L.A. Fashion Week Fall '07: Juuml;nker

This season, Los Angeles–based designers Tod Waters and Giuliana Mayo staged a full-scale alternative stage show on March 22 at the Avalon nightclub in Hollywood for their rock ’n’ roll label, Juuml;nker Designs. The show featured Juuml;nker’s punk-rock fashions, music videos, burlesque tap dancers and Alice Cooper, who walked the runway in Juuml;nker’s black tailcoat and red leather pants.

The shock rocker praised Waters’ and Mayo’s designs, drawing a trajectory between his own stage gear in the ’70s, the post-apocalyptic fashion of the ’80s film “The Road Warrior” and Juuml;nker’s designs.

“Alice did this kind of clothing—we were the first to do theatrical clothing,” he said. “At the time, the Beatles were wearing English suits, and we said, ’enough, of that.’ The first time I saw “The Road Warrior,” I thought, ’clothing should be semi-violent.’”

The looks included Waters’ and Mayo’s signature mix of hand-worked leathers and denim with corset lacing, overprinting and second-skin silhouettes. This season, fur and leather were often left in their natural shape to hang in jagged-edged hems or spilling in folds over a collar. The dancers performed in Juuml;nker screened shirts and garter minis. A double row of corset lacing on a fishtail skirt followed the models’ curves. Men’s pants were stove pipe–skinny and hipbone-grazing. A leather coat, lined in fabric silk-screened with overlapping pentagrams, had an extended collar, and a red vinyl halter dress was given a tulle tutu. New this season were floor-length and mini-dresses with plunging backs made from African block- and tie-dye–print fabrics. —Alison A. Nieder