Lifestyle
Once-overlooked Oceanside has a new vibe. Visit now before it becomes a tourist hotspot
For many years, a whole lot of vacationers neglected Oceanside. It was the blue-collar metropolis that operated within the shadow of Camp Pendleton, a seaside city with out the frills discovered farther south in Del Mar and La Jolla.
However possibly that popularity has reached its expiration date. It actually feels that manner now if you stand downtown, flanked by a pair of shiny new motels, watching the solar set past the outdated picket pier and deciding whether or not to eat vegan, tacos or barbecue on the weekly avenue truthful.
“It’s a wonderful seaside metropolis. It was a matter of time,” stated Harrison Dwelley, 33, who has simply taken over from his mother and father as co-owner of South Oceanside’s Seaside Break Cafe on the Coast Freeway.
Regardless of the pandemic, Oceanside has launched and sustained a brand new era of lodgings, eating places and retailers, together with a number of energetic locations within the neighborhood locals name South O.
Oceanside’s pier stretches 1,954 ft into the Pacific, attracting vacationers, avenue performers and seagulls.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Instances)
When requested about his hometown’s picture, Dwelley acknowledged the outdated days, when billboards urged passers-by to “Tan Your Conceal in Oceanside,” typically in useless. He additionally talked about the continuing TNT drama “Animal Kingdom,” by which members of the depraved Cody household strut, tussle, surf and commit felonies in one in every of California’s final blue-collar seaside cities.
That present has truly lured some younger guests, Dwelley stated. But for 5 years now, as viewers have been watching the crime-soaked municipal caricature, the precise Oceanside has been edging in the wrong way.
In the midst of two journeys to the town in January, I got here to comprehend that Oceanside now could be a vacation spot with considerably extra avocado toast, artisanal espresso and designer surfwear than is required by the common TV outlaw or real-life Marine.
The truth is, the town’s final strip membership, the Principal Attraction, which endured for years throughout the road from the Chamber of Commerce, was leveled in 2021, quickly to get replaced by an upscale residence constructing. Gentrified in Oceanside.
South O
I began my South O explorations on the Inexperienced Room, a ’60s motel that’s been rehabbed right into a 12-room boutique resort. Opened final summer time, it has surf-minimalist white interiors, no foyer, forward-looking know-how and flat black exteriors.
I paid $184 (after taxes) for an evening and favored with the ability to go straight to my room and open it with my cellphone quantity. I largely favored the minimalist surfer-chic look of the place too. (Solely downside: The toilet had no place for me to put down my bathroom equipment. Extreme minimalism.)
Nonetheless in South O, I had a tasty polenta on the Plot, a vegan restaurant that opened in 2020, adopted by ceviche on the Wrench & Rodent a block away and a neighborhood brew from the Pour Home. The subsequent morning, I had half one in every of breakfast on the Buccaneer Cafe (between tiny Buccaneer Seaside and Buccaneer Park) and half two on the Captain’s Grounds, which is the star of a good-looking Coast Freeway shopping-and-snacking strip.
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Alongside that strip you‘ll discover a espresso roastery, bikini store, natural hair-removal salon, yoga studio, apothecary and the Captain’s Helm, which sells classic jewellery, old-school T-shirts, torn denims and hipster books like “By accident Wes Anderson.”
As I realized, the Captain’s Helm is only the start of South O’s temptations for many who think about “thrift” a verb. Property Sale Warehouse takes up most of a metropolis block alongside the Coast Freeway, and Fortunate Road Productions antiques is throughout the road. Farther north, however nonetheless south of Oceanside Boulevard, there’s the deceptively massive Sea Hive Market with 13,000 sq. ft of classic vinyl, garments, artwork, furnishings and different bizarre outdated stuff.
Municipal Taco opened in 2020 in South Oceanside with a daring mural.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Instances)
I had a glance in all of these locations (and was sorely tempted to purchase a forty five of Elvis Presley singing “Within the Ghetto”). For lunch and lager I ended at Municipal Taco, a brewpub that opened in spring 2021 with maybe the best mural in a city filled with cool murals: It’s Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, standing by a longboard in “American Gothic” style.
Typically, “It’s youthful locals or vacationers who’re drawn to us, as a result of we’re extra artful and upscale,” Municipal Taco common supervisor Mercedes Engren advised me. “They let if they’re native to Oceanside, and you’ll inform they need new eating places in the neighborhood to stay, so they aren’t shy about giving suggestions.”
