Local Glamour: Spotlight on Design House

A notable style hub has arrived in the neighborhood: Design House, a top-to-bottom fashion and home boutique featuring beautiful basics and stylish current offerings, often with a vintage edge.

This place, with something for nearly every female fashion sensibility, boasts a particularly practical by-product, one very much in step with my practical glamour consciousness: their elegant goods are very accessible, budget-wise. Indeed, a pair of luxurious lightweight swing pants in a creamy slate gray were marked a mere $38.

I recently stopped in during a Friday Happy Hour (from 5 to 8 p.m. everything is discounted 15 percent) to view the bright and cheerful boutique's offerings and meet owners Laura Bowman and Michele Hampton.

The two women, both with creative backgrounds, view fashion and home furnishings as having much in common-- and a natural mix for a boutique. Their goal was to integrate them into one space, Design House, where Hampton says, "everything is for sale but the counter."

As a one-of-a-kind shop with a continually rotating collection, the owners say they select items based on what catches their eyes, and what they find personally appealing in some way. The only "must" when buying, Bowman says, is "the item must have a high-end look and be affordable."

To make the most of a visit to any style bounty such as Design House--which offers everything from clothes, jewelry, hats, bags and shoes to select art pieces and home furnishings--keep the following in mind:

Stop by, try on and check out. Boutiques are different from mass-market stores precisely because they carry small quantities of items by designers and artists--many whom you may have never heard of--who are doing things a bit differently than everyone else. Such boutiques are the perfect hunting ground for eyeing and trying new styles, shapes and designs.

Stay focused. Make a mental list of items that you need beforehand. Focus on acquiring these items first before exploring the rest of the shop, lest you leave with a Panama hat and a bejeweled tunic when what you really needed was a pair of stretchy weekend pants and a couple of tank tops.

Expand your style. A sleek vintage slip-dress I spotted at Design House that had been artfully dyed a gorgeous swirl of blue tickled my memory of a past trend that I loved. Venture beyond your default dressing style or revisit a beloved style from your past with a one-off item from a boutique. Bonus: You can be confident that you will encounter few gals wearing the same item.

Stay true to you. Whether you buy a tame closet staple or a far-out piece, make sure it looks good on you and its quality maintains--or better yet, lifts--your collection to a higher level. Always check colors against your skin and scrutinize the shape of the garment to ensure it makes the most of your figure.

Design House Boutique

209 Avenue I

Redondo Beach, CA 90277

(310) 540-6100

www.designhouseboutique.com