With its neon and custom needlepoint art, ice cream colors, and hand-painted mosaic tile fireplace, there is no other jewelry store in Beverly Hills, Calif., like The Last Line, completely fulfilling the brand’s disruptive approach with its flagship location.
Shelley Sanders cofounded The Last Line in 2017 with her husband, Teddy, as a direct-to-consumer jewelry business. Sanders serves as its creative director, supervising the controlled chaos with affection. This flagship store with piercing parlor “feels like our most personal space yet,” Sanders says, creating a complete experience of The Last Line, its fine jewelry, and its newest addition, the Party collection of tabletop goods.
What happens when you bring a shock of color and energy to the otherwise staid Beverly Hills shopping scene? That’s exactly what Sanders says she wanted to find out, planning this store for years and working on it throughout the pandemic for its grand opening in June.
“I wanted a space where customers could see and shop the jewelry and try it on, even dream a little, in a space that is entirely ours, designed by us,” Sanders says.
“Often there is an inherent formality around fine jewelry for a variety of reasons, but ultimately, we are creating pieces that we want to be part of someone’s everyday life, and it’s important to me that our spaces, whether online or off, feel welcome and inviting to everyone,” Sanders says.
The Last Line, which also has a New York location, started online and moved into pop-up shops, giving the brand an idea of what it could be when it reached this new space, Sanders says. Sanders has worked in the jewelry business for years, first training with a master jeweler in San Francisco and working as a head designer and creative director for celebrity jewelry brands and high-end jewelry houses before launching The Last Line.
“When we opened our first pop-up, we designed the experience to feel like a home from top to bottom and everyone loved it,” Sanders says. “They were transported into our world, which was a little more colorful and a lot more fun. We’ve kept that going with each space we’ve opened since.”
With the Beverly Hills design, Sanders says she wanted the space to draw customers inside, whether you know the brand intimately or if it is your first visit.
“Because we designed the space, we were able to add in details that felt very us: custom needlepoint and cross-stitch wall art, hand-painted terra-cotta tiles that feature art from our jewelry and Party collections, embroidered jewelry trays and vitrine inlays done by the same embroiderer [who does] our Party linens. It’s super personal and very TLL,” Sanders says.
Another signature is The Last Line stores “always have a little bit of neon in each,” Sanders says. The Beverly Hills location features a ‘Piercing This Way’ sign with an arrow as you enter the piercing parlor and a TLL ear game alongside a mix of branded wall art and some popular ear games for inspiration.
“We have a lot of clients coming in to shop in person or get a piercing and have met a lot of new faces already, which is a major benefit when you’re an online-only brand,” Sanders says. “For me, I can talk about jewelry all day, so it’s been fun to speak with shoppers and almost rediscover the line with clients all day.”
Top: Shelley and Teddy Sanders opened their Last Line flagship store in Beverly Hills, Calif., this summer after dreaming about its design for years, getting through the pandemic, and trying out the concept through pop-ups and trunk shows, Sanders says (photos courtesy of The Last Line).
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