Captain’s Grounds Espresso and Captain’s Helm classic put on are fashionable spots alongside South Coast Freeway in South Oceanside.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Instances)
Subsequent journey, I’ll attempt the Privateer, a coal-fired pizzeria, or South O Brewing Co., which opened in late 2021, pushing the town’s brewery tally to about 15.
Or possibly I’ll attempt to see a gig on the Oceanside Moose Lodge #1325, based in 1948, which now books rock exhibits and guarantees that “this ain’t your grandpa’s lodge.”
Anyway, I’m now a fan of South O. However the metropolis’s adjustments attain far past that neighborhood.
The pier, the Corps and the delicacies
Since lengthy earlier than the primary Marine confirmed up, newcomers to Oceanside have been beginning with the pier. In-built 1887 and rebuilt 5 instances since then, it stretches for 1,942 ft, which makes it a focus of the town’s three-mile shoreline and one of many longest picket piers on the West Coast.
It’s acquired loads of anglers, a bait store midway out, an empty restaurant area on the finish the place a Ruby’s Diner was, and normally a number of surfers beneath, using harmful near the pilings.
Tourism officers say a brand new pier eatery in all probability will open later this yr, as will new restrooms and different enhancements just under the pier and alongside the Strand, a mile-long beachfront avenue that’s largely pedestrian and filled with runners, walkers and cyclists, particularly round sundown.
Is the beachfront scene a random humanity state of affairs just like the Venice boardwalk? No. Is it a pageant of volleyball and prosperity just like the Manhattan Seaside Strand? No once more.
It’s in between, with loads of surfers and strolling {couples}. On the afternoon I first walked the pier, a younger guitarist named Zachary LaMontagne was taking part in “Stairway to Heaven” for ideas. He was match, his haircut was brief, and I had him pegged as a moonlighting army man.
“Nope,” he stated. “I simply appear to be a Marine.”
A surfer works the water close to the Oceanside Pier.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Instances)
Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton (inhabitants about 38,000) has been the northern next-door neighbor to Oceanside (inhabitants about 174,000) because it was established throughout World Battle II. Round downtown, you continue to see a number of army surplus shops, tattoo parlors and barber outlets, the place many Marines get their “high-and-tight” haircuts weekly.
With so many lively and retired army readily available, the town has a extra blue-collar, conservative really feel than most different SoCal seaside cities. It’s additionally extra culturally numerous, in line with the latest U.S. Census numbers.
However, as new companies multiply, Oceanside is wanting a bit extra like its civilian neighbors to the south (Carlsbad and Encinitas) and north (San Clemente).
“We favored it the best way it was. However it’s acquired to maneuver,” stated Jonny Gomez, 84, proprietor of the Esquire barber store because the early Nineteen Sixties.
Exhibit A within the metropolis’s evolution is likely to be the Tremont Collective, a restaurant-retail advanced that opened in November, changing an outdated warehouse. Tenant companies embrace Communal, a very fashionable espresso shop-florist-gift boutique; Bottlecraft, a beer bottle store and bar; Atacama Surf Store; the web surf journal Stab; Brixton clothes; a courtyard biking studio known as Verve; and a poke-and-tacos-and-beer place known as Shootz.
Bagby Beer Co., a brewery and pub that opened in 2014, stands again to again with the collective and faces the Coast Freeway. J.S. Industries — the Australia-based surfboard empire of shaper Jason Stevenson — opened final yr on Wisconsin Avenue, providing $800 surfboards in a transformed storage that’s painted flat black, just like the Inexperienced Room.
“I consider we’re now as much as eight espresso outlets in downtown,” stated Gumaro Escarcega, chief operations officer of the civic nonprofit MainStreet Oceanside. With the price of dwelling rising quick — Zillow estimates that residence values are up about 25% within the final yr — “we have now to watch out due to gentrification,” he added.
Oceanside’s restaurant growth started a few decade in the past, maybe pushed by the town’s excessive industrial emptiness fee and low rents as compared with neighboring seaside areas.
Escarcega stated the town’s restaurant surge started with ventures together with 333 Pacific (seafood, since 2009), The Flying Pig (American gastropub, since 2011), Miss Kim’s by That Boy Good (Southern barbecue, since 2012) and Native Faucet Home (American gastropub, since 2014), later joined by others together with Dija Mara (Balinese, since 2017) and Matsu (Japanese, since 2019 as a pop-up, now in a everlasting area).
