Want True California Girl Style? Best Coast’s Guide to the L.A. Vintage Scene

Best Coast

Photo: Courtesy of Janell Shirtcliff

Coachella is finally in the rearview mirror, and surely by now you ve packed away your flower crowns until next year. After all, there’s far more to Golden State style than the cut-off jean shorts and barely-there bikinis that proliferate at the Indio Valley music festival. Tom Ford and Hedi Slimane have set up shop out West, and for vintage fans, Los Angeles has long been a mecca of shops that specialize in everything from Old Hollywood glamour to Topanga Canyon hippie chic pieces to nineties grunge discards.

Just ask Bethany Cosentino, one of the state s proudest and most fashionable ambassadors. As leader of the aptly named indie band Best Coast, Cosentino has crafted a sound that is distinctly Angeleno, inspired by the sixties surf jams of the Beach Boys, seventies freeway rock of Fleetwood Mac, and Orange County pop punk of No Doubt. Her band’s new album, out May 5, is even called California Nights. Cosentino’s personal style is just as diverse and time-traveling, a hodgepodge of vintage inspirations that spans the decades. One minute, she looks like Cher in Clueless driving home in platform heels from the Galleria; the next, like Joni Mitchell strolling barefoot through Laurel Canyon. Lucky for us, she was more than happy to share her favorite secondhand shops in the city. Next year, why not leave the flower crowns at home altogether? It’ll save that much more room in your suitcase for new one-of-a-kind finds.