L.A. Fashion Week Spring 2011: Juuml;nker

Long, wicked-looking spikes fanned out from the back of a corset top. Something that looks like a rhino horn juts from the back of a man’s floor-sweeping leather coat. The women’s version of the coat has a pair of hawk wings unfurling from the shoulder blades.

You can always count on surprises on and off the runway at a Juuml;nker fashion show.

Los Angeles–based designers Tod Waters and Giuliana Mayo rarely veer far from the rock-star aesthetics that have earned them a famous following (including Steven Tyler and Alice Cooper). Still, the two continue to evolve their “Mad Max” aesthetic further, as was evident at their Oct. 23 runway show at the Philanthropic Center for the Arts—a cavernous space near Juuml;nker’s way-downtown-L.A. headquarters.

Some styles on the runway were classic Juuml;nker: denim and leather pants so detailed they require a closer inspection after the show, micro-mini skirts with garters dangling from the hems, and denim and leather vests and corsets emblazoned with patches.

To be sure, there were plenty or pieces that were pure rock ’n’ roll cool—a man’s tuxedo shirt worn open and paired with skinny black leather pants or a women’s leather jacket in a cropped, second-skin cut with an exposed back crisscrossed with leather straps. There was also a series of disco-era knit dresses and jumpsuits—some tie-dyed, some foil-printed.

Waters and Mayo also injected plenty of provocative humor into their pieces. A vest was constructed from the destroyed remains of a pair of jeans—complete with exposed pocket lining. One leather jacket was lined in “Star Wars” bed sheets; another featured a print of the Budweiser logo. A jacket had the words “Bastard” emblazoned across the back, while women’s T-shirts featured a vintage RC Cola–esque logo and too-explicit-to-print text.—Alison A. Nieder