Virgo Opens Downtown
BFFs Alejandra Hernandez and Rana Shoar at Virgo’s opening-night party on Dec. 18
It’s all about location, location, location. Young hipster design duo Alejandra Hernandez and Rana Shoar planted their store Virgo in a spot that has guaranteed designer-shoe foot traffic by the influential fashion aesthetes that punch timecards at the California Market Center, New Mart, Cooper Design Space and neighboring design studio high-rises.
If you are walking from The Intersection, where the showroom buildings converge, to the necessary caffeine fuel of the nearest Starbucks Coffee, you must pass Virgo’s address at 216 E. Ninth St.
The store was created by fashion lovers Hernandez and Shoar for PYT girls who work in the neighboring fashion district buildings and like to play with the latest fashion trends.
"We decided to open downtown [because] we know all the girls. We’re the customer,” Shoar said.
Currently on display are Hernandez and Shoar’s accessories line Boos Besito and vintage clothes that are altered into the current century. A loud rack of $25 quirky vintage floral and tropical-print dresses likely cast away by “Blossom” fans are shortened to miniskirt length; plaid flannel button-ups are taken in on the sides to become shirt dresses; leather moto jackets and denim jackets are turned into vests and studded up; and the vintage sweatshirts are so perfectly worn and faded you expect them to cost more than $24.
