Lifestyle

Beyond Erewhon: Inside the L.A. grocery store where all the cool vegans are flocking

Published

2 years ago

May 5, 2024

Beyond Erewhon: Inside the L.A. grocery store where all the cool vegans are flocking

On a rainy Saturday afternoon in late March, a block of East Hollywood is unusually quiet but for the corner of Fountain Avenue and North Edgemont Street. There, a line snakes halfway around the perimeter of a little vegan grocery store that’s sparking with activity.

Inside, grime music blasts as a pop-up vendor doles out vegan banh mi to shoppers who clutch bamboo toilet paper and vegan lox. Even a Siberian husky named Chaka gets in on the action, scarfing up a vegan dog treat — every canine who comes through the door gets one.

“Welcome!” yells Matt Fontana, the store’s tattoo-sleeved co-founder.

The Besties store after its run club event, which always ends with free soft serve for all.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Various types of vegan jerky on a grocery store's shelves.

“Hey Paul, hi!” Fontana bellows in his New York accent, while filling a cup with the store’s vegan soft serve ice cream for another customer. Then, waving his free arm: “Everyone, you guys — come on in!”

It’s a typical day at Besties Vegan Paradise. Since opening in 2019, the grocery store has become a hub for a particular type of cool vegan in Los Angeles. The clientele is culturally diverse, spanning age, gender and style. But it coalesces around especially trendy aesthetics and a staunch desire to live responsibly.

Environmentally conscious, animal-loving DJs, chefs, writers, filmmakers, graphic designers and other creatives mingle there over free natural wine and vegan Brie during a “meet the maker” session, showcasing how the store’s cheese is made. “Open forum” talks there address topics such as environmental sustainability and the food chain. As you grab a beverage out of the cooler, hand-painted lettering above proclaims you’re “So Cool You Hot.”

There are other vegan markets in L.A. — X Market in Venice and Glowing Plant Based Eatery & Market in Echo Park, among them. But Besties is the only one that sources 100% of its products from all-vegan manufacturers so that customers don’t have to scrutinize labels. And while the store’s purpose is utilitarian, Besties is as much about the vibes — the shopping experience and connections made while there — as it is about picking up a fresh bottle of plant milk for your morning cereal. Customers trade tips about vegan tattoo ink during Wu-Tang Wednesdays, which Besties observes with religious fervor. (Every Wednesday, Wu-Tang Clan’s hip-hop plays loudly and on repeat in the store from opening until closing.) Over the last five years, the establishment has grown beyond the parameters of a retail store and into a cultural center for vegans in L.A. focused on food, fashion, art and athleticism.

Fontana, who sports a shaved head and a gold tooth, and co-owner Asia Rain, a vegan tattoo artist whose studio is above the store, host these in-person events at Besties to give like-minded customers a space to socialize and vegan-curious newcomers a place to learn about the diet. Pop-ups supporting local vegan brands, such as Tiffany Luong’s Long Beach-based Vegan Bánh Mì Thảo, are a regular occurrence. Besties makes its own chocolate, candies and cheese — “celebratory foods people are emotionally attached to,” Fontana said. Rain also designs a line of street-inspired branded hoodies, T-shirts and socks that come in handy at the store’s popular weekly, vegan 5K run club that ends at Besties with free soft serve for all.

“Veganism isn’t a diet, it’s a lifestyle and a mind-set,” Fontana said. “It’s an act of love.”

Veganism has come a long way from the days of limp soy hot dogs. In 1971, author Frances Moore Lappé published “Diet for a Small Planet,” a seminal guide that argued Americans’ insatiable appetite for meat was damaging Earth — and our bodies. Soon after, meatless diets gained popularity among a small percentage of Americans. But it wasn’t until the early 1980s that soy became a more common replacement for animal-based proteins such as meat and dairy, standing in for burgers, ice cream and other American comfort foods. Restaurants and grocery stores now offer shockingly sophisticated and culturally diverse items. But veganism still suffers from something of a branding issue: It’s often seen as an exclusive, hippie-ish club of well-meaning but judgy disciples, with restrictive diets, who can afford $42 artisanal vegan salami. “People ask me if I miss meat or dairy,” Julio Torres says while discussing his veganism in a 2017 Comedy Central stand-up show. “I mean, I miss being liked.”

