FASHION: Heatherette Takes On Fifth Avenue

The Hollywood Bureau was thrilled to receive our special invitation to the Heatherette Launch Party at Henri Bendel’s. Richie Rich and Traver Rains served up their Fall Collection to party revelers turning Henri Bendel’s into a hot POP-Mart. On August 10th the pair transformed the Fifth Avenue store into its own version of the Wonka Fashion Factory with treats from Lee’s Ice Cream, Red Bull and Pink POP by Champagne Pommery featuring a window display designed and set by none other than guest-curator-extraordinare, David LaChapelle.

The Hollywood Bureau had so much fun at this event we just had to share an excerpt of Fashion Week Daily’s interview with Heatherette’s dynamic duo by FARAN KRENTCIL.

They party more than Lindsay Lohan, but that doesn’t mean the Heatherette crew isn’t hard at work. Despite their many late-night appearances around the city, the merry band of hauterflies will carefully launch their once-obscure line in big department stores for fall. That means founders Richie Rich and Traver Rains, scenestress Aimee Phillips, and man-turned-woman-turned-muse Amanda Lepore might soon transform from boldface names to household names. Not bad for a brand that started with some ripped t-shirts in a downtown apartment.

Q: Let’s start with the launch. This is the first time Heatherette is available to a mass audience, not just your friends downtown. Are you nervous?
RICHIE: “Yeah. It’s like sending our babies to kindergarten.”
TRAVER: “We’re so excited about this, it’s going to be a huge landmark. And the people at Bendel’s are so crazy-supportive, they’re just amazing.”

Q: Do you think it takes something away from the brand to make it available to everyone? Like, how do you feel about girls in Nebraska wearing an Amanda Lepore t-shirt?
TRAVER: “I love it! Even in Nebraska, if they have the personality to wear it, then that’s great. It’s good for them. And it’s good to mix up the fashion sense a little bit, like a fashion shock.”
RICHIE: “People ask about our demographic, and I’ve found that we don’t really have one. It’s a fountain of youth. This old woman approached me and said, ‘Oh I would love a Heatherette gown!’ I want to have a Burning Man type of event where everybody who owns Heatherette shows up. It would be a crazy mix of people.”

Q: How has partnering with Weisfeld group changed Heatherette?
RICHIE: “The creative vision has changed, like a gradual evolution. Mackey Dugan is our technical designer, and he’s trained in fashion design—that’s important. And with the partnership, we have more resources at our fingertips and it’s almost easier to see your vision come alive. Yesterday we got back a sample with an eyelash hem on it, and who would have ever thought we could do that? Five years ago, we were gluing t-shirts!”
TRAVER: “Before, we couldn’t handle the manufacturing and production and sales; we didn’t come from that background. Doing the shows came so naturally, it was what we were good at. We built the brand through the shows, but now we have access to factories all over the world. Before it was whatever we could find in New York.”

Q: Heatherette’s entourage is very high profile. Do you think friends like Paris Hilton and Lydia Hearst have helped the brand?
RICHIE: “It’s like the Warhol aesthetic where Andy was an artist and submerged in creativity, but along the way, his cast of characters was growing as fast as his art. For us, Heatherette wasn’t a business; it was a lifestyle. So then with people like Lydia Hearst, and Paris, and David LaChapelle, and also our friends who go out but who aren’t famous—people would see us, and then girls would come up to us on the street and say, ‘Where do I get it?’”

Q: What’s the best part of launching nationally?
RICHIE: “It feels really great to know that something we’ve envisioned, we’re watching it grow. It’s fun to surprise people, that you actually can be organized and make a business out of fun.”
TRAVER: “When people say, ‘How can I get Heatherette?’ Now you can actually get it!”

Q: Want to tell us how Heatherette got its name?
TRAVER: “Every Heather is crazy! It comes with the territory of the name. If your name is Heather, you’re out to have fun! And they act all innocent, but they’re not!”
RICHIE: “I’ll tell it.”
TRAVER: “It’s kind of a different story every time you hear it.”
RICHIE: “No, here, this is the true story. There was this girl named Heather that used to follow me around in the nightclubs in San Francisco. She had one arm and a lisp and she sang opera, but when she sang, she didn’t have a lisp. When I think of spunk, I think of Heather. When we were thinking of a name, we were drinking red wine and we were like, ‘Let’s call it Heather. It’s not from Heathers; it’s from Heather, the girl. And Grace Jones was playing in the background and we kept singing Warm Heatherette instead of Warm Leatherette and that was it.”