35

Her biggest fans are the tiny tots of Hollywood and include little Suri (daughter of Tom Cruise), Honor (Jessica Alba’s daughter) and Ever (Milla Jovovich’s daughter). The designer Heidi Maria Schwarck talks to GG about the birth of her flourishing label LunaLuna Copenhagen and her very own personal LA love story.

How I fell in love with LATRANSCRIBED BY: Holger Hoetzel PRODUCTION: Tatijana Shoan PHOTOS: Mark Seelen

The designer and her children Zoë, Luna and Maximi-

lian (opposite page) spend an afternoon at their favorite spot on Westward Beach.

“Malibu’s beaches, the wonderful sun-kissed nature here became my true inspiration.”

36

38

The buoyant spirit of Malibu paired

with Heidi’s girlish magic result in

lighthearted fanta-sies for kids – not

just those growing up in Hollywood.

38

41

„Abenteuer, große Träume und der Glaube, dass hier wirklich alles möglich ist!“

40

arrived in the City of Angels dusty and dirty after 1000 miles on a motorcycle cruising the back roads of the American West. It was a beautiful Saturday morning: I rolled through Beverly Hills down Rodeo Drive past Chanel, Dior, Marc Jacobs, straight into the heart of luxury. Checked myself into the Beverly Wilshire, threw down my helmet, looked over the splendid pool and thought: “Maybe, just maybe I could fall in love with this place. The

sun, the palm trees, the easy life…”I will not admit how many years ago this was, but it was a time before

kids. A time when I was not ready for the sweet seduction of Los Angeles. New York was my place of choice then: working for designers Bill Blass, Theory and Jones New York, I loved the drive of my great city. The day I flew home, LA moved back to that beautiful space we hold in our hearts, where we stop, go on a holiday, sip a Martini (or two) and enjoy the warmth of the sun.

It wasn’t until some odd years and two children later, when Los Angeles started calling again. Exhausted from the grind of New York’s fashion world and longing for open spaces and for time with my children, I remembered that place in the sun. Traded my Noho loft for a house in the Santa Monica Mountains, my career for family life, the nightly police sirens for howling coyotes and the drive of New York for the laid-back pace of California: A Scandinavian New Yorker in LA. An alien dropped into the sunshine and friendly warmth of la la land.

LA’s real beauty was not obvious to me then and for the casual travel-er it never really is. The city shows it’s true magic through private places, hidden gems that dot the expansive metropolis of Los Angeles: The dinners in our friends beautiful Beverly Hills gardens with their abundant scent of jasmine, or Sundays spent cooking and drinking in a splendid home under the Hollywood sign, kids playing in the pool. And there are the moonlit nights at our wood oven in my backyard, where the spicy smell of burning almond wood stops time, if only for a little

moment; my husband’s small herd of Trakehners neighing in the can-yon. That is LA at its most beautiful. Far away from the sad and disjoin-ted cityscape, LA’s private spaces are like a dream – straight out of a hollywood movie.

Five years into that beautiful dream my daughter Luna was born and with her my designer heart started beating again. Southern California’s breezy lifestyle, its sunny outdoors, the Malibu beaches and the rustic Santa Monica Mountains inspired a first children’s collection. And in 2003 I started my childrens’ wear company LunaLuna Copenhagen. California style: in our garage – with a Russian sample maker straight from Bolshoi’s costume department and three old sewing machines.

That simple. And this is where I fell in love with Southern California all over again. It is a place free of skeptics, naysayers and envy. Every-thing is possible. The enthusiasm, creative spirit and excitement around me carried my new venture until the dream took flight. LunaLuna is now in its sixth year and the line’s success in the US has been overwhelming. It seems that Scandinavian sensibilities and the ease of the Malibu life are a mix that is contagious. And yes, it still tick-les me every time I see the girls of Tom Cruise, Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Alba, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Garner etc in LunaLuna.

Through the eye of a Northern European every day of Los Angeles sunshine is a gift. The abundance of warmth and light, and a life that in so many ways is spent outside, makes you shrug when you think about fires, earthquakes and… traffic. Here we have an elegant way of tuning out all that is not perfect. And what California misses in culture and gra-vity, it infused my three children with a spirit of adventure: My daughter Zoë (14), a fearless event rider and budding filmmaker, my son Maxi-milian (13) a talented basketballer, who has been traveling and playing around the Western States since he was 10, and Luna (8) my little dancer and singer. California raises kids without the self-doubt of the European soul. And as much as I might miss the European sense of heritage (yes, I still follow my Danish Queen’s every move) I love this place because it lets us all dream big and lets us believe that anything is possible. HH

Hand-picking fabrics in the morning – then off to the beach for an hour in the BMW M6 convertible after lunch. Professional-ism with a laid-back playfulness – that´s LA through and through.

All names and addresses can be found on page 176.

I

“This place is made for adventures, dreaming big and believing that anything is possible!”