California Apparel News

Live Mechanics is a new Los Angeles menswear line that focuses on the lifestyle of today’s young man, bringing recreational activities to life.

“Live Mechanics is a reproduction of movement, through sight and sound, in its purest form,” said Osa Odiaf, owner of the line, explaining the meaning of its name.

“The feel of this line has to do with the mechanics of living. That’s why I call it Live Mechanics—-it’s real life. It’s fashion that cuts across all boundaries—-sports, politics—-all activities.”

Odiaf said that the ultimate goal in producing the garments is to bring the action of the lifestyle into the design of the clothing.

“We’re producing movements,” he said. “[For example,] with sports characters, we take those characters and put them into our clothing. We take dramatic scenes of stage performances and put them into our clothing. Moves and events are being translated into our clothing and we’re taking them into a whole new direction.”

Odiaf explained that the clothing also has literal images of some of the elements of the lifestyle.

“Our graphics are also of multimedia items, like satellite dishes, the schematics of how music moves on radar and power switches,” he said.

The basis for the line is the culture of hip-hop music, according to Odiaf.

“I live, breathe and eat hip hop,” he said. “That’s where the whole energy is coming from, but we’re cutting across all boundaries, local, national and international, trying to relate to all kinds of people and let them know that, with this line, we are willing and able to compete on any fashion level.”

Although Odiaf has ambitious plans for Live Mechanics, the line has entered the market with a slow growth plan, focusing on the smaller stores first.

“We decided from the beginning that we would attack the nice mom and pop stores that pay well,” said Odiaf, listing San Francisco-based Troupe, Washington, D.C.-based Bear Basics and New York-based Yellow Rat Bastard as a few of the domestic retailers carrying the line. The collection is also carried by retailers in Japan and Germany.

“We’re not trying to be in the big stores yet,” he said, noting that the company is preparing to target larger retailers.

“We have to be patient,” he added. “If you go into the [larger] stores and you’re not really ready, then you’re dead, so we’re not rushing. Our next level is Mr. Ragz and The Buckle.”

Live Mechanics debuted for Spring 2000 with a simple graphic T-shirt and gradually expanded its offerings.

“We used our T-shirt graphics to send out our story of what we are about, what we will do and where we want to go,” said Odiaf. “Then we came up with regular shirts. Then we started doing denims. For Fall [2001], we added some sweaters and denim suits and a lot of sweatshirts.The sweatsuits had zip-off sleeves and zip-off legs.”

Odiaf said that the new elements of the Live Mechanics line were created with a focus on quality of fabric while maintaining a cutting edge.

“It’s edgy, but it’s got to be wearable,” he said. “That’s what we are bringing to the MAGIC International show for Spring 2002.”

The company is also bringing live entertainment to the massive trade show, which will be held Aug. 27–30 in Las Vegas. Lyricist Lounge, a showcase for music acts that began in New York and took its concept to other cites and to MTV, will be on hand to help put the spotlight on Odiaf’s line.

“We have put together a good showcase that will catapult our line to the next level,” Odiaf said.

This is the second MAGIC for Odiaf and Lyricist Lounge, which helped promote Live Mechanics at the August 2000 run of the show.

Odiaf said that partnerships with Lyricist Lounge and other underground artists help give the label cutting-edge credibility.

“We could go to some big shot and put some clothes on him, but if we go with the breaking artist, that has more identity and meaning,” he said.

Live Mechanics will be exhibiting in MAGIC booth #7933. For more information, call (213) 623-4671.