All dressed up and nowhere to go? This is an idiom we’ve simply never understood. More often than not we’ve experienced the opposite: somewhere to go that requires dressing up, but nothing to wear.

And finding a fab frock in a flash? Not without shop-hopping until you drop…more than you want to spend on a dress that you maybe, kinda, sorta like. Until now. Having felt our pain, Maxine Boutique owner Silvia Joo opened her upscale Ventura Boulevard shop and has stocked it with dresses galore. Resembling how we envision a hip young thing might arrange her extra-large closet in a Park Avenue penthouse, Maxine has dark wood cases lining the crown-molded walls with dresses (and blouses and little coats) neatly hung according to color. Racks are capped with shelves of bags by Bliss Lau and Rebecca Minkoff. And hanging on those racks? Contemporary designers like Mara Hoffman, Ghita, LaROK, Karen Zambos and Sheri Bodell. Ultra-accommodating sales associates operate under an elegant chandelier to complete the ambiance. Truly a one-stop-shop, pick out a necklace by Wendy Nichol—or sassy shoes by Candela—to match that perfect little frock (or two). After a trip to Maxine, that old idiom just might start making sense.—Lyndsey Saul