Legendary Frends Beauty Supply Undergoing Major Expansion

As anyone who has been in the North Hollywood area long knows that one of the best places to get beauty and hair supplies as well as wigs and theatrical makeup is at 5270 Laurel Canyon Blvd. in Valley Village. It’s something the movie and television industry has known since 1940, when Sigmund Frends first opened his doors and began supplying the studios with all the makeup, hair supplies, wigs and beauty products that they needed. 

Now Frends is expanding into the double-space next door to their building formerly occupied by It’s About Time, the clock sales and repair store, and The Hemster, which did laundry and tailoring and has been closed since 1997. 

Behind the still-standing facade of both of these former businesses, Frends is erecting a vast new retail space, more fashionable and upscale then their current store. Whether they will close the old building to the public has yet to be determined. The target date for the opening of the new space is June 1, 2012. 

“It's too bad for the guys who wanted their clothes altered or their clocks repaired,” joked co-owner Paul Esper, “but for everybody else that’s in the beauty end of the industry, they should be pretty stoked because it’s going to be pretty cool.”

Aligned with Sig Frends’ original vision of the store as a place that would serve both the industry and the community, Frends is opening this new space primarily for their customers in the community.

“We want to be very involved in the neighborhood, as opposed to servicing just the industry,” Esper said. “We want to appeal to the local community and make them feel this is as much for them as it is for us.”

Business Developer Matt Morelli said the plan is to use both the old and new buildings.

“It will be a very beautiful space. So it will be like a Sephora, a little more upscale... We’re expanding to do more for the neighborhood, for the community,” Morelli said. “In 2012, in addition to getting this opened, one of our biggest goals is to have more special sales for the community. People want that and we want to give them what they want. People can check in on Facebook, Yelp or Four-Square and get big discounts. We’ll also have email and text alerts about any sales, so people can stay connected.”

Frends is proudly following in the footsteps of Sig Frends, who was known as the “daddy of the entertainment beauty supply business."

“He was a genius, a pioneer,” said Esper, who purchased the business in 1997. Sig Frends died in 1996 at the age of 92, and although his wife Ethel tried to keep the business going, she lacked her husband’s expertise and had to close up shop.

“The business just wasn’t running the way it used to, so it shut down for almost a whole year,” Esper said.

Under the new ownership, Frends was gradually built back to and beyond its former status as one of Hollywood’s premier beauty suppliers. Stocked with over 24,000 different products ranging from wig-making supplies to special effects makeup to hair and skin care, Frends remains the only “one stop shop,” where makeup and hair department heads can get everything they need. 

The list of famous movies and TV shows for which they’ve provided the beauty supplies is a long one, and includes the Pirates of the Caribbean films, Dexter and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

Esper explained that their success is no fluke, but the result of years of hard work keeping accounts well serviced, and always providing the newest and best supplies. The new expansion is part of his vision to keep Frends current and exciting for the community.

“In business you’ve got to be like a shark, you have to keep moving,” he said. “If you sit still too long, things will catch up with you. It’s been a lot of work, but we’re young and we’re energetic about our business and we want it to keep growing. We want to keep things fresh and exciting for our customers. If you have the same thing going on year after year, it’s gonna get old just like anything else. If you keep things interesting and new, people are gonna stay active and see what’s going on. That’s what we are trying to accomplish.”

Frends has considered expansion for many years, and since the businesses next door have been vacant for some time, the opportunity presented itself.

“It took a lot of time to get plans approved,” Esper said, “and all that stuff you have to do when you do construction. Now everything has been signed off, and construction — as you can see — has begun.”

He said that they have yet to decide if the name Frends will be displayed on the new store or not: “It will have something to do with this place, but that’s not determined yet.”

Rather than remodel the existing space, the Frends management felt the best plan was to expand.

“It’s hard to change the image of a place that has been established for so long,” he said, “so we’re gonna make it a little more hip, bring in more name-brand, consumer-friendly lines that you’d find at a place like Sephora. We already have the theatrical market taken care of, so if there’s room for improvement, that’s where it is — selling all those lines you see in magazines. We can’t get all of them, because some are impossible to get. But we are doing our best to get all the higher-end lines and make it as convenient for your average person to have access to these products as you would for a professional.”  

Indeed, Frends is already well established in the industry for what Fringe Hair Department head Kat Lippay called their “unsurpassed customer service.” Not only do they provide all the requisite supplies for a production, they provide it with the kind of timely efficiency that brings studios back time and time again. TV and movie actors are known to have extremely exacting requirements for hair and makeup, and Frends is expert at providing whatever is needed.

“Frends has always been the most reliable cosmetic supplier I have ever worked with,” said John Elliot, who heads the makeup department for Desperate Housewives. “They get whatever I need, whether they carry it in the store or not, and they get it to me on time, every time. When you deal with as many actors as we do, Frends makes the job easier because they give you one less thing to worry about.”

Frends doesn’t only cater to studios in town, they also service the ever-increasing number of productions which shoot outside of L.A., such as Law & Order SVU, which shoots in New York.

“I shop with Frends because they are resourceful and quick,” said Tarsha Marshall, who runs the Hair department in New York for Law & Order. “They’ll get orders from west to east coast by the next day. And they get the order right, too! All it takes is a simple phone-call.”

As Makeup Department Head for Sons of Anarchy Tracey Anderson said, one can delegate a lot of responsibility to Frends, and they can be depended on to deliver.

"There are so many things in my days at work to think about and attend too,” she said. “It's nice to just have a company that I can give my wish list to and not worry about it… They somehow have it delivered to me by the time I need it. Even if they don't stock it, or never have even heard of it, I know they will have it to me on time. They don't send me something in place of what they didn't have or couldn't find. If they can't get it, they'll call me and let me know. I trust them every episode. And I don't know how, but they can find anything my actors ask for, no matter where it comes from. They are very trustworthy and reliable.”

Around the neighborhood there’s been notable excitement about the new project as the details have gradually surfaced, Esper said.

“Everyone’s excited about it,” he said. “Everyone’s interested. We haven’t given out too many details about it, because we don’t know everything yet. But now as things are getting closer to being complete, things are beginning to come to light. There’s a buzz, and it's exciting.”