EXCLUSIVE: Clare V and Mother Denim Launch Made-in-LA Collection With Indie Spirit
Two L.A. brands that go great together, Clare V and Mother are teaming up on a capsule collection with indie spirit.
The 10-piece range, available Thursday, was designed by Clare Vivier and Mother’s Lela Becker and Tim Kaeding. It nods to their hometown with T-shirts, ’70s inspired trouser jeans, a denim vest patterned after a men’s suiting version from Vivier’s personal vintage collection, a belt, tote and a fanny pack, priced between $59 to $345.
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“L.A. is a denim capital of the world and Mother has been a leader in this category with cute product, covetable jeans everyone is wearing, great marketing and an aura about them,” Vivier said of the brand that started with denim in 2010, and has grown into a full-fledged ready-to-wear label with men’s and now petites, all with a nonconformist vibe and fun style names like “Looker” and “Rambler.”
“I love that they don’t take themselves too seriously, so there’s a synergy there between our two brands. It’s kind of L.A., too, for us to inject lightness into our product,” Vivier continued of her kinship with Becker and Kaeding, who last year collaborated with the estate of David Bowie on a Ziggy Stardust-inspired capsule, and often mine rock ‘n’ roll, ’60s and ’70s inspired graphics, Western and Americana themes in their collections.
“The whole idea behind the collab was the Parisian comes to L.A.,” Kaeding said of Vivier, whose brand has a Cal French aesthetic, and often uses French phrases as decorative elements. “She’s more French leaning, and we’re fun and quirky…We both drew off each other’s strengths. We made something a little more Parisian and serious, trousers, a vest and long shirt, then we put our prints and wacky artwork on her stuff.”
“I have not done denim apparel, which is very intimidating to me; it’s something you have to do really well, so I’m happy our first time going into it is with such an experienced brand,” added Vivier, who has so far been growing her brand’s apparel category with shirting, dresses, skirts and knits.
And Mother, as it turns out, has been mulling a move into the accessories category, said Becker. “It seems like a natural extension of our brand and this was a great experiment.”
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