Part of Besties’ mission is rebranding veganism as something that’s diverse, inclusive and, yes, even hip.

A patron shows off a “Besties” thigh tattoo from Asia Rain. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Cesar Asebedo enjoys a vegan ice cream cone. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

A group of people running in a crosswalk

“It’s for everyone: goths, punk rockers, hippies, bike messengers, basics,” Fontana said. “Hip-hop heads and normcore hikers and campers. Veganism is small, but it crosses all identities. It’s for anyone who truly champions equality, who realizes they have a chance to make a difference in real time.”

The charge Fontana is leading has been shared by a handful of other vegan outposts in the U.S., according to Alicia Kennedy, author of 2023’s “No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating.” She notes food destinations with similar “hip, young, vegan identities,” such as Williamsburg’s Foodswings (which closed in 2014), the Chicago Diner and Philadelphia’s Grindcore House.

Collectively, these spaces are valuable, she says, because vegans, historically, have always been far more diverse than the dominant cultural stereotype: “This white, crunchy, kind of angry activist vibe,” Kennedy said. “Has it changed? Not really. So anything that pushes back against that is going to help change the mainstream perspective.”

On a recent Friday night, Besties hosted a lively vegan Mexican street food event, featuring Jessie Gil’s Sylmar-based pop-up El Compa Vegano, that drew more than 150 people over four hours. Straight-edge 20-somethings, with nose rings and decorative tooth gems, mingled with middle-aged “basics” in jeans and unisex button-down shirts outside the store. Carne asada, with impeccably seasoned lion’s mane mushrooms standing in for steak, sizzled on the grill as plumes of smoke filled the air. Some customers sat on a custom skateboard obstacle that doubles as a Brooklyn-style “stoop” outside Besties’ front door. (The shop lends it to local skater kids.) Hand-painted signs designed by Rain hung in the window, advertising “Classic Hot Dog $6.96” and “Oat Based Soft Serve” in the style of a 1950s soda fountain. It was a mashup of crowds from the Venice Beach Skatepark, the KITH streetwear store in Beverly Hills and the Smorgasburg food market.

An array of tacos that include vegan beef, rice and mushrooms.

“The reason this place feels so authentic is because they’re making healthy choices for themselves — they’re walking the walk — but they’re cool kids too, and that makes it realistic. You can do it too,” said Besties customer D’Andrée Galipeau, a DJ who lives nearby and “leans vegan.”

Fontana, 48, grew up in a Sicilian-American family in Brooklyn in the 1970s and ’80s immersed in the hip-hop culture of the time. “Anything anti-establishment,” he says. He collected basketball sneakers and tattoos, and carried his skateboard everywhere. His mother was a vegetarian and he, an animal lover, followed suit at 14. He turned vegan at 20 when — while studying eastern philosophy and religion at San Francisco State University — he met his now ex-wife and she taught him about the diet.

“I hadn’t seen behind the veil,” he said. “I didn’t know about the industrialized animal agriculture industry, the enslavement of millions of female animals across the world,” the latter referring to the dairy industry. “Once all of that got explained to me, it was an obvious choice as somebody who rejects violence, rejects oppression and is a champion of reproductive freedom.”

Fontana went on to become an influential streetwear, sneaker and hip-hop fashion entrepreneur in the early to mid-2000s on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

The cultural influences of his past are apparent at Besties. The store creates “limited-edition” soft serve flavors to match its calendar of food pop-ups. The Besties hot dogs pay homage to the Coney Island of Fontana’s youth, the soft serve to the Carvel ice cream he grew up with.

