Local Love

Chanel Malin Launches Palisades Gift Shop

By MAGNOLIA LAFLEUR | Reporter 

A local gift shop is giving those who love the community a new way to show their Pacific Palisades spirit with an array of apparel, accessories and merchandise that also support area schools and highlight the town at large.

Chanel Malin—owner of Palisades Gift Shop, which launched on May 1—shared that she decided to open an online store dedicated to the Palisades after noticing a parental demand for apparel like T-shirts and hats from the local school shops.

“It was so popular that every time I tried to buy, they were sold out,” Malin told the Palisadian-Post. “I have a background in design, buying and marketing. Having quit working just after I got pregnant with my first daughter eight years ago, I have always said that I wanted to go back to work, but on my own terms and something meaningful to me if it’s going to take time away from my kids. It has been a life-long dream of mine to open my own clothing store.”

Malin has been building her shop since January with the goal to “create a place where locals can buy clothing and goods that they would need or use in the Palisades.” Noticing that the community has an athleisure aesthetic, Malin began asking her friends who grew up in the Palisades for ideas, which all led to the design and product decisions for what is available via the shop.

Born in Fresno, California, Malin grew up in the kind of small town where kids would play in the streets and neighbors would welcome each other in with the knock on the door. With her father, a Vietnam veteran and captain in the Army, owning a payroll company while Malin was growing up, it was her mother—an art teacher and librarian—who Malin’s keen eye for design emanated from.

“She was an art teacher and always had us doing art projects at home,” Malin explained. “She encouraged my creative interests and gave me sewing classes when I was young, and wanted to become a fashion designer.”

Malin shared that her mom had paintings up in the house that she painted—she said she was always in awe of her mother’s talent.

“She really gave me opportunities to advance my art interests,” Malin continued. “Art was always my favorite subject in high school and college. My hobby is design, in any and all ways—interior design, graphic design and designing with my kids. It’s rubbed off on my oldest daughter who designs her own dresses in her sketchbook, and we’ve started a blog for her as well.”

Malin eventually moved to Los Angeles. She lived for 14 years in places like Long Beach and North Hollywood, but had yet to find an area that had that “small town feel.”

Originally an Otis College of Arts and Design student, Malin switched schools to California State University, Fresno, after falling ill. She ended up majoring in public relations with a minor in art.

After working the first 10 years of her career in PR, advertising, marketing and communications, Malin went to Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. After graduating at the top of her class for visual design, she became a buyer.

In 2012, she married her college sweetheart, Adrian Malin. The owner of Malin Asset Management, Adrian buys apartment buildings and owns an apartment property management company. Malin said her husband serves as the perfect companion to bounce her new shop ideas off of.

“My husband and I landed in Santa Monica in 2013 the year after we got married and decided we loved the Westside,” Malin said. “A year later, we had our eldest daughter, and in 2016, moved into a house in the Brentwood Polo Fields. It’s a unique location because it’s considered the point where Santa Monica, Brentwood and the Palisades meet.”

Malin said that while it was much more of a community than she had ever experienced in Los Angeles, it wasn’t until two years ago when they purchased a home in the Palisades that she really understood what it meant to be a Palisadian.

Mother of two, her eldest daughter started kindergarten in fall of 2021 at Palisades Charter Elementary School, with her youngest daughter starting at Methodist Preschool of Pacific Palisades in January 2021.

It was during this time that Malin said she developed a stronger connection to the Palisades, seeing simple, small town experiences in a big city, like parents walking their children to school.

“I met people whose kids were at the same preschool where their parents and grandparents had gone,” Malin said. “Grandparents picked up their kids from school, and moms offered to take their kids on playdates at the park. There was baseball at the rec center and gymnastics down the street. You can walk everywhere, and everyone is so happy to live in the Palisades.

“I thought to myself, ‘I found it,’ I finally found the small town I’ve been looking to raise my kids, like a town where I grew up.”

With the heartfelt mission to support her local community, Malin’s Palisades Gift Shop offers minimalistic graphic design that aims to encompass a “classic beachy chic” look with cool, calm and warm colors like dusty blue, sage green, soft peach and comfy beige hues that work in tandem with the Palisades lifestyle that echoes a retro beach club vibe.

From denim baseball hats with the letter P to her mint Adults Varsity Fleece Sweatshirt and Seagrass Tote Bag that don the town’s name on the front, the community’s new gift shop has a plethora of items for the whole family, from babies to grandparents.

“My kids are little beach babies. On any free day we grab our surfboards and boogie boards, and head to the beach to play in the sand,” Malin said. “It’s definitely my happy place and my favorite thing to do in Southern California.”

The gift shop launched with a party at a house in the Palisades—featuring drinks by Palisadian-founded This Girl Walks Into A Bar. A second pop-up is scheduled for June 5 from 1 to 4 p.m. at 15207 Friends Street.

Malin shared her future hope is to go from online to a brick-and-mortar store, where she’ll be able to meet all incoming customers.

Excited to have opened a shop, utilizing all her previous skill sets, from PR to design, Malin said she finally feels not only at home in her new shop, but at home in the Palisades.

“I hope that I can provide a warm and friendly shop for the Palisades community and give the locals goods they need to live their lives in the Palisades,” Malin shared. “No matter what age, young or old, my shop is for everyone. I don’t know what the future holds but I do know that I am lucky to be able to do what I love in the Palisades.

“A friend of mine who has been here longer than I have said that there’s a saying, ‘If you’re rich, you live in Beverly Hills, if you’re famous, you live in Hollywood, but if you’re lucky, you live in the Palisades—and I sure am lucky.”

For more information or to check out the products, visit palisadesgiftshop.com.