Vicious Design Firm
California Market Center Suite B1169(213) 624-2391
Feminine and frilly are two of the dominant trends for Spring 2006, but the partners of the Vicious Design Firm showroom in the California Market Center are betting that punk and satire will never go out of style.
“We’re going to be punk rock no matter what,” said showroom partner Steeve Bohbot (The spiky-haired Bohbot extends his iconoclastic style to the spelling of his name—notice the extra “e.”) “We won’t let the market change us.We’re going to change the market,” he said.
Showroom partners Bohbot, Joanne Bienskie and saleswoman Alicia Ferguson are putting their tastes where their money is. For Los Angeles Market Week, they’ll debut the clothing line of Echo Park jeweler Han Cholo. The jeweler gained notoriety for producing charm bracelets bearing trinkets in the shape of gangland weapons such as guns and brass knuckles. The Han Cholo clothing line will offer jackets and T-shirts bearing cartoonish reproductions of art from Chicano street gangs. Wholesale price points are $14 for T-shirts to $180 for leather jackets. Bohbot also works as Han Cholo’s run production manager.
The showroom will continue in a punk vein with the Los Angeles Market Week relaunch of Los Angeles T-shirt brand XLarge, which was founded by The Beastie Boys’ Mike D in 1991. Wholesale price points are $11.50 for T-shirts and $50 for cut-and-sew jackets. Its other lines include Los Angeles–based Black Stitch, which features art of punk rocker Sid Vicious over industrial- style graphics on its women’s T-shirts. The shirts sell for $32 wholesale. Another line is Ames Bros., whose T-shirts bear the rock-concert poster graphics of Los Angeles–based artists the Ames brothers. The wholesale price point is $11.50. Counterintuitively, Vicious also handles preppie line Le Tigre, with a price point of $24 for a polo shirt.
Housed in the Agenda Showroom, Vicious Design moved into 400 square feet of Agenda’s space in April 2005. But Vicious Design grew quickly and, after signing Le Tigre in June, expanded into 1,500 square feet of Agenda. One of the main issues the showroom faces is that people must take an elevator to the highest reaches of the California Market Center to see them. Bohbot said the challenge makes them stronger. “It’s a good thing, in a weird way,” he said. “It keeps us on our toes.”
—Andrew Asch
