Psst, It's Confidential
Hip-hop producer Damon Elliott said Confidential Clothing, his new line of casual women’s clothing, will make a different kind of splash than the hip-hop–focused clothing empires created by other rap stars.
“The way I design clothes is like a pop song,” Elliott said. “It’s pop clothing. It’s meant to be popular.”
At first look, Confidential Clothing’s fashion show and 31st birthday party for Elliott, held on March 21 at Hollywood’s Level 3 nightclub, seemed like another hip-hop fashion event. Folks crowded the dance floor while DJ Edski played hits from Jadakiss and Obie Trice.
But Rebecca Eliason, another Confidential Clothing designer, said the clothing line took inspiration from beyond current urban music.
“It’s borderline hip-hop and California,” Eliason said. “We wanted to do something more comfortable, more weekend— nothing flashy.”
Perhaps the flashiest aspect of the line is the location of the Confidential logo, silk-screened squarely on the seat of the collection’s miniskirts and pants.
Most of the collection is dyed knit casualwear, featuring beater tanks, shorts, capris and yoga pants. Retail price points are a modest $36 to $76, according to Confidential Clothing sales agent Henry Abeger, owner of the Showtime Showroom in the Cooper Design Space in downtown Los Angeles.
The collection got off to a good start in 2003, when tabloid newspapers such as The Star published photographs of pop divas including Britney Spears wearing Confidential T-shirts. The same year, Abeger, who met Elliott through the producer’s manager, Gary Ballen, took Confidential Clothing to MAGIC International, where retailers such as Tokyo’s Jack of All Trades ordered shipments.
Confidential Clothing’s Fall 2004 line formally debuted at MAGIC International in February. Los Angeles–based manufacturer Phillipe Marcel Inc. makes the clothes.
Eliason said Confidential Clothing plans to start a menswear line and a juniors line in 2005.
For more information about Confidential Clothing, call (213) 228-1210. —Andrew Asch
