p>\n Over the summer, Kurata spent a lot of time inside the Costco-size Western Costume Co<\/a>., pulling looks for Vogue World<\/a>, the magazine\u2019s annual traveling runway extravaganza. This year, the fashion spectacle is centered around Hollywood and will take place at Paramount Pictures Studios in late October. She is one of the eight costume designers asked to present at the event \u2014 others include Colleen Atwood<\/a> of \u201cEdward Scissorhands,\u201d Ruth E. Carter<\/a> of \u201cBlack Panther\u201d and Arianne Phillips<\/a> of \u201cOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood.\u201d Kurata will be styling background performers and taking inspiration from the invited costume designers. <\/p>\n Shirley wears vintage hat, Meals Clothing top, shirt and dress, We Love Colors tights, Opening Ceremony x Robert Clergerie shoes and l.a. Eyeworks sunglasses.<\/p>\n \u201c[Vogue] wanted someone that is a stylist and costume designer who has worked both in fashion and film. Because a lot of costume designers work primarily in TV and film, they don\u2019t do the fashion styling for editorial shoots,\u201d says Kurata. \u201cI\u2019m coming on and working with what other costume designers have done.\u201d<\/p>\n Since her start in the business, Kurata has gained acclaim for her ability to infuse daring prints and vibrant color into the narrative worlds she deals with. Her maximalist sense of experimentation took center stage in \u201cEverything Everywhere All at Once\u201d<\/a> and earned her an Academy Award nomination for costume design. From a bejeweled Elvis jumpsuit to a look made entirely of neon green tassels meant to resemble an amoeba, her vision was avant-garde, playful and undeniably multidimensional.<\/p>\n When Kurata isn\u2019t on set or in the troves of a costume house, she\u2019s likely tending to Virgil Normal. Housed in a former moped shop, the Virgil Village store offers a selection of novelty items and streetwear treasures, curated by both Kurata and Staunton. Though Staunton jokes that he\u2019s constantly seeking her approval when sourcing inventory: \u201cIf it\u2019s not cool enough for her, it doesn\u2019t come in.\u201d<\/p>\n The couple first met at the Rose Bowl Flea Market through mutual friends. At first sight, Staunton recalls being enthralled by her perpetually \u201ccool\u201d demeanor. Early in their relationship, he even floated the idea of starting a clothing line together, just to \u201cknock off her closet.\u201d<\/p>\n Shirley wears Leeann Huang t-shirt, skirt and shoes, We Love Colors tights and l.a. Eyeworks glasses here and in photos below.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s like a peacock. It\u2019s not like she\u2019s trying to get attention. But she has her own vision and doesn\u2019t really care what\u2019s going on. She knows what\u2019s cool,\u201d says Staunton, who cites Kurata as the biggest \u201cinspiration\u201d for the store.<\/p>\n Inside the quaint red brick building, blue L.A. hats are embroidered to read \u201cLarry David,\u201d acrylic shelves are packed with Snoopy figurines (for display only), trays of l.a. Eyeworks frames fill the tables and each clothing tag is a different elaborate doodle illustrated by Staunton. He adds that everything in the store is meant to have a \u201crabbit hole\u201d effect, where shoppers can give in to their curiosities.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted a place where like-minded people could come here and have it be a space to hang out. They don\u2019t have to buy anything,\u201d says Kurata. The attached patio is complete with a mural of a man floating in space, pipe in hand, and the coolers are still filled with chilled beers and sparkling waters from their most recent get-together. She tells me about how many times they\u2019ve allowed musicians and artists to transform this peaceful outdoor space into a lively venue.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving that connection with a community of creatives in the city is essential. Having that sort of human interaction is really good for your soul, and for your creativity,\u201d she shares. \u201cHaving this store has been one of the most fulfilling things that I\u2019ve done, and it\u2019s not like we\u2019re not making a ton of money off it.\u201d<\/p>\n From the cactus out front, which Kurata and Staunton planted themselves, to grabbing lunch at the taqueria down the street, she explains cultivating a space like this and being an active part of the neighborhood has made her into a more \u201cenriched person.\u201d Kurata, who is of Japanese descent, brings up the lesser known history of East Hollywood. In the early 1900s, the neighborhood, then called J-Flats, was where a sizable group of Japanese immigrants settled. It was once a bustling community with Japanese boarding houses that offered affordable rent and home-cooked meals. Today, only one of these properties<\/a> is operating.