Jessica Koslow

Some entrepreneurs struggle for years and never make it. Others get it right on the first try.

Samohi sophomores and close friends Bo Okin and Davio Sokolow have hit paydirt with Mercury Denim. Okin, who designs the jeans, and Sokolow, who oversees the legal and financial side of the business, have only dropped two designs of 100 jeans each, one in September 2025 and the other in February 2026; the first sold out in under 5 minutes and the second in 7 seconds. The jeans are available exclusively through their website with no advertising and no outside backing. The third drop is scheduled for August.

“Most of the buyers, we have no idea who they are,” said Okin. “There’s been sales out of the country, a few in Japan, a few in Italy, some in Paris. Mostly how the word gets out is that I manage the social media and the promotion of our jeans. I mostly promote on TikTok and Instagram. I post every single day, and that definitely gets the word out.” . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

On March 9, 2024, the Venice Heritage Museum (VHM) celebrated its grand opening at 228 Main Street in Venice, and in the fall of 2025, the museum closed its doors.

“We knew when we moved into the other space it was not a sustainable solution because we were paying rent, and we had a grant for the first year’s rent,” explained Carol Levy, the president of the VHM board. “We were hoping that during that period of time we’d be able to find a permanent home, but it took longer than expected.”

On March 21, 2 years after its first opening, VHM celebrated its grand re-opening at its new location at Westminster Park at 1234 Pacific Avenue in Venice. . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

Luther Vandross once told Barry Krutchik the meaning behind his middle name: Ronzoni (yes, like the pasta). Vanilla Ice was the first cover story he ever wrote, and he was paid $200. R. Kelly revealed the time he almost fainted when he met his idol Stevie Wonder in the men’s room, and he sang for him on the spot.

What’s a person to do with so many spoken treasures — verbal gems collected over a lifetime of interviewing celebrities? During the pandemic, when life slowed to a standstill, Krutchik decided to move into high gear and compile his sessions into a book: “Classic Conversations: ’90s Hip Hop & R&B.”

Krutchik has lived a “crazy, interesting,” celebrity-filled life, one that he could never have imagined growing up in North Miami Beach, Florida. After attending college in the Midwest, he decided on a whim — responding to what he called a gravitational pull — to move to Los Angeles. He had big plans to be a screenwriter . . . until, he explained, “reality stepped in and you kind of have to go with it.” . . .

TRead the entire article at Pasadena Weekly.

Malia Mills has loved having a store for her swim and ready-to-wear brand at the Brentwood Country Mart for the past 17 years, but as of March 1, her seventh store nationwide has moved to Montana Avenue. 

“I think that change is good for everybody,” Mills said. “It’s good for the Mart community. It’s good for our community. We were lucky that we moved not too far away. We have a space that’s much bigger, and we also have a beautiful back garden that gets sun from both sides, and we can keep four glass doors open in the back. It creates such a different vibe when you come into our store.”

Mills was born and raised in Honolulu, and at age 13 her parents moved to Hanover, New Hampshire. As far back as she can remember, she has always loved fashion. . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

Since the January 2025 wildfires, rebuilding has become a hot topic for Angelenos, even for those who did not lose their homes. Aaron Liu, founder of Builtech Construction and a certified wildfire mitigation specialist, is especially concerned. He has seen that many of the new homes look similar to the old ones that burned. Hoping to affect change, Liu is dedicated to helping people rethink fire safety.

His interest in advancing resilient construction solutions was piqued before 2025. It was when he witnessed the devastation of the 2020 wildfires that he set out on his current path: building non-combustible homes in high-risk wildland-urban interface (WUI) zones in Los Angeles and San Jose.

Since 2025, Builtech has been constructing noncombustible homes using insulated concrete form (ICF) technology, including the first known ICF-based residential project in California designed to meet Type I, the highest fire-resistance classification under the International Building Code (IBC) and California Building Code (CBC). . . .

Read the entire article at Pasadena Weekly.