Since 1940
Merrill Lowell came at fur from art and music, not from retail.
He opened Edwards-Lowell in 1940 with an eye trained on couture rather than commerce, and it showed almost immediately. Working in mink, he developed textured herringbone and houndstooth patterns that had not been seen in fur before. He built the house on the belief that a coat should be treated the way a tailor treats a suit, made to be kept, repaired and made new again rather than replaced.
How the house was built
Paris in the spring, Leningrad for the sable.
Lowell and the people he trained traveled every year to Paris, Milan, New York and Leningrad, sitting in on European fashion shows and buying pelts directly rather than through a middleman. Relationships with auction houses in Seattle and New York filled in the rest. Decades later, the buying still happens the same way, in person, with someone who has done it long enough to know what they are looking at.
Everything under one roof
The vault, the workroom and the counter are the same building.
A coat that comes in for storage does not leave for anywhere. Cold storage, cleaning and glazing, repairs, restyling and rentals all happen at 3314 Livonia Ave, by people who work here full time. Paul Matsumoto, President, runs the house on the same principle Lowell started with. Preserving what already exists is central to our philosophy, not just repairing it after something goes wrong.
Who wore them
The client list is on the record, not on a plaque.
Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Lana Turner, Mae West, Ella Fitzgerald and Sammy Davis all wore Edwards-Lowell. In the 1980s the rental archive dressed the Carringtons through the run of Dynasty, and it still goes out to film and television productions shooting in Los Angeles today. None of it was dressed up for a plaque. It is simply who came through the door, and who still calls the workroom when a script calls for fur.
What we believe
A trade-in is not a downgrade.
Fur outlasts most of what replaces it, which is the argument for keeping it rather than throwing it away. We take trade-ins from long-time clients, accept charitable donations from Beverly Hills estates, and restyle coats that have not fit anyone's closet in years into something that will. Extending a garment's life is not a marketing position here. It is most of what the workroom actually does, week to week.
Los Angeles and greater LA
Come in and see the building the coats never leave.
No charge for the inspection, and no obligation after it. Everything we do to your fur happens on our own premises, from the estimate to the vault.
3314 Livonia Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90034