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving that connection with a community of creatives in the city is essential. Having that sort of human interaction is really good for your soul, and for your creativity,\u201d<\/p>\n For Kurata, being a part of this legacy means trimming the nearby overgrown vegetation to keep the sidewalks clear and running over to the locally owned convenience store when Virgil Normal needs supplies, instead of immediately turning to Amazon. She pours everything she learned from being raised in this city back into the store, and in turn, its surroundings.<\/p>\n Kurata was born and raised in Monterey Park, a region in the San Gabriel Valley with a primarily Asian population. The neighborhood is a small, homey stretch of land, known for its dining culture, hilly roads and suburban feeling (but not-so-suburban location). These days, she\u2019ll often find herself in the area, as her mother and sister still live there. Together, they enjoy many of the surrounding dim sum-style restaurants.<\/p>\n Even from a young age, she was encouraged to treat the entire city as her stomping grounds. She attended elementary school in the Arts District, which she describes as quieter and \u201cmore industrial than it is today.\u201d She also spent a lot of her childhood in Little Tokyo<\/a>, shopping for Japanese magazines (where she found a lot of her early inspiration), playing in the arcade and grocery shopping with her family.<\/p>\n Shirley wears Leeann Huang lenticular dress and shoes, Mary Quant tights and l.a. Eyeworks sunglasses. <\/p>\n For high school, she decided to branch out even further, making the trek to an all-girls Catholic school in La Ca\u00f1ada Flintridge. \u201cIt was the first time where I felt like an outsider,\u201d Kurata says, as she had only previously attended predominantly Asian schools. She laughs a little about being one of the rare \u201cJapanese Catholics.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re raised in something, you go along with it because your parents tell you, and it\u2019s part of your education,\u201d Kurata says. Her religious upbringing began to reach a point where she wasn\u2019t connecting with it anymore. \u201cHaving that sort of awakening is good for you. I was able to look at myself, early in life, and realize that I don\u2019t think this is for me.\u201d<\/p>\n Her senior year, she discovered vintage stores. (She always knew that she had an affinity for clothing of the past, as she gravitated toward hand-me-down Barbies from the \u201960s.) Her coming-of-age style consisted of layering skirts with other oversize pieces \u2014 and everything was baggy, \u201cbecause it was the \u201980s.\u201d With this ignited passion for vintage and thrifting, Kurata began to mix items spanning across decades into one look.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the colors, the prints, the variety. It just seemed more fun. I would mix a \u201960s dress with a jacket from the \u201970s and maybe something from the \u201940s,\u201d says Kurata. It\u2019s a practice that has remained a major part of her creative Rolodex.<\/p>\n Her lifelong interest in fashion led her to get a summer job at American Rag Cie<\/a> on La Brea Avenue. At the time, the high-end store primarily sold a mix of well-curated timeless pieces, sourced from all over the world. It was the first time she encountered the full range of L.A.\u2019s fashion scene. She worked alongside Christophe Loiron<\/a> of Mister Freedom and other \u201crockabilly and edgier, slightly goth\u201d kinds of people.<\/p>\n \u201cLiving abroad is such an important way of broadening your mind, being exposed to other cultures and even learning another language. It helps you grow as a person. It\u2019s the best thing I ever did.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTime moved really slowly in that place. But just the creativity that I was around, from both the people who worked there and shopped there, was great exposure,\u201d says Kurata, who recalls seeing faces like Winona Ryder and Johnny Depp browsing the selection and Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington trying on jeans.<\/p>\n Kurata continued her L.A. expedition to Cal State Long Beach, where she began her art degree. It wasn\u2019t long before Studio Ber\u00e7ot, a now-closed fashion school in Paris known for its avant-garde curriculum, started calling her name.<\/p>\n \u201cLiving abroad is such an important way of broadening your mind, being exposed to other cultures and even learning another language. It helps you grow as a person,\u201d says Kurata. \u201cIt\u2019s the best thing I ever did.\u201d<\/p>\n Her Parisian studies lasted around three years and it was the closest she had ever gotten to high fashion. Sometimes, she would be able to see runway shows by selling magazines inside the venue or volunteering to work backstage. Other times, she relied on well-intentioned shenanigans. She used to pass around and reuse an invitation within her group of friends. She once snuck in through a large, unattended hole in a fence. In one instance, she simply charged at the entrance when it began to rain. All things she did in the name of fashion.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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