Two hands passing off a vegan ice cream cone as a person stands holding a small white dog in the background.

“It’s got to be lighthearted,” Fontana said of making veganism appealing. “We’re elevating veganism to be something that’s culturally aspirational as opposed to something that’s frowned upon by society.”

If Fontana is the mouthpiece of Besties, Rain, 34, is the artistic eye. She was born Asia Rain Phoenix (her last name is one her parents invented for their kids, and she goes by her first and middle name now). She spent her early years in Victoria, British Columbia, with parents who battled addictions, she says, and took odd jobs.

When Rain was 10, her parents moved her and her two younger siblings to Atlanta. They were undocumented immigrants, so when the kids got older, they couldn’t open a bank account, get a driver’s license or apply for financial scholarships.

Rain left home at 17 and spent a year traveling around the U.S. as a carnival barker (“Step right up!” she demonstrated) and airbrushing T-shirts at fairs and in malls. That led to work in an Indiana tattoo shop. She received her citizenship at 24, at which point she’d built a thriving clientele in the Midwest.

For the first time, she had a steady income. She bought a house with her partner, grew her own food, kept bees. But she felt stagnant and depressed. She gave it all up in 2016 and traveled to Peru, where she spent six months hiking and studying the culture, Spanish and the natural environment, including how to make tattoo ink from fruit.

When she returned to the U.S. in 2017, she met Fontana through a fine art tattooer. Through their conversations, Rain quickly decided to go vegan.

“Everywhere I looked it was … government manipulation and disrespect of natural resources,” she said. “And I felt powerless. Veganism is an act of choice to abstain from committing cruelty to anything. And that’s what I wanted to do.”

Three people stand in a store eating ice cream.

While dating over the next year or so — he living in L.A. and she in Vancouver — Fontana shared multiple business plans with Rain, including one for a vegan 7-Eleven-type store. He invited her to be his partner. Then things progressed rapidly.

Fontana sold almost everything he owned, put the rest in storage and lived out of his car — a black Jaguar — for several months in late 2018. Rain sold her beloved, baby blue VW Westfalia and moved to L.A. They lived in an Airbnb while they remodeled a former mini-mart. In January 2019, they opened Besties, where she now tattoos many of the customers.

Rain came up with the name: “If we all treated each other like besties, the world wouldn’t be in the state that it’s in,” she said.

For both Rain and Fontana, cool cachet and social-environmental responsibility are not mutually exclusive. Besties might dress up the vegan lifestyle in trendy clothing and designer sneakers, but it still demands from them rigorous research, unwavering commitment, attention to detail and relentless principle.

“There’s Besties Vegan Paradise, the cultural center — and it says ‘All are welcome’ on the door,” Fontana said. “But personally, I’m a vegan activist. This place is my activism.”

Helping plant-based brands connect with customers is central to Besties’ mission. Most businesses charge pop-up vendors for space or take a percentage of their sales from events, Fontana said. Besties does neither.

A portrait of a bearded man holding a takeout container of nachos.

Jessie Gil, founder of El Compa Vegano, holds vegan nachos, fully loaded. (Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)

A woman looks at a product in a green box in a vegan grocery store.

Julie Reyes shops for groceries at Besties Vegan Paradise. (Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)

“They do a great job of marketing me in their newsletters and on social media,” Luong said of Besties during her bánh mì event (she’s done 10 there now). “I feel supported, I feel seen.”

What does Besties get out of giving away space and time for free?

“Traffic,” Fontana said. “These pop-ups have followings that they bring to us. But it’s also part of how we’re breaking down the stereotypes of veganism, that ‘not for you’ club. These vendors showcase what’s usually the food from their culture and they bring with them a totally different community than maybe we’re able to reach directly.”

Fontana said one family even comes in every Saturday from Aliso Viejo for the soft serve.

