Alchemy Works
Each experience at Alchemy Works renders a unique encounter with the merchandise at hand. While all retail stores rotate their inventory regularly, Alchemy Works tends to do so at a more unconventional pace. By consistently altering their stores products from designers like Stephen Kenn and Warby Parker, Alchemy Works shuffles around like a three dimensional design blog.
Part gallery, part retail shop, Alchemy Works incorporates each item into the boutique with thoughtful curation. Here, products are not strewn, they are placed. Items like the Almond Longboard resting on top of the green 1971 Series III Defender Land Rover or the Vere Verto leather backpack on display find their place with the help of an experienced hand and a sharp eye.
Owned by Raan Parton of Apolis and his wife Lindsay, Alchemy Works became a space for artists to flourish in the world of retail with a California flair. Raan, raised in California, looks to Alchemy Works as an environment to glint like the golden coast. It only makes sense that the shop made its name in Downtown’s Arts District.
One seasonal exception they will make for their exhibited retail is, of course, for the holidays. Custom wrap bracelets from Miansai, notebooks by Public Supply, and Driftwood Christmas trees by Madra Del Mar will deck the Alchemy Works halls for the entire month of December. Armor Lux will also display exclusive shirts with custom stitching by Downtown neighbors Lot, Stock and Barrel. Each designer made their holiday items specifically for Alchemy Works and will not be found anywhere else.
Because of the pace of rotation and activity in the shop, the space breathes and has a mind free from the confinements of traditional retail expectations. Products do not come off the rack because of seasonal shipments, but rather, the pieces move when a customer makes a purchase. Alchemy Works bends to accommodate to LA’s style rather than forces it to be what it’s not.
Written by:
Cleo Tobbi
Photographed by:
Alyse Gilbert