Since then, the inhabitants hasn’t modified dramatically, however the variety of eating places and bars has jumped from about 50 to greater than 100, Escarcega stated.
The brewpub depend is past a dozen, augmented by Oceanside Distillers (opened in 2017, tasting by appointment) and Pacific Coast Spirits, a small-batch distillery and restaurant that opened in 2019.
The Switchboard restaurant and bar, Oceanside.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Instances)
Town’s foods and drinks choices multiply additional on Thursdays, which start with the Oceanside Farmers Market.
It runs 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on a stretch of Pier View Approach simply west of the Coast Freeway. Then, from 5 to 9 p.m., you may attempt the Oceanside Sundown Market, a avenue truthful that fills two blocks of Pier View Approach and two blocks of Tremont, typically that includes stay music and scores of retailers, together with Frida’s Grill, the place I grabbed a pair of fantastic tacos whereas the night’s Grateful Lifeless cowl band was getting began.
“Good night,” the frontman stated, stepping as much as the microphone. “We’re Not All Lifeless.”
The Fin, the Brick and the massive fellas
The 2 huge new motels close to the pier are the Mission Pacific Lodge and its sibling, the Seabird Resort, each opened in Might. They’re each six tales, throughout the road from the seaside, close to the pier and managed by sub-brands of the Hyatt chain.
The Mission Pacific and Seabird motels, simply south of the Oceanside Pier, opened in Might 2021.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Instances)
Of the 2, the 161-room Mission Pacific Lodge caught my eye first. It goals to be extra modern and its Rooftop Bar is a superb spot for sunset-viewing.
Look from that roof deck and also you’ll see that the U-shaped resort is wrapped round a tiny Victorian seaside cottage. Why?
The reply is Hollywood. That little residence was Kelly McGillis’ home within the 1986 Tom Cruise Navy-pilot film “Prime Gun.” It was moved to the resort website from elsewhere on the town and is anticipated to open quickly as a dessert bar known as the Prime Gun Home.
As for the 226-room Seabird Resort simply south of the Mission Pacific, it goals to be extra timeless. It options loads of convention rooms on its floor ground, together with the inland-facing Piper restaurant. Charges at each motels begin at about $250 nightly plus a hefty $42 “visitor amenity charge.”
The Inexperienced Room, previously a `Nineteen Sixties motel, is now a 12-room boutique resort in South Oceanside.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Instances)
The Fin Lodge, on the Coast Freeway, opened in 2018 with 27 rooms in a reclaimed Nineteen Twenties constructing with uncovered brick partitions. The resort is a part of Hilton’s boutique Tapestry assortment, but it surely seems like an indie. Weekend charges begin round $170. Its ground-floor restaurant (Hawaiian delicacies) and bar is named the Switchboard as a result of the constructing served as a communications middle throughout World Battle II. (I like to recommend the island-style French toast.)
In the meantime, there’s one other boutique lodging about to open just a few blocks away in a equally historic area. The Brick Lodge, owned by a fourth-generation native household, is because of be unveiled someday this spring. It’s a 10-room resort with a restaurant and rooftop bar in a brick constructing (now bolstered) that dates to 1888. Charges will begin round $135 nightly.
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Within the subsequent few years, extra resort openings are anticipated, together with an bold mixed-use redevelopment of the Oceanside Transit Heart, the place Amtrak trains cease.
Additionally proposed: Ocean Kamp, a 92-acre mixed-use venture on the inland website of the town’s outdated Valley Drive-In that would come with housing, a resort, retail area and, consider it or not, a synthetic wave lagoon for surfers.
Not for surfers solely
Some day, possibly, that faux lagoon will likely be defined within the California Surf Museum on Pier View Approach, which must be on the itinerary of any Oceanside go to.
The museum explains the science of wave motion, particulars the historical past of the Boogie Board and features a board minimize from a 2,700-year-old sequoia. The highest attraction, nonetheless, is the surfboard that 13-year-old Bethany Hamilton was paddling off Kauai in 2003 when a 14-foot tiger shark took her left arm.
The shark’s jaws additionally took an infinite crescent-shaped chunk out of the board. Trying on the injury, it’s arduous to consider Hamilton survived the assault, returned to the water inside a month, went on to win a number of tournaments, has written a number of books, acquired married in 2013 and has three kids.