The secret recipe took about three years to perfect, as Fontana and Rain experimented with coconut milk and soy milk for its base. (It’s now made with oat milk.) Ultimately, it was Rain’s mechanical expertise that made the difference. She took apart Besties’ large Taylor soft serve machine and adjusted it to dispense nondairy milk. “Changing the viscosity changes how you experience the flavor,” she said.

A group portrait of people in athletic wear in front of Besties Vegan Paradise.

The store gives away soft serve to customers and vendors so readily that some question the business model.

“A friend of mine was like, ‘What’s the perk of them giving away all this stuff for free?’” said Sara Schunck, a member of Besties’ run club. “But the best people come out and you’re looking forward to the ice cream at the end. I’ve met a lot of really cool people.”

Fontana, now sitting on the skateboard-stoop outside the store, pops a vegan sour gummy into his mouth, contemplating the question.

“It’s about spreading the vegan love, paying it forward,” he said.

One vegan ice cream scoop at a time.

Lifestyle

Megan Thee Stallion’s Hot Shots to Kick Off Her 31st Birthday!

Published

20 minutes ago

February 15, 2026

Press Room

Megan Thee Stallion’s Hot Shots to Kick Off Her 31st Birthday!

Megan Thee Stallion
‘Savage’ Hot Shots To Kick Off Her 31st!!!

Published
February 15, 2026
1:00 AM PST

It’s Megan Thee Stallion‘s birthday — consider this your official heat warning!

The “Hot Girl” coach never misses when it comes to serving looks, and these bikini snaps prove exactly why she stays winning … confidence isn’t just part of her brand — it is the brand.

From jaw-dropping curves to headline-stealing poses, Megan knows how to shut it down from every angle — and she’s never been shy about giving fans exactly what they came for.

Another year older, still running the game — Happy Birthday, Meg!

Lifestyle

‘Wait Wait’ for February 14, 2026: With Not My Job guest Arden Cho

Published

11 hours ago

February 14, 2026

Press Room

Arden Cho attends Netflix’s “KPop Demon Hunters” Special Screening at Netflix Tudum Theater on June 16, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

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Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

This week’s show was recorded in Chicago with guest host Negin Farsad, judge and scorekeeper Bill Kurtis, Not My Job guest Arden Cho and panelists Tom Papa, Paula Poundstone, and Beth Stelling. Click the audio link above to hear the whole show.

Who’s Bill This Time

Laser Party in Texas; Olympic Cheating Scandal; Romance Advice for this Weekend

Panel Questions

Those Whippersnappers!

Bluff The Listener

Our panelists tell three stories about a news story inspired by a movie, only one of which is true.

Not My Job: KPop Demon Hunters’ Arden Cho answers three questions about K-Mart

Arden Cho, star of KPop Demon Hunters, plays our game called, “KPop Demon Hunters, meet K-Mart Bargain Hunters.” Three questions about K-Mart.

Panel Questions

Hot Airplane Etiquette Trend; Russia’s Pooping Spy Drones

Limericks

Bill Kurtis reads three news-related limericks: Who Rescued Ew!; A Double D Cup of Butter; Getting Fancy At McDonald’s

Lightning Fill In The Blank

All the news we couldn’t fit anywhere else

Predictions

Our panelists predict what will be the big story out of the final week of the Olympics.

Lifestyle

To be in love, in L.A and in Acne Studios on Valentine’s Day

Published

12 hours ago

February 14, 2026

Press Room

To be in love, in L.A and in Acne Studios on Valentine’s Day

Styled in Acne Studios’ Valentine’s Day edit, three L.A. creative couples brought us into their worlds as they reflected on their artistic journeys, relationships and personal styles as a tool for connection. The simple act of always having their partner’s go-to moisturizer in their bag for them, shopping together or making space for each other’s dreams can yield the kind of fruitful love that makes navigating this world all the better.

