Bandit
After years of styling rock groups, Felicia Arlin is helping the common man to swagger in his own vintage leather jacket.
Her new line, Bandit, offers ’60s- and ’70s-era jackets that are revamped with silk lining and decorated with buttons made out of bone and other unusual materials.
“Each jacket has its own story,” said Los Angeles–based Arlin, who, in keeping with the Bandit theme, concocted a police report listing the style number and other information for each jacket. “It’s one-of-a-kind.”
Arlin gained design and merchandising experience at juniors companies such as Paris Blues and Destinations. She also ran her own juniors T-shirt company. She customized vintage leather jackets for friends before starting Bandit in September with her boyfriend, Adam Sidy, and began shipping jackets in November. High-end shops, including BNY and Dungarees, have already picked up her line. She also has scheduled trunk shows at the Fred Segal stores on Dec. 3 and Dec. 5.
Arlin searches high and low for her fabrics and buttons and relies on two or three people to scour the Midwest and Canada for clean jackets. To prevent duplicates, she buys enough material to make only one jacket. The vintage silk fabrics she uses as lining feature whimsical patterns, including a purple brick wall print reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” album. Once she has everything in stock, it takes her a day to create a jacket. Each piece wholesales for $400.
Arlin presently produces only men’s jackets for Bandit but plans to launch a women’s line for Fall 2005. Compared with men’s fashion, “the women’s market is just more difficult,” she said. “Men are so much more appreciative of anything new and fun.”
For more information, call (323) 850-1311. —Khanh T.L. Tran
