“The starting point for most of my collections is usually a piece of home, either parts of Los Angeles or parts of Hollywood, where we’re based,” said Mike Amiri. His theme this season—nostalgia for the glamorous hangouts of ’60s and ’70s L.A.—must have been in the works well before the fires broke out this month. In any case, the spirit of his retro-glam looks, both for men and women (his first outing for that side of the collection), couldn’t help but acquire an unplanned circumstantial poignance, underscored by its celebration of a certain vein of louche American classics.
“The story I wanted to tell was Hollywood from an insider nightlife point of view. Little clubs and bars that were nostalgic then, like Formosa Cafe, a haunt of Hollywood, or the Roosevelt Hotel, or the lobby of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. I wanted to express that, and build characters through that, and exaggerate them a little bit, but use that as my baseline to talk about silhouette and then technique from there. Everything, for me, usually has a really strong American perspective, because that’s kind of what distinguishes Amiri a bit globally: giving people that dream of Hollywood in my own way.”
Whatever strain it took to get the show on the road in Paris (Amiri and his family evacuated their home unscathed, as he told Luke Leitch in his Vogue Business report on the runaway success of Amiri today), it didn’t dim the bravura confidence of the set build-out or the ambitious scale of the venue. Running down the center of the huge brown-carpeted construct were lounge-style bar tables upon which espresso martinis were served to VIPs. Then out came draped jackets and wide decorated kipper ties, sparkling embroidered bomber jackets, tailored plaid trousers—in colors and shapes redolent of the idealized vintage L.A. styling that previously captivated both Tom Ford and Alessandro Michele in their Gucci heydays. Amiri is giving the style another spin for the upcoming generation while paying close attention to quality.
If Amiri’s business originated in jeans and T-shirts and music-biz celeb dressing out of a garage in L.A., he has just as certainly done the work in upgrading the tailoring and techniques he displays now. Before the show, he pulled out a tailored jacket with painted and embellished roses climbing up either breast. “It’s kind of based on a Nudie performance jacket,” he said. “When I started my career, I was really making stagewear, like 15 years ago, and when you didn’t have much to work with, you had to kind of figure out how to make things and how to make them special.” He drew attention to a slick belted Prince of Wales coat. “It has a little bit of a sheen to it that’s supposed to represent catching the moonlight at night, but it’s actually printed leather.”
What really stood out as an Amiri original was all the sparkle embroidered into his knitwear—starbursts and sun rays of beading on ultra-glamorized cardigans, polo shirts, and slinky shirts. Tailored suiting is great for the red carpet, of course, but Amiri’s snazzy apotheosis of the masculine sweater and his jazzy ties and matching big-collared satin shirts look like new fashion contenders to rival any tuxedo this upcoming awards season.
