Fashion Designers Fall in Love with Cathedral City

CATHEDRAL CITY – Twice in about a month, two of the biggest names in fashion – Yves Saint Laurent and Hollister Co. – have hand-selected this community to serve as the backdrop for a photo shoot and a pop-up cosmetics station.

Long Beach-based Summerjax paid $60 for a still photography permit for a photo shoot with models at the city’s famed rainbow crossing.

Venice-based HK Corporations spent $600 for a Special Use Permit to set up the Yves Saint Laurent Lipstick Station during one weekend of Coachella, April 11-14. The musical event draws thousands of people, many of whom are expected to visit Cathedral City.

The permit fees were nominal, but the worldwide publicity Cathedral City stands to gain from the two events is priceless.

“I can tell you on behalf of our community that having Hollister Co. and Yves St. Laurent choosing downtown as their venue for marketing their products was no surprise to us,” Mayor Pro Tem John Aguilar told Uken Report.  “I think they saw the same opportunity that we live with daily — snow-capped mountains, the desert, palm trees, and a rainbow crossing — to conduct a photo shoot or create a mid-century modern pop-up structure that will attract the attention of millions of consumers from around the World.”

The current City Council and administration continue to promulgate the city’s Arts and Entertainment District in the Downtown, Aguilar said.

“With CV Rep opening this past week, the Mary Pickford Theater completely refurbished, the new amphitheater under construction and groundbreaking in the coming months on the Casino, it was only a matter of time when choosing Cathedral City as the hot spot for art, food, fashion, gaming, concerts, and theater becomes common place,” Aguilar said.

The Hollister Co., a brand of Abercrombie & Fitch Co., is a global teen clothing company with 540 retail locations, including Westfield Palm Desert. It chose to showcase its models in the Rainbow Crossing in this progressive and gay-friendly community to promote its support for the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN).

In March 2018, GLSEN honored Hollister Co. with the Corporate Ally Award at the 2018 GLSEN Respect Awards in New York.

Rainbow Crossing, the first-of-its-kind crossing in the Coachella Valley, was unveiled in March 2016. It symbolizes and celebrates diversity.

The crossing was heralded as an important step to recognize the historic progress in the civil rights movement.

Consisting of six colored stripes, The Rainbow Crossing was designed in accordance to the Rainbow Flag created by San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker in 1978 including the color red to symbolize “life,” orange for “healing,” yellow for “sunlight,” green for “nature,” blue for “harmony,” and purple for “spirit.”

This popular crossing is now poised to make its debut in an ad campaign.

Rich Bokides, an independent location manager, scouted the location for the Hollister Co. and Yves Saint Laurent Lipstick Station.

Yves Saint-Laurent, was a French fashion designer who, in 1961, founded his eponymous fashion label. He is regarded as being among the foremost fashion designers in the twentieth century

“It’s a large event,” Bokides told Uken Report of the Lipstick Station. “They needed space and they wanted a place that looked like an old Route 66 gas station in the middle of the desert. It’s going to be huge. Huge. There will be celebrities here and fashion writers.”

There will be a makeup bus, balloons, at least one giant lipstick tube, and more on the location.

The Lipstick Station will be located on land near the corner of East Palm Canyon Drive and Allen Avenue. The structure that will resemble a mid-century gas station will be used to sell and promote Yves Saint Laurent cosmetics.

There will be a promotional preview party, complete with music, for its high-end clients and models on Thursday, April 11, 2019 from 6 p.m. to 10 pm.

The promoter will secure the perimeter of the event space with barriers and private security.

Look for the structure to literally pop up on April 8 and vanish by April 15.