Step inside the glitzy, glamorous Tom Dixon flagship store in Culver City
London-based product designer Tom Dixon’s Beat lighting collection and the company’s popular pieces are often seen in Los Angeles homes, hotels and restaurants.
One thing had been missing from L.A., however: an actual Tom Dixon showroom.
That’s changed with the late June opening of the splashy Tom Dixon flagship store in Culver City’s Platform development. The store’s 7,000 square feet allows the brand to showcase its lighting, furniture and home goods, incorporated with A-list stylist and fashion designer Nevena Borissova’s Curve inventory of high-end clothing and personal accessories.
“I’ve been considering for a while that it would be more interesting to be in an art context, or a food context, or a fashion context, rather than just sitting with other people doing the same thing,” Dixon said recently while in town to oversee finishing touches. “Food, furniture and fashion. That much more reflects the way we actually live.”
This interdisciplinary approach is consistent with the self-taught designer’s portfolio, which includes work with vaunted fashion names such as Vivienne Westwood and Comme des Garçons, as well as restaurants in London.
Neighbors at Platform, which sits in the shadow of the Metro’s new Expo Line, include Ilan Dei Venice’s outdoor furniture company IDV, Floral Art, Parabellum leather goods and Blue Bottle Coffee.
Dixon also opened a one-year pop-up showroom in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood in July as part of a foray into the U.S. market.
“America has been very kind to us recently,” Dixon noted. “It’s become the fastest-moving market that we’ve got.”
Designed by Dixon’s in-house London interiors team, the Culver City store is a place to wander and explore, with dramatic, fun flourishes at nearly every turn that draw inspiration from a range of styles and eras.
Lighting fixtures are clustered by style and type, and vignettes might feature a dress and handbag from Curve’s selection of edgy labels arranged with Dixon’s Wingback and Y chairs, for example.
Repeating series of the India-made, brushed brass-finished Beat lights in three styles hang like tidy sentinels over a long marble counter that will be part of a to-be-determined restaurant.
Groupings of iridescent Melt lamps fabricated in Germany make for a surrealist-tinged mood, while rose gold surfaces on other lighting and furnishings give off a gleam that many find irresistible. Iridescent metal wall surfaces contrast with smooth poured concrete structural elements and high ceilings.
Dixon doesn’t take the ample space for granted.
“That’s the beauty of Los Angeles compared to New York or London. You can breathe a bit, and that’s a luxury,” he said.
Gifts and home accessories such as scented candles, coffee brewing vessels, tea light holders and bar ware are for sale too.
The showroom aside, Dixon doesn’t hide his unfamiliarity with L.A. In fact, when asked why he’s most excited about working in this city, Dixon replied, “because I don’t know it.”
And yet leave it to a Brit to bring a major dose of brightness and glamour that feels right at home in this fully realized lifestyle shop with collaborative potential.
Tom Dixon x Curve, 8850 Washington Blvd., Suite 101, Culver City