Hayley and Clyde

Smooth jazz plays as the sun pours in over the mountains and into the heart of Hayley Ashton Corley and Clyde Nikolai Corley’s home, tucked away in the hills of Topanga Canyon. Hayley is an artist and model, and her husband Clyde is an artist and filmmaker. Though the two of them have not been professionally photographed together often, they are quite natural together on camera. As the shoot unfolds, Clyde can be found affectionately rubbing Hayley’s hand, gently playing with the wedding band on her ring finger. “I met Clyde when I was 20 and we’ve been together almost 10 years now,” Hayley says. The two got married in India, where Hayley’s family is from, during a three-day ceremony in November 2024. “The wedding was making what was already spiritual, physical,” Clyde says.

When you first met, what drew you to each other?

Hayley: His eyes. I saw him across the room and we both looked at each other. I crossed the room, walked up to him and sat down and wanted to just chat. Then Clyde DM’d me on Instagram and a few weeks later he asked me out to breakfast.

Clyde: We just clicked immediately; we were drawn to each other. We were kids, and she was just so positive and kept talking about all the good things about L.A., which is really refreshing when you’re from L.A., because everybody comes here and kind of hates on things.

What was most memorable about your first date?

Clyde: We went to Figaro Bistrot in Los Feliz. I order an eggs Benedict, and Hayley’s like, “I’ll do the same.” But then she swaps the bread for croissant, makes the egg scrambled, adds spinach, and ends up with this different story sliding around the plate. She was over it and didn’t even eat it.

Hayley: I honestly hate eggs Benedict so much.

Clyde: But we just kept looking at each other and I really liked being around her. Then I got back to my car and got a parking ticket, so it was great. About a $150 brunch that no one enjoyed and that was our first date.

Image March 2026 Acne Story Haley and Clyde

What is your favorite thing about the way your partner styles themselves?

Hayley: Clyde dresses himself by his mood. Some days it’ll be all black or white, but he’s always pulling fits. I feel like I tend to go to Clyde when I want to be dressed a certain way, so he really helps style me.

Clyde: Hayley’s really natural. She wears anything and it’s fire, and I’m inspired by that. Maybe it informs my outlook on clothing. Hayley can play both worlds really well; she can dress up really beautifully and be an absolute stunner. She can tap into her Indian roots and express beautiful dynamic style. She’s also just my muse so I’m obsessed with her.

If you styled each other for the day, what do you think the end results would look like?

Clyde: Hayley loves funny fits I wear, maybe baggy sweatpants and a funny beanie. She loves a messy skater boy look. Or she likes when I’m really dressed up so she’d probably dress me in some fun whimsical stuff.

Hayley: If Clyde were to style me, it’d probably be skinny jeans that are tight on my butt or a really chic skirt. He likes to see my skin and my shape, where sometimes I tend to wear baggy pants.

If you were on a game show, and you had to accurately guess at least five things that you could find in your partner’s bag at any given moment, what would those items be?

Clyde: In her bag right now would be her phone, wallet, her little rose-brown colored lip gloss. She has this energy boosting key from a Chinese herbalist lady in New York, like a tonic. She’s known to bring a phone charger around.

Hayley: For Clyde, I think laptop, hard drive, computer charger, phone, wallet. That’s pretty much it.

You both are so creative. How has being in love enhanced your artistic practice?

Hayley: Clyde is just a really inspiring person to be around. Watching him and his craft inspires me to be a better artist, because he has such discipline, but also flow. The past 10 years of being together has helped me hone in on my own work and practice.

Clyde: I feel the same, in different ways. I’m coming from a place of feeling seen. I got the person who loves me for who I am and I don’t have to keep up with trends or anything. It allows me to focus on the actual feelings I’m trying to express rather than how it’s going to be seen by the outside world. It just allows me to stay inspired. We’re so lucky. I think if love can inspire you to hold on to the things you care about, that’s really advantageous in art.

