It was a long-awaited break from weeks of on-again-off-again cold and sporadic mist that had kept the city in a whomp-whomp kind of mood. (Or was that just me?) Finally. Days like this one, with its warm weather and unexpected sunshine, are helping renew my love affair with California. Oh, and it’s about to get even better – because I’m about to peruse a new exciting boutique that has just opened its doors in the city.

To people like me – that is, proponents of fledgling brands and progressive new talents in fashion – stores like Ouimillie are catnip. Interior architect and owner Millicent Cutler opened Ouimille’s first location in Boston, followed by a pop-up in Los Angeles, and now a full-on permanent store. The new boutique’s facade stops you like a traffic light. It’s limoncello-yellow and festooned with clusters of balloons. Nothing says “come in!” quite like arresting colors, festive decor, and a door that’s flung wide open. Chatter spills outside. A table full of charcuterie and the promise of cocktails beckon. I must go in! 

A Colorful Superbloom

Inside, the 1,800-square foot location is vastly different from the temporary pop-up space Ouimillie inhabited while testing the waters here in Los Angeles back in December. While the previous location had the coziness of a warmly appointed pied-à-terre, Ouimille’s new home on South Flores Street is bigger and brighter, with soaring ceilings and an abundance of natural light. Color dances in your eyes everywhere you look. “There are certain colors I’m really excited about,” Millicent tells me. “Of course, there’s pink, but there’s this thing about yellow. If you just put yellow throughout your house or wherever, it does things to the brain.”

Not only is Ouimillie colorful, it’s sunnier, too – especially today.

Panels of sunlight are elbowing their way into the store, illuminating the paintings perking up the boutique’s walls. It’s hard not to be hypnotized by the scenes dreamed up by featured artist Lisa Baldwin. In one, a field of yellow and purple wildflowers spreads out like an open book, the painting almost giving itself to the viewer. In another, a meadow is spangled with purplish-pink patches of blooming buds. “I love artists,” Millicent says. “I love art. I love design, and I don’t like things to be the same all the time. We basically just go into a shell, we put the art up, and we build the work around the art.”

Conscious Garments

Cocktail in hand – Cosmopolitan, a little nod to And Just Like That…’s return to screen – I peruse the rest of the boutique. With over dozens of independent brands in the mix (all with sustainable practices baked into their DNA), Ouimillie has something for everyone, from home goods to jewelry, bags, and funky belts. Of course, there’s the clothes. Oh, the clothes. Hung on metal rods suspended from the ceiling, garments sweep easily from whimsical and conceptual to colorful everyday staples.

Brands like Collina Strada, known for its candy-colored aesthetic and knack for building fantastical worlds with every collection. (Need a crocheted frog-shaped handbag? Collina Strada has one of those, and you can find it at Ouimille.) Also: Copenhagen-based Helmstedt, whose garments ooze storybook whimsy, and Italian designer Marco Rambaldi, who dreams up peppy, gotta-have-it knitwear. And from closer to home, Los Angeles-based designers like Lily Forbes, whose silky, smooth, and joyous pieces leave you wanting to spend the afternoon prancing and frolicking outside in the warmth.

Maybe somewhere amid the wildflowers.

Spotting Talents

Betting on independent designers and makers has always been Millicent’s intention. It was in 2014 that, after visiting Maison & Objet in Paris, the idea of opening a pop-up first came to her. (The “Oui” in Ouimillie is a nod to that start.) A year later, she followed through with that vision and launched a temporary shop in Somerville, Massachusetts. “I got to the holidays, and I said, ‘Now, this was a lot of work, but I really like it – I want to do it permanently,” Millicent says. “So I looked for the right place.”

Poised for growth, Ouimillie moved locations a couple of times before settling into its present home on Charles Street in Boston. A few years later, California called. So, when Madison Dietrich, stylist and marketing manager at the boutique, decided to move to Los Angeles and pitched the idea of opening a store here, Millicent said: Oui. Coming to Los Angeles meant getting the works of these designers in front of more eyes and offering them yet another place to call home. “I feel like I’m getting pretty good at seeing who could really make a go of things,” she says. “So it’s nice to give someone a chance and start something new in a new town.”

And maybe one day, it’ll be another new town she’ll say yes to — and then another. “I’d love to have 10 shops,” she says, her voice rising with enthusiasm, “and see where it goes.”