Individual Medley

Earlier last year, as we were strolling down Glendale Blvd. in Atwater Village, we came upon a lovely, down to earth and honestly just plain attractive boutique called Individual Medley. It isn’t hard to figure out why this store has attracted so much notice. Taking a walk around this neighborhood (yes, we do that sometimes in L.A.) you’ll find gems like: Proof Bakery, Grain, The Juice LA, Atwater Village Farm, Alias Books East, Jacknife Records & Tapes and many more. The area has quickly become a viable and diverse spot to set up shop.  What sets Individual Medley apart, however, besides their tasteful curatorial choices for men, women, kids and home are its dedicated owners: Monica Navarro Boyes and her husband Justin Boyes.

It’s easy to lose track of time in Individual Medley even though it’s not huge. There are just so many wonderful things to look at and touch. There’s even a couch that invites you to sit and stay for a while and thumb through the latest issue of Kinfolk or Gather. You can test the lines of natural skin care products or marvel in the wonderfully embroidered children’s items that make you wish you knew a baby to gift such a spectacular bib to. Nothing is overpriced or overthought & it all gels together in a way that creates a warm and inviting shopping experience. This sense of comfort is what has made me return to the shop time and again.

We had the opportunity to sit down with the lovely Monica recently and find out a bit more about the special couple behind Individual Medley.

Tell us a bit about your background and what led you into retail?

I worked in retail all through High School and College. I got my degree in Marketing and worked at a Marketing firm for a while. My husband has his degree in Retail Merchandising and has worked in retail for quite a while. Its always been both our dreams to open up a boutique. It was the right time when we found this space and we just kind of went for it. That’s how we kind of fell into the shop.

When we first met a while back, you told us the story of where the store’s name and logo originated from, can you explain that again?

We’re called Individual Medley.  It’s a swimming competition.  I don’t know a lot about swimming but my husband was a competitive swimmer for 17 years of his life and his best race was the Individual Medley. We wanted to choose a name that had meaning and that was a big part of his life. Our logo is also playing homage to the sport as it’s a swimming pool lap lane and the crosses on top and bottom are the symbols you tap in the pool when you’re racing under water. That’s how we designed the logo.

You live in Atwater, which must be great for you location-wise. Did you live in Atwater before opening the store?

We lived in Silverlake but we frequented Atwater.  When we opened the store we decided to move into Atwater so we could walk to the store. Once we opened the store that was our next move and luckily it didn’t take that long.

Did you have an overall concept before opening the store?

We wanted it to be both a Men’s and Women’s boutique. We wanted it to be a store that we would shop at ourselves. Everything has really been about brands that we love, since first opening, and it continues to be things we find and love or we’d want for ourselves. Maybe other people would want them too.  We just love getting to meet the makers behind the products…that has been an amazing part of the job.

Since opening in February of 2012, how have you seen the store evolve?

It’s grown drastically. We expanded after the first year. Just looking at photos from when we first opened, I’m almost in tears seeing the progress from 4 little racks of clothes to more clothes, filling the table with stuff, bringing in shelves and filling the shelves with things. It’s so fun.

What are some surprises you might have encountered along the way?

There’s always the unpredictable: water flooding in from the roof, or unexpected expenses that pop up all the time. Its always been something that we just work through. A wonderful surprise is just the great friendships we’ve made at the store. There are some families that had babies born the first week that we opened and I feel like as their baby’s growing our store is growing. They came in as little beans that were just sleeping, then they were sitting, then sitting up on their own and then talking… now they’re walking and running around the shop. It’s really cool.

Do both you and your husband buy for the store? 

Yeah, I do all the Women’s and he does all the Men’s and then we kind of share everything else. But we always show each other what we are picking up and make sure that we are both on the same page.

What sort of clothing lines are you attracted to?

I tend to fall more into the tom-boy, comfortable, soft, neutral tones. It’s definitely something I would be wearing — but we also carry some girlier dresses, things to go out in and stuff for everyday living is what I’m attracted to. I always like to just feel good in what I’m wearing and comfortable.

Some of the things that makes your store so unique are the events that you do with various groups of friends that you have. Can you tell us about some of them and how they came about?

We do a lot of the floral Pop-Ups. Yasmine is a great friend and I met her through the store probably just after we opened. We were just talking about last year Valentine’s Day how we should do a Pop-Up and we just went for it. Its kind of snowballed ever since. Its been a really fun event that we look forward to and each time we do an event with her I’m always blown away by how beautiful they are and how incredibly talented she is with florals. She does a different theme with each one and changes the background wall. One day it was cotton on a stem and she put them up on the wall and I was just blown away by how beautiful it looked.

We also do things with another friend based in Atwater, Valleybrink Road. She does catering and she’ll do Pop-Ups in here as well. She brings her toffee and shortbreads that she makes. It’s really fun. We did a big Pop-Up this year with the three of us together. Around the Holidays we did a ‘joint’ gift box that was curated by the 3 of us so Yasmine did a floral arrangement and Vera had food and then various items from the store for sale.

We’ve had a lot of fun parties with Heirloom LA as well. They are on Verdugo in Glendale/Eagle Rock and they have their food truck outside. We had a camp theme dinner over the Summer with them and we took our store and put it in their tasting room. We made a whole experience centered around the ‘camp’ theme but the menu had the most amazing dishes, most sophisticated camp food. They did delicious drinks for cocktail hour. They went all out and it was so fun. We brought in a big safari tent in the back. They will also bring over different plates for various Pop-Up’s. It’s really great.

What are a few of your favorite things about this neighborhood?

The people. The people are amazing and so supportive, kind, and just genuinely nice people looking out for everyone around them. They check in on us. There is a gentleman I met the first day that we opened. I heard him talk and recognized his voice, I knew his brother from our old hometown in Paso Robles, where we used to volunteer together. Ever since then we’ve had this great connection with Ed who’s lived in the neighborhood for 25 or 30 years. He comes in and checks on us.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Hopefully getting the store nailed down, launching our web store and having a separate office.  Expanding our web business and our web presence would be a wonderful goal. I really tend to look in 2 year goals. It’s been amazing that we’ve been making goals and hitting them and just coming very close to where we want to be with ourselves and our business.

Individual Medley
3176 Glendale Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90039
323.665.5344
Tues-Sat: 10am-7pm
Sun: 10am-5pm

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Photos by: Devin Sarno