Mo and Banoffee

It’s a picturesque afternoon in Echo Park. The sun is warm, the breeze is cool and the peaceful bustle feeds the atmosphere at Canyon Coffee. Mo Faulk and Banoffee Faulk, partners in love and creative pursuits, arrive for a late lunch. Both earth signs, the two laugh at the peculiarities they noticed within each other upon first meeting. Together for almost a year, they instantly clicked, which is quite apparent while observing them. They can’t help but smile at each other throughout the shoot, stealing forehead kisses between shots and laughing constantly. It is a connection so in sync it could have been written in the stars. And, as two people with heavy earth sign placements, it nearly was.

With Mo being a creative producer and manager, and Banoffee being a musician and producer, their jobs can be socially demanding. The self-proclaimed homebodies share that their ideal quality pastime is rewatching “Grey’s Anatomy” for the third time, sitting together in silence while enjoying cookie milkshakes, or spending a weekend away in nature.

When you first met, what drew you to each other?

Mo: We both understand the chaos of family dynamics in a way that’s really comforting.

Banoffee: Yeah, it’s nice when you find someone who’s not a nepo baby in L.A., because it’s rare. But the goofiness as well. I was drawn to Mo initially, because they’re attractive, but it was nice to meet someone who can be really silly.

What was the most memorable part about your first date?

Mo: We were coming to hang out as friends, but we left kind of obsessed with each other. Separately, we left and called our friends.

Banoffee: We met at 10 in the morning and left at 4 p.m.

Mo: We just didn’t want to leave each other.

Image March 2026 Acne Story Mo and Banuffee

What is your favorite thing about the way your partner styles themselves?

Mo: With Banoffee it’s always fun because everyday is like a new character. They’re down to put weird stuff together that actually is very cool. I like the playfulness with clothes and it also speaks to the playfulness of our relationship.

Banoffee: Mo’s style is sort of a recontextualized hick. They love a flannel and fishing caps. I like how rugged their style is, but somehow they make it look really high fashion.

If you styled each other for the day, what do you think the end results would look like?

Banoffee: Mo would put me in a baggy jean, with a belt and a little shirt, with some sort of leather jacket or a bomber and a cool sneaker. I feel like Mo’s ethos for dressing is “over-casual is always cooler.”

Mo: Maybe those new jeans you got me, I have no idea.

Banoffee: I’d put you in a vintage thermal.

Mo: Oh, yeah. Little tight thermal, big jeans.

Banoffee: Would we dress each other exactly the same?

If you were on a game show, and you had to accurately guess at least five things that you could find in your partner’s bag at any given moment, what would those items be?

Mo: A Juul, 17 empty Juul pods, a lipliner that’s broken without the top on it, one of those makeup brushes that’s been in there for far too long and maybe a mini hairbrush. And empty contact lens cases.

Banoffee: Mo’s bag is so full, so practical, it’s annoying. They’d have two Aquaphors. The big tube and the little tube. They’d have all of my things: ID, sometimes my passport, medications, my contact lenses. A mini natural mouth wash, gum, a charging cord, deodorant, there’s probably a spare pair of socks, and then those sniffy menthol things for your nose. And a lot of rings, chains, and things that they may or may not want to wear.

With both of you being in the creative industry with overlapping work, how do you think being together has influenced your artistic practice?

Banoffee: I feel like our relationship has re-energized my creative work. We’re each other’s cheerleaders but can also get our hands dirty. It feels cool to be a part of a team in that way. Before I met Mo, I was feeling kind of tired about my work, a little bit like the romance had gone from it, but I feel like since we’ve met, there’s a lot of possibility opening up because we’re in it together.

Mo: I agree. Being in the entertainment industry can feel really lonely. Everyone’s kind of stepping on each other intentionally or not to get to what they want to do, and if things aren’t going the way you want it to it can feel hopeless. But with Banoffee, they think everything I do is cool, every idea I have they’re excited about, and I feel the same way about them. The idea of being a team, it reignites the fire.

