Team

Jenny Livits

— Founder and Creator

Jenny Livits has always been an entrepreneurial spirit with a love of design, fashion, art and lifestyle. She dreamt of opening a women’s clothing boutique for as long as she can remember. With a love of original retail concepts and a passion for making fashion accessible, Jenny began developing the concept for Pink Lagoon at the age of 20, wanting to create a shopping experience focused on styling women for their individual lifestyle and adapting trends for the everyday woman.

With more than 15 years in the fashion industry, Jenny’s experience spans different facets of the retail world - up-and-coming boutiques, single-brand stores including BCBG and Nicole Miller, multi-brand boutiques including Fred Segal, and original concepts including a high-end women’s clothing boutique at Fashion Island and a vintage timepiece, accessories and furniture store in Beverly Hills.

In 2007, Jenny officially opened Pink Lagoon in the Cedros Design District of Solana Beach. Using her business-mindedness, unique approach to wardrobing, and experiences in the fashion industry, Pink Lagoon has become a personal and professional success.

Originally from San Diego and an alumnus of The Bishop’s School in La Jolla, Jenny moved to Los Angeles to attend Loyola Marymount University, where she stayed for five years after graduating. Jenny married her college sweetheart in 2002, and she and her husband, Oleg, have been living on Southern California’s coast ever since. Outside of work, Jenny loves yoga, cooking, reading, traveling, and spending time with her daughter, family and friends.

Oleg Livits

Although Oleg Livits got his start in the creative motion picture industry, he is now producing retail stores instead of movies. As the Chief Operations Officer of Pink Lagoon, Oleg is in charge of many daily operations and plans for expansion. He helped build the store from the ground up and takes credit for naming the store on a walk with their dog Tyson by a lagoon years before the store opened when him and Jenny lived in LA. He is our biggest supporter, and althouh you will mostly find him behind the scenes, he's the "heart" of the business. Having met Jenny at 20 years old while she worked many retail jobs, he's like a proud papa watching the PL vision come to life. Being surrounded by tons of beautiful and stylish woman all day, his job is really tough and he wouldn't wish it upon anyone. He's one of the few men in San Diego who could tell you you're wearing a Joie top, Rich and Skinny Jeans and a Chan Luu bracelet. Sorry ladies, he's taken!

Kara Crow Hatch

Kara was born and raised in Austin, Texas, where fashion is very eclectic and creative, inspiring her early fashion sense. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Fashion Design, where she designed her own collection that was presented at the UT fashion show. With an eye for fashion and an innate ability to make fashion accessible, Kara held various retail and sales representative positions before becoming co-buyer for Pink Lagoon when the boutique opened in 2007. Having been with Jenny from the inception of the boutique, their similar aesthetic eye creates the perfect buying team for Pink Lagoon. Kara and Jenny have formed an unbreakable bond, through their mutual love of lifestyle, fashion, health, beauty and overall well-being. Her personal style is an inspiration to us all; who else can rock a vintage YSL top, with cut off jean shorts, boots and a bundle of accessories? She is also one of our vintage scouts and brings PL all her exclusive finds. We love you Kara!

Elizabeth Sienkiewicz

Elizabeth Sienkiewicz was born in San Diego, Ca., and moved up to Los Angeles at the age of 5. She attended St. James the Less Catholic School during her early years and then went on to attend Immaculate Heart High School in Los Feliz. She graduated high school in 2002 and then went to Marymount College in Palos Verdes for a year before transferring to the University of San Diego. She graduated from USD in 2010 with a BA in business admin and an emphasis in marketing. Elizabeth has always had a passion for fashion ever since she was a young girl. She appreciates how fashion is a playful form of art and how it can truly reflect people’s lifestyles and personalities. Elizabeth is constantly inspired by whatever she happens to do or see in her daily life. Since life is precious, she strongly believes in living it to the fullest and following your dreams no matter what obstacles get in the way. She joined PL in 2010 and has played an integral role in our expansion. With a strong business backgroud, a playful spirit, amazing personal style and an extraordinary knowledge of everything PL, she is our go to girl, and she fits here better than any pair of jeans you could possibly ever own. We call her Ellie. You can too!

Martha Benari

Born in Los Angeles, Martha had an early addiction to fashion with a subscription to Harper’s Bazaar at the age of eight. In 2004 she received her BFA from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. As a graphic designer, Martha has work within a variety of industries but primarily with fashion based clients, focusing on branding, creative direction, marketing, and cutting edge creative web design. In addition to her work as a graphic designer, Martha extends her passion for fashion into her intricate graphite mixed media fashion illustrations, some of which are featured in Pink Lagoon's marketing. Working with Pink Lagoon since its inception, Martha has been instrumental in Pink Lagoon’s brand development and works with the boutique on all things creative, including the design of Pink Lagoon’s Web site.

Katie Kirkwood

Katie has always been interested in fashion and a career in the industry. She grew up in La Jolla California, but moved to South Carolina for a few years during middle school and high school. When she moved back to California, she missed the casual, beachy style So Cal offered and began loving fashion even more than before. Wanting to get some type of job in retail, she first worked at Abercrombie & Fitch. One magical day she walked in to do an informational interview with Jenny for a class she was taking and was hired as an intern at Pink Lagoon. She was ecstatic to be a part of a concept boutique that focused on styling. She is now a full-time lead stylist. Go Katie!!

Victoria Cassinova

From out of the womb, Victoria has taken interest in both fashion and art. She is currently attending the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising as a Visual Communications major. Victoria is the newly appointed Brand and Marketing assistant for Pink Lagoon, and manages all of our social media updates and inspiration, as well as planning for our new PL photo shoots. Victoria also works as a freelance fashion stylist, working with photographers and model agencies for fashion editorial shoots in Los Angeles. She first started her fashion styling career at age 17, and has continued to develop her portfolio throughout the years. Victoria is the perfect fit to the PL team as she loves all things that reflect our lifestyle and brand.