Hamilton’s story is a exceptional story of resilience and adaptation, and it’s a pleasant one to bear in mind as you wander downtown Oceanside, the place the evolution continues.
The California Surf Museum is a mainstay of downtown Oceanside.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Instances)
IF YOU GO
The place to eat
The Switchboard Restaurant & Bar, 131 S. Coast Freeway, Oceanside; (442) 266-2781; theswitchboardrestaurant.com Hawaiian-inspired delicacies in a constructing that was a communications middle throughout World Battle II.
The Plot restaurant, 1733 S. Coast Freeway, Oceanside; (442) 266-8200; theplotrestaurant.com Bold vegan delicacies.
Captain’s Grounds Espresso, 1832 S. Coast Freeway, Oceanside; (760) 522-4271; captainsgroundscoffee.com Espresso, tea, smoothies, breakfast.
Municipal Taco, 2002 S. Coast Freeway, Oceanside; (760) 231-1999; municipaltaco.com Taqueria and bar.
The place to remain
Mission Pacific Lodge, 201 N. Myers St., Oceanside; (855) 365-5078; missionpacifichotel.com 161 rooms, a number of eating places, fashionable store. Weekend charges begin at about $360 earlier than taxes, weekdays round $300, plus a $47 visitor amenity charge. Costs are largely the identical on the 226-room Seabird Resort throughout the road, 101 Oceanside Ave., Oceanside; (855) 413-7573; theseabirdresort.com.
The Inexperienced Room Lodge, 2020 S. Coast Freeway, Oceanside; (760) 978-1191; thegreenroomhotel.com 12 rooms. Weekend charges begin round $275, weekday charges round $155.
The Fin Lodge, 133 S. Coast Freeway, Oceanside; (760) 231-1897; thefinhoteloceanside.com 27 rooms. Weekend charges begin round $230, weekdays round $150.
The place to go
California Surf Museum, 312 Pier View Approach, Oceanside; (760) 721-6876; surfmuseum.org
Dr. Raymond Joseph Parungao and Andrew Chih-Hao Chen were attracted to each other the instant their eyes locked.
It was Feb. 28, 2010, and they were at the gay bar the Abbey in West Hollywood, Calif.
“The music was loud, but it faded away as I stared at Andrew,” Dr. Parungao said.
“I saw Ray, and time just stopped,” Mr. Chen said. “I was like, ‘Who is this?’ I had to find out more.”
The two, who were there with mutual friends, got drinks, headed to a quiet corner and started talking. They parted ways around midnight and made plans for a date three days later, again at the Abbey.
Dr. Parungao, 55, was the first to arrive. “My heart was beating fast as I waited for Andrew,” he said. “I hadn’t stopped thinking about him since we met.”
That evening made it clear that their mutual desire was intense and authentic. They chatted for hours about their families, upbringings and shared love of travel. “We talked about everything and nothing and could have chatted for days,” said Mr. Chen, 37. “By the end of the night, we were talking about vacationing together and even starting a family.”
The following month, they exchanged rings as a symbol of their commitment, and eight months after meeting, Mr. Chen moved into Dr. Parungao’s West Hollywood condominium.
At the time, Mr. Chen was working as a branch manager for a bank in Los Angeles, but had dreams of being a hairstylist. In September 2013 he did some work at New York Fashion Week, “and after that experience, what New York offered me professionally was calling me,” Mr. Chen said. “I decided to move.”
Dr. Parungao was working as a pediatric intensive care doctor at Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles and his contract made relocating a challenge. The two split amicably, and in October 2013, Mr. Chen left for Manhattan. “I wanted Andrew to be free to follow his passion and didn’t want him to feel the burden of a long-distance relationship,” Dr. Parungao said.
They remained close and continued to chat daily. In June 2016, they rekindled their romance when Dr. Parungao visited Mr. Chen and the two attended the Pride parade. “We were dancing to Kylie Minogue who was performing ‘All the Lovers’ at the concert on the pier, and all I could do was stare at Ray,” Mr. Chen said. “We kissed and knew that there was no being apart.”
They decided to try bicoastal dating, with each taking turns flying to see the other two to three weekends a month. Marriage was in the cards. “We had talked about it early on in our relationship but never discussed how or when,” Dr. Parungao said.
They became engaged in September 2016 while on a trip to Iceland with Mr. Chen’s mother, Patty Chen, to celebrate her 60th birthday.
