Italian style and craftsmanship are synonymous with Rodeo Drive, evidenced in Canali, the luxury menswear brand that just reopened its flagship lifestyle store on the high fashion Beverly Hills thoroughfare, with a party attended by some of LA’s leading men, including Chace Crawford, Paul Downs, James Marsden, and Regé-Jean Page.

The company is helmed by Stefano Canali, the third generation principal of the brand that was established more than 90 years ago. His task is to maintain the family company’s legendary sartorial mastery and stay nimble for the future, he told Lyn Winter, host of Rodeo Drive–The Podcast, when they met at the company headquarters designed as a welcoming home and garden in central Milan.

“Consistency is a word these days, so you must make sure that whatever represents a brand is fully consistent with the brand itself,” Canali said.

Consistency extends into the design and execution of the new boutique on Rodeo Drive, with its warm hues, green-veined cipollino marble and wood paneling carved to evoke stitching. Such details are “very much linked to the way we manufacture suits and garments,” says Canali, adding that one of the main attractions just might be its VIP lounge complete with Canali mixologists.

The clear branding also plays out in an exciting new partnership for the company – with the famed Inter Milan soccer team. While Canali’s designers created a formal collection for the management, they created a more relaxed collection for the players that emphasizes functional fabrics and refined craftsmanship.

Decked from head to toe in this sporty spin on haute couture, the cheerful young players have been “very effective in delivering this new image of Canali, and the evolution that Canali is going through,” says the company’s President and CEO.

Finally, Canali refuses to offshore production. Keeping its fabrication at home, says Stefano Canali, reinforces the power of his country’s “Made in Italy” brand. It also supports the suitmaker’s sustainability goals. Canali quantifies its environmental footprint, from the sourcing of raw materials to the final disposal of the product. In keeping production very high quality and close to home, the firm is able to support local craftspeople, minimize their carbon footprint, and stay profitable, says Stefano Canali. “By deciding to stay in Italy, no matter what, allowed us to be 100% sustainable towards the planet and towards the people.”

Finally, asked Winter, “When you think about the Canali man today, whether he's in Milan or Beverly Hills or anywhere else in the world, how would you describe him?”

The answer lies in timelessness and inner confidence. The Canali man, says the man charged with dressing him, is “a successful person that values understatement and is very much focused on the substance of things out there. So somebody who's very much interested in buying something that will last over time, that… allows our final consumer to express himself in a very subtle, still important, effective way.”

This episode of Rodeo Drive: The Podcast is presented by the Rodeo Drive Committee.

Episode Credits

Executive Producer and Host: Lyn Winter

On behalf of the Rodeo Drive Committee: Kathy Gohari

Scriptwriter and Editorial Advisor: Frances Anderton

Editor: Hans Fjellestad

Theme music by Brian Banks

Listen, subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Visit the website: https://rodeodrive-bh.com/podcast/

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Thirty years ago high schoolers dressed down, and then came the movie Clueless. In her yellow plaid kilt and many other colorful and stylish outfits, Cher Horowitz, the good-natured if meddlesome high-schooler played by Alicia Silverstone, made audiences laugh with her, love her, and envy the looks created by costume designer Mona May.

“Everybody dressed grunge in 1994 when we were preparing the movie, and the movie set a new rule of dressing. You know, I created a whole other fashion landscape,” May tells Lyn Winter, host of Rodeo Drive –The Podcast, in a special episode to coincide with the 30-year anniversary of the movie and the launch of the third annual week-long Rodeo Drive Celebrates Fashion program spotlighting the unmatched craftsmanship and innovation in fashion on the legendary “street of dreams”.

May is joined by Beverly Hills Mayor Sharona R. Nazarian PsyD, who shares her fond memories of the film, her personal love of fashion, as well as pride in the leading role played by Beverly Hills in Clueless, which was shot in multiple locations including the Electric Fountain, the Witch's House and, of course, the iconic street of high fashion - Rodeo Drive. “I think what makes Rodeo Drive so special is that people still want to be able to come and walk here as Cher did in the movie, that it's still relevant. The stores are still spectacular. I mean, where else can you find Frank Gehry and Louis Vuitton coming together to make these beautiful buildings come to life? It's just so exciting,” says Mayor Nazarian.

May also shares her journey to becoming a costume designer and getting her big break with Clueless, followed by work on movies including Romy and Michelle, Never Been Kissed, Wedding Singer, Enchanted, House Bunny, and Stuart Little.

May was born in India and then moved with her family to Europe and then New York. She studied fashion before moving into costume design, and met Clueless writer/director Amy Heckerling while collaborating on a pilot about two party girls in New York City.

