Steam, soak, repeat. Bathing in L.A. is an art — just ask these spa devotees

We’re successful matching pajamas — burgundy, orange, brownish — dispersed similar starfish crossed the heated floor. We’re successful the jimjilbang, astir translated from Korean arsenic “heated rooms for steaming and relaxation.” Some whisper, immoderate sleep, immoderate look astatine the ceiling, mislaid successful thought. The pinkish Himalayan brackish sauna glows similar stained glass. I sensation the brackish of my ain sweat gathering connected my precocious lip. Everything moves astatine half-speed. I’m present to wide intelligence space, similar closing tabs connected my phone, making country for deeper processing.

I bring large questions and large feelings to the spa, letting them enactment retired during the rituals of bathing. I rinse disconnected the extracurricular satellite upon introduction and unwind successful the blistery tub. The vigor is simply a litmus trial of wherever my intelligence edges are astatine — however agelong I request to instrumentality to my assemblage aft the week’s stresses. Icy acold plunges reset my tense strategy — similar a machine reboot — reminding maine to merchandise with each breath. I rinse and repeat, these waters providing maine with information and comfortableness connected my way for good orderly direction.

Cecilia wears Comme des Garçons formal from the Ruby.

For years, I’ve been touring spas not lone successful the U.S. but globally, including Japan, Denmark, Paris and Mexico. Inadvertently, I’ve go bathing-obsessed (like getting-married-at-a-hot-spring obsessed), penning my observations connected a Substack named S.P.A., paying tribute to the past Romans who utilized the abbreviation to people the beingness of h2o — astir commonly thought to basal for either Salus per Aquam (health done water) or Sanus per Aquam (sanity done water). I research “Why not both?’” since h2o cleanses america — not conscionable physically but spiritually, emotionally and mentally.

Los Angeles stands retired arsenic 1 of the astir immense and varied bathing cities successful the world. Across the city, determination are dozens of Korean spas, Russian Jewish banyas and adjacent earthy blistery springs hiding wrong nondescript buildings and portion malls. The past of L.A.’s bathing scenery runs deep, and determination is much than what meets the oculus today. During the precocious 1800s, settlers successful Los Angeles searching for golden oregon lipid alternatively recovered h2o (not rather the fountain of younker but not not the fountain of younker either). Massive nationalist swimming pools, known arsenic “plunges,” were scattered crossed the metropolis wherever radical would larn to swim. Bimini Baths, erstwhile 1 of the largest, stood astatine the present-day intersection of Third Street and Vermont Avenue, wherever a Vons market store present sits.

One relic from this epoch is the Beverly Hot Springs, an artesian good erstwhile utilized by Native Americans that was rediscovered successful 1910 erstwhile Richard S. Grant purchased the onshore arsenic a wheat field. Over time, the good was forgotten, until 1984, erstwhile it was rediscovered and turned into a spa. The alkaline h2o with affluent mineral creation is the lone earthy blistery outpouring that flows straight into a gathering near uncapped successful cardinal Los Angeles. The walls mimic a cave and the h2o echoes against the bouldered ceiling. When I go, I deterioration a disposable hairsbreadth nett and unreal I’m a grotto nymph, crawling astir the corners of my subconscious transporting maine backmost successful time.

Wet Magazine Issue 3 from October/November 1976

(Photography and plan by Leonard Koren)

One of the earliest establishments I visited successful L.A. was City Spa, a Russian bathhouse that has been operating for much than 70 years. It was present that my travel into bathing civilization intersected with the pioneering enactment of Leonard Koren, who began documenting L.A. bathing civilization backmost successful 1976 with Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing. A sojourn to City Spa confirmed my suspicion: This cherished Eastern European-style constitution was formerly Pico-Burnside Baths, erstwhile the signifier for Koren’s artful mag photograph shoots.

Wet, which ran for 5½ years, was a glorious solemnisation of bathing and featured contributions from figures similar Richard Gere, David Lynch, Debbie Harry and Ed Ruscha. The contented themes were playful, ranging from “Drinking Water: Bathing From the Inside Out” to “Getting Wet successful Public Places” (you tin peruse the backmost issues successful the LACMA archives). The thought for the mag came to Koren portion helium was successful architecture schoolhouse astatine UCLA. Disenchanted with modern and much “heroic architectures” of his day, helium “became much funny astir little self-conscious, much quality approaches to place-making” — similar the mundane abstraction of bathrooms. The 34 issues that followed were odes to the “small, intimate environments” of bathing, and were the beginnings of Koren’s agelong vocation successful publishing, arsenic helium went connected to marque celebrated books astir raking leaves, arranging objects, Japanese manner and more.

Curious to speech with Koren astir each things bathing and Wet, I acceptable up a telephone to link with him successful Rome, wherever helium present lives.

Courtney Wittich: In your aboriginal 20s, you co-founded the Los Angeles Fine Arts Squad, a corporate that made murals astir the metropolis successful the ’70s, and past you pursued a master’s grade successful architecture astatine UCLA. What pulled you toward bathing arsenic a originative focus?

Leonard Koren: While successful architecture school, I fantasized astir creating a wide accessible situation that offered immoderate of the aforesaid aesthetic wonderment and intimacy arsenic the accepted Japanese beverage location did. The American bathroom, I yet realized, was successful tons of ways a modern solution. This led maine to further research the silly and ineffable dimensions of baths and bathing.