The trio took an evening bus tour through the countryside near Reykjavik to see the northern lights. When they stopped alongside a field, Dr. Parungao asked Mr. Chen, with Ms. Chen looking on, if he would marry him. “We did a three-way hug and cried underneath the lights,” Mr. Chen said.
[Click here to binge read this week’s featured couples.]
Dr. Parungao, who grew up in Conyers, Ga., has a bachelor’s degree in the history of science from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s degree in public health from George Washington University. He holds a medical degree from Howard University.
Mr. Chen is from Diamond Bar, Calif., and works as a freelance hairstylist at the Stephen Knoll salon in New York. He has a bachelor’s degree in business management from Pepperdine University and studied hairdressing at Santa Monica College. He is now in his final year in a graduate program in environmental science at The New School.
After their engagement, they continued their bicoastal lives, except during Covid, when Mr. Chen was without a job and moved to Los Angeles for two years.
But by 2024, after they returned to their bicoastal relationship, living apart was wearing on both. “I took Kaiser’s early retirement package and moved to New York in February to be with Andrew full time,” Dr. Parungao said.
They now reside in Long Island City, Queens, and are in the process of having a child through a surrogate. “It’s such a sense of relief,” Mr. Chen said. “We can go on spontaneous walks together or grab lunch without everything being preplanned.”
On Feb. 28, 15 years after first meeting, Mr. Chen and Dr. Parungao were married by Yanfang Chen, an officiant at the Manhattan City Clerk’s office, with their parents as witnesses.
After the ceremony, they did a photo shoot at City Hall Park and took a Zumba dance class. That evening, the couple celebrated with 70 family members and friends at the Chinese restaurant Shan in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.
“We danced, we cried, we cheered, we toasted,” Mr. Chen said.
Lifestyle
'Beautiful, happy, dopamine-injected.' Louis Vuitton and Takashi Murakami's frenzied comeback
In January, I was in a taxi driving through London’s Soho neighborhood when I looked out the window and saw a line of people stretched down an entire city block. It was after dark, but folks were still crowded onto the sidewalk, some huddled together to shield themselves from the cold and mist. Was it for a concert? A show? What was I missing? As my car turned the corner, it became clear: They were all waiting to enter the Louis Vuitton x Takashi Murakami pop-up.
The space occupied two stories, with a cafe on the top. The bottom floor was painted a bright “Brat” green, and the upper floor a sweet Hello Kitty-esque shade of pink. The windows, like the products inside, were covered in the brand’s signature interlocking L and V monogram. I was amazed not only by the scale of the operation but also by the fact that, over two decades since the original collaboration, the reissue, which is twofold and will see the release of a total of around 200 pieces starting this year, was able to attract such frenzied attention.
Louis Vuitton x Murakami Speedy Bandoulière 25 (top) and Coussin PM
When fashion designer Marc Jacobs debuted his Louis Vuitton collection with Murakami, a Japanese artist, in the spring of 2003, he called their mind-meld a “monumental marriage between art and business.” It marked the fact that, by that point, fashion and pop culture had become one, with celebrities on the cover of Vogue magazine instead of models, and paparazzi photos dictating sales.
A similar thing was happening in the art world too. Murakami, who is credited with founding the Superflat movement, which finds inspiration and art historical significance in two-dimensional imagery like Japanese manga and anime, was making a career out of combining what was then considered “highbrow” and “lowbrow.” The piece that got Jacobs’ attention, for example, was a fiberglass cartoon sculpture of a woman called “Hiropon,” whose super-size breasts produced a thick stream of milk that wrapped around her like a lasso. Jacobs, who served as creative director of Louis Vuitton from 1997 to 2013, told reporters at the time that “something snapped” when he saw Murakami’s Hiropon on the cover of a Christie’s catalog, and he reached out for a meeting. Murakami, meanwhile, said he’d never heard of Louis Vuitton before.
Before the Vuitton x Murakami collaboration, cross-pollination of this nature was rare. “I grew up in the art world with a lot of quote-unquote ‘serious artists’ who would certainly look down upon getting involved in a more commercial thing like that,” says Gabriel Held, 39, a New York-based stylist and vintage archivist. “But [Jacobs] got heavy-hitters in the art world to participate.”
