Shop Ruche's New Look Book & Palm Springs/Palm Desert California

Shop Ruche has just put out their new summer resort "Look Book", making me feel like Spring is around the corner, even though we are mid winter in New Zealand and I am huddled in front of my fire. I love Ruche's new Spring colours and sweet designs offered in this catalogue.


I was pleasantly surprised to see the new look book was shot on location in Palm Springs. In March this year I travelled to the USA to Palm Springs and stayed nearby in Palm Desert. Palm Springs and Palm Desert are situated in Riverside County, California within the Coachella Valley, approximately 37 miles East of San Bernadino  and only a 2.5 hour shuttle drive from Los Angeles airport.

Palm Desert, half an hour from Palm Springs is very pretty town and although early Spring when I was there, the stunning surrounding mountains still had snow on their peaks.  The main shopping street, El Paseo is full of exclusive boutiques, art galleries, interior design stores, cafes and restaurants.  I loved that you could walk the drive and if you got tired, wave down the little golf carts that went up and down picking up and dropping off laden shoppers along the way.


These two small towns attract a lot of vacationers, both summer and winter so its always buzzing. Music Festivals, Tango and Art Festivals not to mention the nearby Famous Tennis complex at Indian Wells which attracts the world Top Ranking players. Fashion Week was on during my stay attracting a lot of tourists and no doubt Hollywood stars.  You could sit in a sidewalk cafe in El paseo and people watch for hours, there truly was some interesting and colourful sights around. 

The shopping area of El Paseo and the surrounding Mountains seen from my hotel.

El Paseo Shopping District

Another interest is the architecture in the area, both towns are well known for their 20th Century architecture now known as "Desert Modernism.  The area is also famous for its retreats for the older Hollywood stars such as the late Cary Grant & Lucille Ball. I found the people very friendly, it felt safe at all hours and it is only a very small place so easy to get around although taxis are expensive.  if I visited again I would  probably hire a car to visit nearby towns. The driving in this area is very easy nothing like Los Angeles. There is only one main highway and even me who struggles to tackle the NZ motorways would feel comfortable about driving in this area.

Shopping is amazing but mostly designer wear. Palm Springs has even more shops but I didnt feel it was as pretty as Palm Desert.  The famous Desert Hills outlet mall is situated just outside Palm Springs and has 130 shops. Coach, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Elie Tahari, Armani, Prada, Ferragamo are only a handful of the many well known designers that have outlets there.

I hope to return to Palm Springs again in the future but will make sure I save up first and go with a pretty empty suitcase so I can do some great shopping as last time was more about relaxing and I really wasn't quite sure what there was there.


Please dont forget to click on the Ruche look book above and it will take you direct to their new catalogue.  Also if you are interested to find out more about Palm Desert click on the photo of El Paseo Drive and it will link you with a site on the area.