Lex and Petar

Lex Orozco-Cabral and Petar Ilic are on their sunset-lit balcony, overlooking the Hollywood strip. Petar, a Bosnian model and creative, works at a creative agency in the fashion sector, while Lex, a Bay Area native, is a union costume designer and stylist. Both exude a level of comfortable confidence in front of the camera — like two sculptures come to life. Immersing themselves into the fun of it all, Lex jokes, “This is our normal.”

Crossing paths for the first time in New York, connecting over Instagram and finally meeting when Petar moved to L.A., the pair’s romance had been years in the making. Lex, a triple fire sign and Petar, a balance of fire, water and air, live together in WeHo where they love to spend time deep-diving into fashion and pop-culture references. Lex has a larger-than-life personality — he is sure, protective and affirming of Petar, while Petar is calm, grounding and nurturing of Lex. “Two years later and I’m still obsessed with him,” Lex shares lovingly. “He’s just getting better and better,” Petar offers, “and I’m here for where this is gonna take us.”

What about your partner were you most drawn to?

Petar: I have a lot. The list is long. He’s handsome, he’s tall, he’s funny. I love his fashion sense, just everything about him. This is my person. Everything we do from day to day, it’s never boring.

Lex: At first it was physical, he’s just so gorgeous. But then once I met him, I fell in love with his little -isms. He has these buzz words and phrases. And he is genuinely so caring, so kind. I’m like, “Where the f— did he come from?”

Image March 2026 Acne Story Petar and Lex

What is your favorite thing about the way your partner styles themselves?

Lex: I definitely help him and elevate his style but he had great style before. He’s very minimal, he likes to look refined and polished, like a proper boy, but then at home, he’s dressed really gay. Like, at home it’s sexy undies and a rocker shirt.

Petar: I never really cared too much about dressing up before I met him. One of my favorite things about him is that his style is so crazy. He’s wearing all these amazing pieces. I never really met anyone who cared so much about clothes, and it’s inspiring. I’m like, “this is hot.” He’s like an encyclopedia when it comes to fashion.

If you both had to style each other for the day, what do you think those end results would look like?

Petar: That’s really hard to say.

Lex: I would like him to dress gayer.

Petar: I’m just avoiding all the bullying I can. I get nervous sometimes holding hands.

Lex: But I try to tell him no one is bullying you here, this isn’t Bosnia.

Petar: And that’s true, I’ve never been bullied here in L.A., and he helps me get out of my comfort zone.

If you were on a game show, and you had to accurately guess at least five things that you could find in your partner’s bag at any given moment, what would those items be?

Petar: His phone, wallet, the microfiber cloth for glasses and phones, really just the essentials.

Lex: His crystal stone, his mouth tape. He always has some type of lip gloss, gum and edibles.

You are both very creative. How do you think being together, being in love, has influenced your artistic practice?

Lex: I just have better days. I know that I have the best f—ing boyfriend at home waiting for me. I always say I get the best ideas [when I’m with] him.

Petar: I am just honestly happier from the moment I wake up. The world feels safe and everything is more aligned. Also the subjects we talk about, the things he shows me.

What is something about the way your partner sees the world that you really appreciate?

Lex: He’s so positive and optimistic, and I miss that because I can be jaded working in this industry where you don’t always get credit for your work. I’m more of a stresser, and he calms me down.

Petar: One of my favorite things about him is that he’s very confident, he’s a go-getter. You gotta act like you’re the main character in life and he brings that out of me.

Cierra Black is an Inland Empire-raised, L.A.-based writer and UCLA graduate. With bylines in several publications, Cierra writes about the interplay between art, style, and beauty, and social issues and behaviors.

Photography Kevin Amato
Couples Hayley Ashton Corley and Clyde Nikolai Corley, Banoffee Faulk and Mo Faulk, Lex Orozco-Cabral and Petar Ilic
Creative direction & styling Keyla Marquez
Makeup T’ai Rising-Moore
Hair Adrian Arredondo
Movement director Kate Wallich
Production Matzi
Styling assistant Ronben