Louis Vuitton x Murakami Nice Mini
Louis Vuitton x Murakami Monogram Multicolor LV Outline Headband
In 2001, Vuitton collaborated with pop-punk artist Stephen Sprouse on a run of handbags featuring the brand’s logo in a graffiti-like font, and in 2002, British artist Julie Verhoeven covered bags in colorful graphics. Following Murakami, other big-ticket artists including Richard Prince, Yayoi Kusama, Cindy Sherman and Jeff Koons expressed their Vuitton vision as well. The collaboration boosted Murakami’s profile to new heights, with his pop-y, rainbow aesthetic providing a fresh update to the brown-on-brown monogram from 1896 that the brand was known for, ultimately helping it capture the attention of a younger audience. Fandom on both sides for the limited-edition products created what we now commonly refer to as “hype.”
“I always describe the bags as being like beautiful white jawbreakers with saccharine colors all over them,” says Liana Satenstein, 35, a writer who focuses on the vintage market. The iconic “Monogram Multicolore” that Murakami introduced in 2003 fused the “LV” monogram with small florals, creating a new pattern with 33 colors that popped on an all-white background. “A beautiful, happy, dopamine-injected piece,” in Satenstein’s eyes. He also introduced panda and pink cherry blossom motifs.
In December, when Vuitton announced that it was reissuing the Murakami collaboration with a campaign starring Zendaya, Satenstein covered the news on her Substack, “Neverworns.” She declared that the bags “defined the maximalist ’00s.” Stars of the decade, including Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan and Kim Kardashian, were all photographed carrying one. In 2004, Vogue asked if Jessica Simpson’s choice of a Murakami buckle bag made her “the next Sarah Jessica Parker,” Satenstein pointed out.
“I worked with somebody over the summer who is not really a fashion person but of my age, and one thing on her wish list was a Murakami bag,” says Held. “Even for people who aren’t that invested in fashion, they have a desire for it still. It was a pop-culture moment.”
According to Kelly McSweeney, senior merchandising manager at the RealReal, a vintage marketplace, search interest in the original Louis Vuitton x Murakami collaboration “skyrocketed overnight” when the reissue was released on Jan. 3, with a 463% increase in searches day-over-day. The momentum continued into Jan. 4, climbing another 55% as the buzz around the collaboration intensified. “Reflecting this renewed excitement, resale prices for pieces from the collection have also soared, up 50% year-over-year,” McSweeney adds.
Louis Vuitton x Murakami Monogram Multicolor Chouchous
All of the links to vintage bags that Satenstein shared in her newsletter have since sold. “I should have bought like, five, of them,” she says in retrospect.
With the Y2K revival trend seemingly at its peak, nostalgia for the carefree innocence of the ’00s made this moment ripe for a Murakami relaunch. In fact, it’s a wonder Vuitton didn’t do it sooner. Some collectors will seek out the originals they maybe couldn’t afford at full price in high school, and others will line up for a second chance at the new thing. Judging by the crowd waiting outside the pop-up in London, many eager customers are perhaps excitedly discovering the collaboration for the first time, as they were probably in diapers in 2003.
Archival pieces are displayed behind glass across seven Louis Vuitton x Murakami pop-ups worldwide, from Milan to New York to Seoul to Shanghai to Tokyo to Singapore. But of course, the main draw is the new accessories, which will be released in various “chapters” throughout 2025, according to the brand. Chapter 1 celebrated Murakami’s original Multicolore monogram, while Chapter 2, launching this month, will feature 2003’s equally sought-after “Cherry Blossom” pattern on bags, shoes and trunks.
Before it closed on Feb. 9, customers at the London pop-up sipped from Murakami-branded cups at the cafe and ate cakes and pastries off Murakami-branded napkins. The staff wore kimono pajamas and sat on smiling Murakami flower pillows. The scene was simultaneously futuristic and nostalgic. After making a purchase, customers were given a token to put into a special vending machine, which spat out Louis Vuitton x Murakami novelty items, including stickers and trading cards.
When I got out of my taxi and arrived at my hotel, I told the friend I was meeting to pull her original Vuitton x Murakami bag out of her closet immediately. She was thrilled, but also, her curiosity was piqued. Should we get in line too?
Emilia Petrarca is a freelance fashion and culture writer based in Brooklyn.
Jerald Jerard Creer and Kent Michael Williams chalk up the almost 15-year delay in becoming a couple to a struggle to communicate — one that had nothing to do with Mr. Creer’s Deafness.
Since June 2009, when the two met on a Carnival cruise ship, Mr. Williams had been texting Mr. Creer every few weeks asking for dates. Mr. Creer routinely turned him down. For years, Mr. Williams assumed it was because of his age. “Jerald told me when we met I was too young for him,” Mr. Williams said. (Mr. Creer is seven years older.)
