Beverly Hills gets a new face lift

This year, the city of Beverly Hills is celebrating its 110th anniversary. And for several months now, Beverly Hills has been buzzing with new activity. Givenchy has just opened its latest boutique on Rodeo Drive and more than 30 new fashion boutiques will have opened by the end of 2024. New hotels are also under construction and luxury restaurants continue to open in the City of Angels.

 
After the spring opening of the new Saks Fifth Avenue in the former Barneys New York’s building at 9570 Wilshire Boulevard, other big names in the luxury fashion industry have just opened their new spaces. Among the most notables openings, French luxury fashion house Givenchy planted its flag on August 1 in the historic Anderton Court Shops complex at 332 N Rodeo Drive. A spectacular architecture designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1954 which features a unique hexagonal floor plan, an angular V front and is topped off with one of Wright’s trademark Streamline Moderne and Art déco styles. Fully renovated, the building offers a 8,000-square-foot space, with a first portion of 4,500 square feet already open, and a second scheduled to open in 2025.
 
Also opened during the summer, the first West Side boutique from Swiss luxury cosmetics brand Valmont opened at 234 Via Rodeo Drive. For several weeks now, celebrities and regulars have been able to treat themselves to the ‘Rodeo Drive Red Carpet’, a 90-minute treatment promising spectacular facial rejuvenation. More accessible, Favorite Daughter, a brand created by sisters Erin and Sara Foster, has also opened a boutique in Beverly Hills, with a pink decor and Art Deco details. 

Other areas of Beverly Hills are buzzing, like Camden Drive. Mameg, the store specializing in luxury labels for women has returned to its neighborhood in early September, one year and half after its departure from Beverly Hills. Sonia Eram, founder of Mameg store, which use to share the same location with Martin Margiela store in Beverly Hills, has just unveiled her new address at 417 N Camden Drive, just opposite the famous Gagosian Gallery. In a space designed by architecture studio Johnston Marklee, Mameg shares its space with Michael Werner Gallery and presents her fetish brands including Loewe, Marni, Walter Van Beirendonck, Balenciaga and Y-Project. 

Long-awaited, but not until the end of 2025, the new project of luxury house Dior, will serve as the West Coast flagship boutique for the brand. Dior will be a 47,900 square-feet structure, taking over three buildings, and each floor will have an outdoor terrace. The much-anticipated Dior Café, whose cuisine will be entrusted to a famous French chef, will also be part of the project. 
 
Also expected is the opening of a new Cartier boutique on a new three-story at 370 North Rodeo Drive. This building, purchased for $20 million in 2000, will double the store’s current surface area. Announced for 2023, the new Patek Philippe and Rolex store concepts should come true in the next few weeks. The two boutiques will be located at 312 North Rodeo, where the Dolce & Gabbana boutique was housed until 2023. Earlier this year, new boutiques opened for Chanel, Rimowa, MB&F LAB, Kith, Reformation, Veronica Beard, L’Agence, Simkhai and Italian brands Genny’s and Eleventy. 
 
Another booming sector is the Beverly Hills hotel industry, where new players are expected to emerge. After the cancellation of the Cheval Blanc hotel project on Rodeo Drive, all eyes are on the Aman hotel project. One Beverly Hills, a 17,5-acre site by Lord Norman Foster and Foster + Partners, is planning a future opening in 2027, just before the next Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Adjacent to The Beverly Hilton and Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, the project will include a 78 all-suite Aman Hotel and Aman branded residences across two towers, a standalone 100,000 square-foot Aman Club and botanical gardens.

The new trend in Beverly Hills is private residences by hotel groups, offering services in the same level as their hotels. After the opening of Mandarin Oriental Residences Beverly Hills and its 54 condominium units with purchase prices in excess of $4 million, the Rosewood group will soon open its 17 ultra-luxury residences, including a penthouse sold for $45 million, at 9900 Santa Monica Boulevard. The new residents of Beverly Hills will have access to all hotel services as well as personal trainers, private chefs, spa treatments and assistance with restaurant reservations and Rosewood hotel bookings all around the world.
 
Beverly Hills continues to flourish with several restaurant openings. Following the openings of Café Boulud at Mandarin Oriental Residences Beverly Hills, Dante at The Maybourne Beverly Hills, La Dolce Vita, chef Evan Funke’s Funke restaurant and the fabulous Italian Cipriani with its tone of celebrities, further openings are expected before the end of the year.
 
Among the addresses to look out for, Marea, New City’s Italian power dining spot, will open its first U.S. location in a few weeks at 430 N Camden Drive. A regular with celebrities including Barack Obama, Lady Gaga and Beyoncé, Marea will be serving lobster and gnochetti. Also of note is the closure of Maude by Chef Curtis Stone, which will replace the restaurant with its Pie Room concept dedicated to pies, tarts and puddings. 

Finally, Beverly Hills is preparing to welcome a new members-only social club called Gravitas. The 28,000 square foot venue will house a restaurant, an open-air garden bar overlooking Santa Monica Boulevard, a recording studio, private wine lockers, a car club and a chauffeur service.