Latest news with #Garkinos
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
From Detroit's Meat Town to L.A. Luxe: Christos Garkinos' Comeback Tour
If you want to understand Christos Garkinos, start with the sign that hung outside his family's Detroit restaurant: "This ain't no Burger King. You get it my way, or you don't get the thing."Fast forward several decades and several thousand miles to Los Angeles, and that same irreverent spirit has powered the Greek American entrepreneur through the city's notoriously fickle fashion landscape—and one hell of a is a city that worships reinvention almost as much as it fears a fall and Garkinos has experienced both. After pivoting from Disney executive to Virgin Megastore marketing maven to Bravo TV personality, he built his reputation as the "Robin Hood of fashion," connecting celebrity closets with luxury-hungry customers through his LA boutique. When he landed on HSN, it seemed the Detroit kid had truly came the tumble down Mulholland—literally. From his party palace perched high in the Hills, Garkinos descended into a perfect LA storm: addiction, divorce, death of loved ones and financial ruin."Life became life," he says with characteristic bluntness. By 2016, he found himself in a one-bedroom by Target on Cloverdale and a city built on occasional artifice, Garkinos' rock bottom had a certain authenticity. On May 1,2016—"Mayday, literally"—he decided to get sober. Of course, getting clean meant, as his sponsor told him, facing everything he'd been tossing in the back seat: "You stop, and all the trash hits you, and you're buried."LA loves a third act almost as much as it loves a celebrity closet sale. After COVID shuttered his traveling trunk show, Garkinos did what any resourceful Angeleno would do: he went digital. His first Instagram Live, he says, attracted "eight of them Russian bots, I'm sure." But Garkinos showed up religiously at 5 pm every day and his audience grew, so much so that one day a Chanel dealer asked about paying to join his stream. That's when Garkinos had an epiphany: his Instagram page had become a modern-day QVC. These days, a variety of hosts go live on his page, selling selections from the closets of the world's biggest celebrities—people with last names like Aniston, Cox, Kudrow and Garkinos built a digital empire that's now crossed $100 million in sales. He's married to the 'love of his life,' influencer Rolland Ryan. And Garkinos' followers have formed such a tight-knit community that they've formed a 'Stos Squad' that travels together Garkinos announced (on Instagram Live, of course) that his first book Covet the Comeback was available for pre-order, thousands of his fans flocked to buy it, driving the yet-to-be released book up to one of Amazon's top that the book is out—complete with a blurb from Garkinos' best friend, Real Housewife Garcelle Beauvais—he's taking the ultimate comeback loop with book launch events at NeueHouse and Spago (presented by Etro), followed by a country-wide book tour. At the same time, his Instagram channel will continue to broadcast all day and through the night. As his dad surely would have said, Garkinos is doing it all his way.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Kathy Hilton, Garcelle Beauvais Attend Christos Garkinos and Etro's Beverly Hills Book Release Dinner Party
'People love a comeback,' said Christos Garkinos. The TV personality — seen in Bravo's 'Dukes of Melrose' and co-owner of L.A.'s famed consignment shop Decades — has reclaimed his life, and he tells the story in his new book 'Covet the Comeback: How a Son of Greek Immigrants Found Success, Lost Everything, Then Built a Fashion Empire,' out now. More from WWD Gai Gherardi, L.A. Eyeworks Cofounder, Dies at 78 EXCLUSIVE: L.A.'s Kinn Studio and Janessa Leoné Collaborate on Fine Jewelry Collection Sephora's 'Next Big Thing' Is a Dermatologist-approved Skin Care Brand 'I've seen the ebbs and flows of his career,' said actress and producer Garcelle Beauvais at his book release dinner party on Tuesday night, held in partnership with Etro inside Spago in Beverly Hills. The two have been friends for 23 years. 'So to see him now launch this amazing network, and the book, it's exciting,' continued Beauvais (who just revealed her exit from 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills'). The network she's referring to is the community he's built selling luxury consignment on Instagram Live, recently passing $100 million in sales. 'Not only did he figure it out, he pivoted in a way that now he's created this network where women can be in the carpool lane and they shop, they can be at home and shop. It's become a cult following,' said Beauvais. Garkinos, born and raised in Detroit, moved to L.A. in 1990, working for Disney and Virgin Megastores with Richard Branson, before getting into fashion. With co-owner Cameron Silver, he turned Decades into a retail destination for celebrities and stylists, with carefully curated, in-demand pieces. 'I used to live at the top of Mulholland [Drive]. The whole cliché — the pool, parties galore,' said Garkinos. 'I turned 50 and everything fell apart. I lost everything. I lost my marriage. I lost my sobriety.' His finances had dwindled, and within four months he was living in a one-bedroom a few miles south. 'I would walk out my front door and see my house at the top of the hill.' Then came a chance encounter that changed his life: 'I was down to my last $1,000. Someone asked me to host a dinner in Detroit. I thought, 'How much? Great. I'll go and pay my rent for the next month.'' At the event he met the head of marketing of a Detroit hotel, who took him to breakfast the next day. 'She asked how I was, and I said, 'I'm just trudging my way through life,'' Garkinos continued. 'Trudging is a big A.A. word. She's like, 'Are you sober? So am I. How can I help you?' She literally set me up with all her hotels in these small markets, Omaha, Detroit, Minneapolis, for me to do my truck shows. If I hadn't said that word, I wouldn't be here today.' He began paying off his bills, he said. 'And then COVID happened. I was like, 'Are you kidding me?' I owed so many people money from consignment.' But he acted quickly and took the business online in March 2020, growing through the years. With the book, he's sharing lessons he's learned along the way. 'I've had a lot of pivots in my life, and so I wanted to talk about what to do when those pivots happen. 'You know what, in life, we have to go through some of those times to appreciate the wonderful times,' said Kathy Hilton. 'It happens to everybody.' She, like many in the room — including Beauvais, Selma Blair, Melanie Griffith, Karen Zambos and Monet Mazur (all in Etro) — met Garkinos during his days at Decades. 'He's got such an eye,' Hilton said of his work. 'He is fashion.' 'I think it's about people feeling safe to shop with me,' Garkinos said of his online business. Now 60, he's married to his third husband, Rolland Ryan. 'This book is a love letter to my parents, first, who were Greek immigrants, but secondly, a love letter to Los Angeles and Hollywood and that you can actually rewrite your story,' he added. Launch Gallery: Inside Etro's Celebration of "Covet The Comeback" Book Launch at Spago Best of WWD A Look Back at SAG Awards Best Dressed Red Carpet Stars SAG Awards Wildest Looks of All Time on the Red Carpet, Photos From the Archive: A Look Back at Marc Jacobs Annual Holiday Party [PHOTOS]