The truth was more complicated.
The friendship that Mr. Williams, now 42, and Mr. Creer, 49, struck up while sailing from Miami to the Bahamas had obstacles from the start. Mr. Williams, an engineer at Cox Communications then living in Baltimore, was traveling alone. Mr. Creer, a social worker, teacher for deaf people and actor then living in Suitland, Md., was vacationing with his boyfriend. Both were part of a group of L.G.B.T.Q. people of color vacationing together.
Mr. Williams remembered seeing Mr. Creer outside the ship’s nightclub a day or two into the trip and feeling drawn to him. “He’s fine,” he recalled thinking.
But he didn’t know Mr. Creer was deaf, which resulted in a stilted conversation. Mr. Creer, who considers American Sign Language his first language, can read lips and make out sounds when wearing his hearing aids. But he struggles to decipher spoken words in dim lighting and loud environments.
“From time to time, I don’t know if my hearing counterparts are adjusting to being in conversation with me,” he said of the stiltedness. That was the case with Mr. Williams. Then, there was the matter of Mr. Williams’s social anxiety. “I’m shy and introverted,” he said. “I’m still trying to figure out why I would have gone up to Jerald in the first place.”
Only two things were clear to both by the time the vacation was in the rearview mirror: One, each found the other attractive. And two, “Kent was very, very shy,” Mr. Creer said.
Mr. Creer grew up in Richmond, Va., with five younger siblings. His parents, Pamela Smith and Jared Creer, discovered his deafness before his first birthday.
By middle school, he was attending events for the deaf community in Rochester, N.Y., where he moved to attend a private school. There, he found his first deaf role models: Rosalie Rockwell, who was a teacher at the school, and her husband, Dale. Both have since died.
“They told me about N.T.I.D.,” he said — the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, a college at Rochester Institute of Technology that trains deaf and hard of hearing students for tech careers, where Mr. Rockwell was a science professor.
At first, Mr. Creer was skeptical: “No one in my family ever went to or finished college.”
But at N.T.I.D., where he enrolled as a scholarship student in 1994, the world opened up. “I met deaf people of all races,” he said. His freshman year, he joined the Ebony Club, a campus group for deaf Black students, but quit because he felt he wasn’t intellectually on their level. Shirley J. Allen, a retired R.I.T. professor and the first Black deaf woman in the United States to earn a doctoral degree, pulled him aside and told him, “Don’t you ever give up.”
Mr. Creer earned two degrees from R.I.T., the first a bachelor’s in his double major, social work and performing arts. Years later, he finished a master’s degree in education. He now works as a drama and theater arts teacher at the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf in Clarkston, Ga.
Mr. Williams grew up in Baltimore with his parents, Darlene Winslow and Kent Williams Sr., two younger half sisters and a cousin he considers a third sister. At 17, he started college at Frostburg State University in Frostburg, Md., to study computer science. But at the time, he was struggling to come to terms with his sexuality. After a semester, he dropped out.
“I had attempted to kill myself,” said Mr. Williams, who was raised Christian. “Growing up in the church, I thought I was going to hell anyway.” (Mr. Creer said that he also attempted suicide during college for similar reasons and survived his depression with the help of his friends from theater, a creative outlet he had been pursuing since early childhood.) Instead of returning home to Baltimore, Mr. Williams moved to Dunnsville, Va., where his godmother lived. To support himself, he worked a series of retail jobs.
In 2003, after three years in Virginia, he returned to Baltimore and got an apartment with a friend and eventually a customer service job at Verizon. By 2009, he was ready to return to college, later earning a bachelor’s degree in information systems from the University of Maryland. In 2010, he moved to Atlanta.
The boyfriend Mr. Creer took the 2009 cruise with broke up with him shortly after they returned home to Maryland. Mr. Creer moved back to Rochester, where he started working as an ASL coach and teacher for deaf people. Heartbreak was nothing new to him, though for years he had tried to avoid it by dating older guys. Men his own age or younger “just wanted to play,” he said. “I didn’t like that.”
Mr. Williams made a promise to himself to keep in touch with Mr. Creer after the cruise, though the odds of an eventual romance, he knew, were against him. He didn’t know ASL, and it was hard to keep up with Mr. Creer’s relationship status. But he remained in the grips of an enormous crush. “I never stopped being attracted to him,” Mr. Williams said. “I made it very clear.”