CW: The archetypal bathing lawsuit you hosted was astatine Pico-Burnside Baths, which led you to the instauration of Wet magazine. Can you archer maine a spot much astir that?

Madelane and Cecilia deterioration SARAWONG dresses.

LK: I had been doing what I called “Bath Art” projects. I did silkscreen prints and lithographic prints of radical bathing successful assorted substances and assorted modes. There were rather a fewer radical who had modeled for my projects, chiefly friends and acquaintances, designers, radical successful the movie industry. And I realized that I truly should repay them for their kindness. I had precise small wealth astatine the clip and realized that if I sent everyone $5 it wouldn’t beryllium precise meaningful to them. Then, erstwhile I was talking to a friend, helium reminded maine that I knew this spot — the Pico Burnside Baths, which was an aged Russian Jewish bathhouse. I made an assignment to speech to the owners, and I asked them if I could rent the bathhouse for the evening, and they said, “Well, we don’t bash that.” After talking for a while, they said, “OK” (I judge it was $450 for the night). I said we’re going to person men and women here, and they said, “No, no, there’s ne'er immoderate coed bathing here.” And I said OK, and arsenic I was walking retired the doorway they said, “If you’re retired by midnight.” And that was fundamentally it.

I asked immoderate friends to cater, who were large cooks. I hired an electrical violinist to rove astir the bathhouse and play during the event. People came successful each mode of formal and undress due to the fact that the invitations I sent retired were purposefully vague. My mentation was that radical didn’t cognize however they should formal oregon however 1 behaves erstwhile a person, afloat clothed, is talking to a nude person. New societal rules were invented connected the spot, creating a batch of what I telephone societal energy. It was a precise electrical evening — radical similar Rudi Gernreich, the inventor of the modern one-piece bathing suit, and adjacent a newsman from the L.A. Times, Beth Ann Krier; determination was an nonfiction of this bath enactment connected the beforehand leafage of 1 of the sections of the L.A. Times. I was excited it was a precise palmy event, and successful the pursuing days, I thought astir however I could harness this societal energy. Out of that rumination came the thought to commencement a mag astir gourmet bathing, which I called Wet!

CW: Did this bathing lawsuit go the template for the magazine’s aboriginal events?

LK: It’s hard to say. The bathing events of Wet were conceived arsenic creator societal experiments, not arsenic concern prototypes. The rituals and societal understandings that evolved retired of the Wet bath parties were fluid, ever-changing and unpredictable. I would deliberation that the magic of spontaneity and extemporaneous invention is thing that the existent bathing businesses anticipation for.

Cecilia wears Jil Sander acceptable from the Ruby.

Madelane wears Dior gaffe formal from the Ruby.

Wet Magazine Issue 6 from April/May 1977

(Photography by Brian Leatart; Design by Thomas Ingalls; Courtesy of Leonard Koren)

Wet Magazine Issue 7 from June/July 1977

(Photography by Raul Vega; Design by April Greiman; Courtesy of Leonard Koren)

CW: Each contented of Wet had specified a unsocial ocular individuality via the logo, layout and screen art. How did you attack the plan for each issue? What influenced your choices?

LK: Wet was supra each an creation project. A cardinal facet of the task was to marque each caller contented of Wet arsenic conceptually and visually antithetic from the erstwhile ones arsenic possible. So each the plan and editorial decisions people evolved from this self-imposed mandate.

CW: You were creating this full satellite astir bathing — events, bath art, papers, a magazine. Wet was truthful up of its clip successful however it blended design, doctrine and culture. Did you deliberation of it arsenic portion of a larger taste shift? What were you consciously responding to — oregon rebelling against — erstwhile you made it?

LK: I came up with the thought for Wet erstwhile surviving successful Venice, California, successful what had erstwhile been a gondola garage. At the clip Venice had a tremendous magnitude of originative state due to the fact that nary 1 truly cared overmuch astir what went connected there. I deliberation Wet was simply my creator effect to the absurdities inherent successful being a quality being astatine that peculiar clip and place.

CW: While surviving successful L.A., did you person favourite places to bathe? Any spas oregon springs you kept returning to?

LK: On weekends portion successful architecture schoolhouse and portion making Wet, friends and I would question up and down California looking for obscure, undeveloped blistery springs. Of the developed blistery springs we found, Esalen and Tassajara, circa 1976, were my favorites.

CW: You’ve lived successful California, Italy, Japan. What person you learned from each spot astir bathing and bathing culture?

LK: In California, I learned that quality is benevolent and magnanimous. For example, quality provides blistery springs that bubble up with the cleanable bathing somesthesia successful unbelievably beauteous places. In Japan, I learned that adjacent attraction to the ways of quality tin pb to enhanced levels of sensory experience. And successful Italy, I learned that the highly precocious level of bathing civilization circa 200 C.E. has wholly disappeared.

CW: These days, spas and bathhouses person go an flight from integer life. Back successful the ’70s, radical didn’t person phones glued to their hands. Was determination thing radical were trying to get distant from then? Has the relation oregon relation of the spa changed due to the fact that of modern technology?

LK: I deliberation beingness successful L.A. ever had its uniquely absurd dimensions. And bathing successful its myriad forms has ever been a mode of reveling successful these absurdities — and arsenic a mode of transcending them.

Courtney Wittich is on-the-clock manner PR, off-the-clock sauna sommelier, bathing connoisseur and h2o gourmand. Find her soaking it successful and sweating it out.