Robert Firestone’s art is now ready-to-wear

Often art and fashion make strange bedfellows, but Sue Firestone and Mimi Wolfe have translated the vibrant visions of digital artist Robert Firestone into Tamsen, a line of printed jersey separates and chiffon gowns that is creating a buzz among the social set.

The designers, based in Santa Barbara, held a trunk show on Wednesday aboard their yacht, docked at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Marina del Rey.

Sue Firestone, Robert’s wife, was an interior designer for 30 years before she decided to embark on a fashion line with Wolfe, who had an 18-year career in the junior apparel industry at Body Glove and other companies.

When the pair launched Tamsen two seasons ago, it was in New York. “But the line is very California-like, so we are moving it home now, doing the design and manufacturing in L.A.,” Wolfe explained.

The fall collection is based on three pieces of art -- a landscape, a waterfall and a tower -- all selected by the artist himself, who engineers the transition of his works into cloth with the aid of a computer. Among the standouts: an easy dress with suede piping in a swirly pattern, a draped wool jersey bolero top that brings to mind pointillism, a goatskin paillette wrap and a gold Lurex gown with a shadow print. Prices are $300 to $3,000.

“We love the prints, and the cuts are really nice,” said Corinne Kingsbury of Curve, the Robertson Boulevard boutique that is selling the spring line in L.A. “It’s a cool concept to translate art onto clothing. And it’s a dressy twist on the L.A. aesthetic.”

Sue Firestone said, “When Shiva Rose came on the boat today, a total stranger wearing one of our dresses, it was the best feeling.”

The Firestones are determined to turn their idea into a lifestyle brand that one day could rival Pucci, with a home collection and accessories.

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Luxury catalog Vivre eyes L.A.

Vivre, the luxury mail-order catalog that is as beautiful to look at as it is to shop from, is setting its sights on Los Angeles. Company founder Eva Jeanbart-Lorenzotti has visited several times over the last few months, scouring the city for her pages. “I’m looking for artists and designers who will surpass a moment to become real style,” she said on a recent morning at L’Ermitage in Beverly Hills.

Jeanbart-Lorenzotti is a study in her own brand of chic, in silvery tweed Alvin Valley pants, a draped gray T-shirt and a stunning silver-and-turquoise necklace by Paris-based jeweler Robert Goossens, who, over the course of his career, created Coco Chanel’s famed cross cuffs and jewelry for Yves Saint Laurent.

“I met him six years ago and spent time in his showroom, where there are piles of rock crystals on the floor that he was using to make things,” she said. “I don’t want that kind of workmanship to disappear, which is part of why I do what I do.” On her right hand is a Lucite bubble ring by New York artist Patricia Von Musulin, also available from her catalog and website. By her side is a rectangular python bag by Nancy Gonzalez.

A selection of Vivre’s offerings: $35 leather baseballs, $240 mink cellphone cases, $3,000 rock crystal candlestick holders, a $3,065 Roberto Cavalli coral necklace. The magalog format also includes Q&As; with designers such as Lucien Pellat-Finet and Vera Wang. But what really make the catalog and companion website unique are the products created by Jeanbart-Lorenzotti in collaboration with her favorite designers. For example, she’s worked with Gonzalez, the luxury handbag maker, on rings and metallic cufflinks in a crocodile pattern.

While in L.A., she has been scouting stores such as Maxfield, as well as meeting with designers Jenni Kayne, Tamsen’s Sue Firestone and Mimi Wolfe, handbag creator Marc Marmel, shoemaker George Mang and others. The outcome will be a four-page spread in the fall issue.

“It’s tough in L.A.,” she said. “Here, it’s more about going underground.”

Based in New York, where she lives in a 1931 building on the East River, Jeanbart-Lorenzotti travels six months out of the year. “As soon as somebody tells me a place has nothing to offer, I know there is something,” she said, offering that on a recent vacation in Caracas, she found python belts with the snakeheads still intact that she may feature in the catalog.

Her biannual catalog has a distribution of more than 1.5 million and an average transaction of $600. “Consumers are overwhelmed by an endless amount of product,” she said. “I help them maneuver through the choices by editing the clutter.”

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Sign becomes a fashion accessory

An L.A. entrepreneur has taken pieces of the original 1923 Hollywood sign and crafted them into necklaces. Dan Bliss, producer of the 2004 poker DVD “Wise Guys On: Texas Hold ‘Em,” chopped up the pieces and embedded them in star-shaped pendants. The necklaces are sold through his memorabilia website authentichollywood.com, each with a certificate of authenticity. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, responsible for maintaining the sign and the Walk of Fame, receives a royalty from each sale.

Bliss purchased the nine 30-foot-wide letters from Hank Berger, a nightclub promoter who bought the original sign from the Chamber of Commerce in 1978, when it was replaced with today’s version.

“The sign carries such heavy symbolism here and around the world -- fame, fortune, glamour, success. It’s not just the static image of the entertainment industry,” Bliss said. “Actors used to climb up to the sign and touch it for good luck. So why not use it to create a kind of lucky charm?”

The tiny pieces of Hollywood sell for $43.99 each. A bargain in today’s real estate market.