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He earned the moniker “Copycat King” in the late 1990s by rapidly producing knock off interpretations of gowns that had just walked the red carpet at the Oscars but savvy apparel mogul Allen B. Schwartz’s sprawling Los Angeles compound, nestled into rustic yet ritzy Mandeville Canyon, is the real thing.
Schwartz’s company, ABS, surged to success in the 1990s and early 2000s with its lightening-fast copies of designer originals that had just been seen on runways and red carpets. He described himself a few years ago in WWD as “The first social media star,” referring to mountains of press ABS garnered the morning after the Oscars when he’d reveal which dresses he planned put into production for the mass market.
He once told Forbes that he was not in the garment game to sell a few dozen couture gowns but rather to sell 10,000 dresses, and his rendition of the Narciso Rodriguez dress Carolyn Bessette wore at her 1996 marriage to John F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly sold 28,000 copies. More recently, the veteran garmento has shifted his focus towards the Slow Fashion Movement, including a 2020 collection of upcycled clothing. (The look book for the line was partly photographed on the grounds of Schwartz’s Mandeville Canyon compound.)
Now on the rack with an $18 million price tag, Schwartz’s park-like compound stretches out over almost 1.7 idyllic acres with a circa 1951 California ranch house, two guest cottages, a pair of conjoined swimming pools, and a lighted clay tennis court. Surrounding all this are vast carpets of emerald lawns and stone paths that wind among the manicured garden’s stone patios, waterfalls and small ponds. In all, there are six bedrooms and six and a half baths in about 3,600 square feet of living space between the main house and guesthouses.
The single-story main residence is modest and even on the small side compared to modern-day mansions that often prioritize square footage over comfortable livability. There are vaulted and beamed ceilings, lots of woodwork and several stone fireplaces throughout the home. A large skylight over the butcher block-topped island in the eat-in kitchen ensures natural light all day long, while French doors open most rooms to the lush and private gardens.
Just outside the main house, in a grassy, tree-shaded garden, a spa spills over into a rectangular swimming pool connected by a tumble of rocks to a second, lagoon-like swimming pool. Elsewhere, the lighted tennis court has a covered viewing pavilion, guest cottages are secreted amid the trees with separate entrances, and a barbeque patio includes a full outdoor kitchen, a television and an outdoor fireplace adorned with an animal skull.
Available via Cindy Ambuehl and Nikki Gwaltney of Compass, and billed in marketing materials as a “one-of-a-kind hideaway” that is “rich with possibility,” options include remodeling the existing home and structures or custom building something entirely new. The property is alternatively available in two separate parts; the bulk of the compound, with main house, both guest houses, swimming pools and tennis court, is available at $12 million, while a smaller portion, with just gardens and the outdoor kitchen area, is priced at $6.4 million.
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