Coachella being less than a week away has all of us going putting our best boho outfits together. In my opinion, the festival not only showcases the best in music but brings to the forefront the trends we will see and wear the rest of the year. How perfect that at this time I came across Parks + Lea via a dear friend, Lindsay Lebby.

Lleby, a style curator, who brought to my attention the cool and effortless chic offerings the site has to offerhas graciously put together a little Q&A for CVLUX with

Parks + Lea's Founder Kori Bero.

Enjoy!

1. How did the vision for Parks + Lea come about?

Honestly, it’s been years in the making even if I wasn’t conscious of it. I have been collecting, hoarding, and styling vintage for years, it was collectively covering my house. Once the thought of Parks + Lea started to form, the vision became more and more narrow. It was important to not be just another vintage boutique, but to be a brand told through a visual story. This is how the idea of building collections started. My seasonal collections start with a specific vision such as Modern Bohemian, Lolita and Streetwear Mix (which just launched for Spring). I wanted to be different, because vintage and used clothing means much more than just “old, used clothes”. To me, they have a history and a meaning.

2. What inspires you and the collections?

It started in my own collection of vintage. When I style a shoot it comes from a story, a vision and feeling you want to portray through an image. I would pair pieces together and line up looks on a rack asking myself questions like “who is she?”. Each piece creates a vision and that vision expands into a story or in my case, a Collection. It continues into extensive research on trends, on the street, what are girls wearing, along with what I truly love about fashion at the time - mixing what is trending and what I authentically love. Fashion is more than a trend to me. It’s freedom to express yourself visually and feeling confident and comfortable in what your wearing. Clothing has always been an inspiration for me. Different silhouettes, textures and colors. Having the ability to express who you are on the inside on the outside. Photography and inspiring imagery that I connect to is also very influential in both my style and Parks + Lea. I believe that is a big factor in what sets me apart. It really is more than just selling vintage to me.

3. You shoot a lot of your own lifestyle images, tell us about this.

The images inspire and create the vision and fullness of my collections by creating an emotional root and relatable story, but it happened as sort of a necessity. When forming the visual layout of my first 2 collections I actually didn’t have enough images to fill the spread and create the story, so I dug into how the collections felt in a living atmosphere and that’s how choosing my film images developed. Film photography is close to my heart and I’ve been shooting, as a hobby, for a long time. It started with my fiancé buying me my first Olympus 35mm film camera and the obsession grew and so did my collection of cameras and images.

4. What makes Parks + Lea different then other vintage shops?

I believe my vision for curating and creating a visual story and a specific feel and look makes it easy to shop Parks + Lea. You can connect to the clothing. When I am shopping for myself, or picking pieces for Parks + Lea I am already creating the outfit and the lifestyle in my head. I have a connection to every piece on the site. I like to say, I have “no filler pieces”. Every piece is special, hand-picked, relevant and sometimes up-cycled or customized to represent my style or where style is at the moment. The best and most important difference I would have to say is the diversity in my collections. Each collection launched is thought out and completely different! My Spring Collection, which just came out, is modeled after the modern, athletic street wear mixed with 90s cool kid style. Completely different from the collections I launched with in October. You can always expect something different and something new to look forward to every season.

5. What’s in the future for the site?

I have no limits. My mind is completely open to see where the site takes me. A huge vision in the very beginning of Parks + Lea was to collaborate with other artists and fashion collectors, to create a collection around what inspires and drives them. Every person has such a unique style and a unique story to tell, it would be an honor to brainstorm together and create that story. I would love to represent other designers and creators alike on my site as well, branch out and see how the clothing and accessories expand. I also, in the future, would love to start creating my own clothing line. There is nothing more gratifying for an artist than to dream something up, have it created into the physical world and see someone feel confident and beautiful in it. There is nothing in the world more satisfying.

Stay Boho Chic @ParkandLea ,

@THESTYLEGUYDE