He did so by texting Mr. Creer at least once a month, letting him know about travel plans and where and when he hoped they might be able to meet in person. Mr. Creer always answered, but usually with an excuse. “He would say, ‘No, I don’t think so, I can’t take the time off,’” Mr. Williams said. “I would say OK and continue to be cordial.” But occasionally they did meet up in cities like Washington, D.C.
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“I’d meet him for a local event or for dinner at some restaurant,” Mr. Williams said. Those visits sometimes turned romantic before they said good night. But Mr. Creer’s pattern of declining his invitations would soon pick up where it left off. “I figured, it is what it is,” Mr. Williams said. “You enjoy what you can get sometimes.”
In December 2023, Mr. Williams made plans to celebrate a friend’s birthday in Manhattan and asked Mr. Creer to meet him there, not realizing that New York is one of Mr. Creer’s favorite cities. In less than a day, Mr. Creer responded, “I’ll be there.”
“I was like, Oh my God, for real?” Mr. Williams said. “I was really happy.” Nervous, too.
At the DoubleTree by Hilton in Times Square, the two stayed up all night playing a conversational card game that Mr. Creer had brought, the couples edition of (The And) card game.
“It was so thought-provoking,” Mr. Creer said. “We answered questions like, What are you hesitating to tell me? What are you afraid of?” Both say they fell in love that night. “We understood each other in ways we hadn’t before,” Mr. Creer added.
That weekend, Mr. Williams finally understood Mr. Creer’s reluctance to accept his scores of invitations through the years. Mr. Creer’s reservations about dating younger men were real. “I was aiming for mature men who understood the struggle of life and who know what it takes to sustain a long-term relationship,” Mr. Creer said.
But there was something else, too. “Kent often goes on trips that I couldn’t afford,” he added. “I was a social worker and was embarrassed that I couldn’t go, either because of my schedule or because of money.”
At the end of the New York birthday celebration, Mr. Williams was ready to carve a path forward as a couple. “‘Are we dating exclusively?’” he asked Mr. Creer. “Jerald said, ‘I think we should. I’m going to make a point of investing in you.’”
Two weeks later, in January 2024, they met in Manhattan a second time. In March, they traveled to London for a friend’s wedding. By then, they were discussing living together in Atlanta. But not marriage. So it was a surprise when Mr. Creer proposed to Mr. Williams at the top of the London Eye Ferris wheel. “It was total disbelief,” Mr. Williams said. His yes brought tears to both.
“I’m deaf in a hearing world, and I’m signing all the time, but Kent doesn’t see me as different from anyone else,” Mr. Creer said. “I love his heart and his compassion and his generosity so much.”
Mr. Williams added, “I fell in love with how genuine he is, the heart that he has. He will do anything in his power to make someone else happy, even at the risk of making himself unhappy.”
In June, Mr. Creer moved into Mr. Williams’s home in Atlanta. On Feb. 28, 115 guests gathered at Kimball Hall in Roswell, Ga., for their wedding, which was officiated by Romell Parks-Weekly, a friend, an L.G.B.T.Q. activist and a pastor at the Sanctuary, a Christian church in St. Louis. Both men were escorted down the aisle by their parents.
The ceremony included two ASL interpreters and a rendition of John Legend’s “All of Me,” both sung and signed for guests. Mr. Creer and Mr. Williams exchanged rings and promised to love each other “today, tomorrow and forever.” Once they were officially married, they jumped a broom decorated with ribbons and rhinestones into the first moments of that forever.
On This Day
When Feb. 28, 2025
Where Kimball Hall, Roswell, Ga.
Bliss and Harmony In the weeks leading up to the wedding, Mr. Creer took to Instagram to express his feelings about Mr. Williams in a series he called “word of the day.” Each day, he taught his followers a new word in ASL, including “forever” and “commitment.” Mr. Williams, who avoids the camera because of his shyness, reluctantly agreed to be part of the “romance” post on Valentine’s Day.
… And Comfort (Food) At a reception after the ceremony, guests helped themselves to a buffet with Southern favorites, including barbecued chicken, beef brisket sliders and mac and cheese. For dessert, after the grooms cut a small wedding cake, red velvet and chocolate cupcakes were passed around.
Bon Voyage The day after the wedding, the couple set sail on their second cruise together to the Caribbean. This time, they shared a cabin.
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