Fashion Label Moves Into Former Lovecraft Biofuels Garage
Lovecraft Biofuels made a big media splash in Hollywood’s Sunset Junction neighborhood. News outlets from the Los Angeles Times, Wired magazine and National Public Radio reported on its mission of converting creaky cars into eco-vehicles that run on vegetable oil. Earlier this year, Lovecraft moved a few miles away to 1400 N. Virgil Ave. The Sunset Junction building’s new tenant might keep some of its same spirit as these vegetable-grease monkeys. They’re just as obsessed with motor vehicles.
On April 8, Los Angeles clothing label Johnson Motors Inc. will debut its design headquarters and showroom at the former Lovecraft headquarters, located at 4000 Sunset Blvd. The 5-year-old line produces T-shirts and outerwear inspired by the motorcycle lifestyle of the 1940s and a fashion line called Steve McQueen. It is inspired by the clothes the iconic actor wore off of the movie set.
Sean Kelly, owner of the Johnson Motors fashion line, took out a four-year lease on the 6,000-square-foot space on Jan. 18. Shortly after the contract’s ink was dry, workers with sandblasters set about cleaning up vegetable grease, layers of dry-wall, detritus and more oil grease left over from the building’s more than 70 years of housing car-repair businesses.
With the building’s original red brick wall and exposed ceilings, Kelly said, the place looks more like an early 20th century auto-mechanic space. He said it is the perfect backdrop to house T-shirts inspired by classic bike graphics and a 1964 650 Triumph motorcycle owned by McQueen himself. For more info on Johnson Motors, visit www.johnsonmotorsinc.com.