“The pilot didn't get picked up, but we formed this incredibly creative relationship. Amy is an incredible writer, an incredible artist. She loves fashion, so we were like two birds together. So when she wrote Clueless, she called me and said, ‘I really want you to do this film. I need a very different point of view, something that's going to last a long time’.”

May created a timeless look for the teens in the movie that took cues from L.A.’s sunny spirit and its greenery and flowers, from fashion icons, and even from the period of the book that inspired the movie, Emma, by Jane Austen. Think, empire waists and cap sleeves. Her goal was to make the young actresses feel “quintessentially feminine” while empowered. Then there was Cher’s unforgettable plaid skirt. On eyeballing “Jean Paul Gaultier yellow,” recalls May, “We had the vision. And it was perfect, because she became the queen bee, yellow sunshine, and completely the queen of the school.”

Now a new generation is getting to enjoy the film once again.

As she welcomes Clueless fans both young and old, Mayor Nazarian says of the film, “It just makes you feel really good. It uplifts you, and we need that now, I think. Everybody needs it.”

This special edition of Rodeo Drive – The Podcast is presented by the Rodeo Drive Committee with the support of Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel.

Executive Producer and Host: Lyn Winter

On behalf of the Rodeo Drive Committee: Kathy Gohari

Scriptwriter and Editorial Advisor: Frances Anderton

Editor and Videographer: Hans Fjellestad

Theme music by Brian Banks

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jennifer Smith was halfway through high school when she visited California with her parents and decided to stay. A decade later, she conceived and launched C Magazine, a must-read publication that highlights the people and places that make California the Golden State. Then came the 2025 wildfires, destroying her Malibu home and those of many friends in her C community. Did that dim the lights on the California Dream? Not for Smith.

“After a couple of tears, I was ready to rebuild,” she tells Lyn Winter, host of Rodeo Drive The Podcast, adding, “when you wake up every morning with that ocean outside as your backyard, and you hear the waves crashing, and at night you see the glistening moon over the waves and the sea, it's just so magical that you'll just do anything to keep having it.”

Now Smith celebrates 20 years of C Magazine with the publication of a book of stories drawn from past articles: California: Dream State: Stylish Living from Canyon to Coast (Rizzoli, Fall 2025).

Winter spoke with Smith about the deep allure and mythology of the West Coast, the evolution of fashion, art and culture over the last two decades, and about making a successful print magazine in the digital age. For Smith, it started with landing her first cover, featuring model Carolyn Murphy, thanks to a chance meeting over at a sushi counter in Malibu.

“We just started talking, and I said, ‘I'm launching a magazine about California. Would you ever consider being on the cover?’ And she said, ‘of course I would.’ And then we had Kirsty Hume as our second cover, because she knew Carolyn did it. And then all of a sudden, I got Cindy Crawford, and then I got Claire Danes, and then it just, from there we kept going and going.”

Smith explains that the key to success in publishing today is being more than a magazine. The C-team curates events together with advertising partners, many on Rodeo Drive, like the memorable dinner for 25 at Harry Winston, at which guests on the street of dreams were each presented with a silver domed dessert, recalls Smith.

“And inside the silver dome was actually a piece of jewelry for each of the guests. So everyone was just expecting to see some piece of cake, and there was some million dollar bauble, and they all got to wear it. So they were dripping in jewels and eating their dessert, and we had the best time.”

As much as she loves the city, Smith feels the call to the wild. The book contains sumptuous photos of lives lived well in the canyons, the coast, mountains and desert. The only challenge was picking from more than 200 issues of the magazine. She and her team looked for timeless stories “that stood out to us and that we would want to celebrate and see again and again.”

Stories that made the cut include a feature on Kelly Lynch and Mitch Glaser in their weekend home “that was just so cool with this mountain, rocky, jagged, beautiful;” and the hat maker Nick Fouquet, in his “amazing house in Topanga that is very cool and architectural.”

The current issue of C Magazine, compiled just after the recent fires, was designed as a love letter to California. ”I'm forever, endlessly in love with it,” she concludes.

Season 5 of Rodeo Drive – The Podcast is presented by the Rodeo Drive Committee with the support of The Hayman Family, Two Rodeo Drive, Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel, and the Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau.

Season 5 Credits:

Executive Producer and Host: Lyn Winter

On behalf of the Rodeo Drive Committee: Kay Monica Rose

Scriptwriter and Editorial Advisor: Frances Anderton

Editor and Videographer: Hans Fjellestad

Theme music by Brian Banks

Production Assistant: Isabelle Alfonso

@rodeodrive

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.