Aristocracy: Luxurious Edginess
Luxury and edginess don’t necessarily fall in the same category, but Aristocracy might have achieved the balance. The Los Angeles–based line was relaunched this Spring by partners Shawn Arianpour and Jon Rhinerson, who met in the Marilyn Rodriguez Studio, where they both had independent lines. Arianpour, a political-science major, launched Aristocracy a year and a half ago as a tailored men’s and women’s line. He made a cocktail blazer that was a big hit at retail. Rhinerson had Chassis, an edgy line of remade vintage pieces, which were sold in boutiques including New York–based Atrium and Los Angeles–based Hollywood Trading Co., but he shuttered the line after running into funding and production challenges.
According to Rhinerson, he didn’t take Arianpour’s offer to team up seriously, at first. “I had no idea. People talk all the time in this town,” he said. “So we eventually—after six months of going back and forth and him courting me and me playing coy—got together and formed a relationship,” joked Rhinerson. A year later, and the Spring/Summer collection is in Rodriguez’s showroom in The New Mart, and the accounts include some of Los Angeles’ hippest contemporary stores: H. Lorenzo, Traffic Men’s and Planet Blue. Their clothes also hang in Anouchig in Laguna Nigel, Calif., Lulu’s Couture in Miami, Soho Soho in Athens, Greece, and 310 Couture in the Ukraine.
Aristocracy has a luxurious European look with clean structure, a dirty feel and an androgynous aesthetic. The men’s and women’s lines incorporate similar pieces, such as cowl-neck cotton/linen tops, alpaca cardigans and washedlinen blazers. The signature look of the line is surface treatments such as washing, softening or waxing—anything to create design interest. “As a small collection, we take fabrics we can get [based on minimums] and make them our own. That’s a hallmark of our line,” said Rhinerson. The line is produced in Los Angeles and includes hand knits, leather jackets and denim. “I never want to repeat myself,” said Rhinerson. “So it’s kind of like an education in that each season we’ll experiment with something—whether it’s volume, pleating, draping, or finishes and treatments—and then expand on those with each collection,” he said. Part of the experimentation includes combining fabrics such as those on a best-selling jacket that utilizes a waxed-denim body, leather sleeves and a cotton jersey draped collar and trim. Details are utilized to transform an edgy leather vest into a luxury piece by using leather buttons versus snaps and adding a washed-rayon lining that billows out from the hem. Men’s T-shirts have a curved side seam for a draped effect, double-layer fronts and single-needle finishing on the neckline. “We make clothes for people who appreciate clothes,” said Rhinerson. The luxury price points are suitable for the line, with T-shirts wholesaling from $50 to $65, sweaters from $300 to $400, denim from $125 to $145, and coats from $450 to $650.
The design duo is focused on longevity and exclusivity, but they also want to generate numbers in the sales arena. “We hope to very soon accomplish both ends of the spectrum,” said Arianpour, who mentioned the possibility of producing a diffusion line of tees and establishing the line in the European market. For now, the Fall line will debut at the Project Global Trade Show in Las Vegas Feb. 14–16 and Fashion Coterie in New York Feb 20–22. The Fall line, inspired by the architecture of Frank Gehry’s Disney Concert Hall and the designs of Junya Watanabe of Comme Des Garccedil;ons, is cleaner, utilizing fabrications such as merino wools and voluminous felted flannels. They plan to keep the focus of the collection tight by taking archetypical pieces such as the military jacket, the pea coat and trousers and reworking them into their own style. Dresses will have a lot of construction, and pants will be clean with no visible waistbands and with abstract closures. A sculptural knit shawl has multiple panels, and tailored jackets are made with knit panels and trims. “We could do a much larger collection, but if we can do the best piece that will fit that hole, we will do it,” said Rhinerson.
The pair relies on Rodriguez’s guidance to establish the collection in an era of item-driven lines. “We met here, and we’re continuing on with the Marilyn Rodriguez Studio. It was a meeting point for us, and it’s also been the base of where we’ve established ourselves. It definitely brought to us everything that we have—stores and resources,” said Arianpour.
For more information, contact the Marilyn Rodriguez Studio at (213) 489-0796. —N. Jayne Seward
