When Eli Loftus, owner of the ever-popular women’s clothing shop at Carolina Boutique at 76 Throckmorton Ave., and her boyfriend Chris Kelley, an assistant professor at the New School in New York City, opened Fez, a music- and meditation-inspired men’s clothing and home goods shop In October 2020, they did so knowing that what they were creating would be much more than a traditional retail shop. 

They’ve been making good on that promise ever since. On June 18-19, they’re hosting acclaimed California photographer Lindsey Ross, who will be making 8×10 inch tintype and ambrotype portraits at Fez from 11am-5pm. Ross primarily works with large format photography and the 19th century process of wet-plate collodion. She has participated in several artist residencies including Telluride Mountain Film Festival, The Squire Foundation and the Budapest Art Factory. Her work has most recently been exhibited at Andrew Smith Gallery in Tucson and Penumbra Foundation in New York City.

In opening their second downtown Mill Valley shop in the latter part of 2020, Loftus and Kelley joined thousands of entrepreneurs across the U.S. in starting a business in the early part of the COVID-19 crisis at the fastest rate in more than a decade, per government data, seizing on pent-up demand and new opportunities after the pandemic shut down and reshaped the economy, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Loftus and Kelley did so at 118 Throckmorton Ave., the former home of once-popular spots like the Mill Valley Hat Box, as well as Sundry and Branded Boutique.

“Don’t miss this unique opportunity to make a portrait like none other,” Loftus says. GO HERE TO BOOK A SLOT.