Dressing the Sixth Annual Pornhub Awards: Briana Andelore on Creating with SEKS

How did you, Will and Abel (the minds behind Seks.llc) meet?

Well, I’ve known about Seks for a really long time just from being in New York and being in the club. They used to be called Seks 5th Avenue a while back. But honestly, I don’t even know how it happened, whether Julia told me or if we just started DMing. I think Julia messaged Abel, then Will and I started DMing and we had a crazy package debacle in LA — because the mail is crazy — so we had a moment and that’s definitely when it all came to life.

What was it like working together to create each of the looks?

It feels like it was meant to happen weirdly enough, because the second that we met there was an instant connection and obsession, I think, for both of us. And this collaboration was almost an evolution of what we've been doing, put to life on all of these girls. So I'm grateful that it did happen because it's just so iconic.

Julia and I have a relationship where we don't have to talk to each other much — we’re kind of telepathic in that way. Abel and I also share this telepathy because sometimes we just read each other's mind and he knows exactly what I want. I don't feel like I've ever found that in a designer. If I show him a couple of pictures or I give him my ideas, it is always executed above and beyond what I ever expected.

Did you create each look with the girl in mind already?

We had the girls in mind, but I also knew that things were going to change because once you meet someone and can feel their energy, you tend to feel differently and are like, Oh this piece works better with you because you have a bubbly energy, or you have a more serious energy, or you have a more fierce energy, or whichever may come into place in the moment. I like to keep things pretty open.

Asa Akira & Queenie Sateen

Was there a narrative arc that brought each of the looks together?

We kind of took inspiration from the venue, [Whisky a Go Go], and individuality within rock and roll culture, this very rebellious, ’I don’t give a fuck’ energy. It’s just whatever it wants to be, not confined to any one thing. Each look was its own personality, looking to recreate the energy of that era in a modern context.

What was it like once you finally saw everyone in their look and the night played out?

The energy was definitely there. It was so electric and it felt like the space was coming alive. Everyone was really partying. Everybody was drinking and enjoying themselves because it was just a night to celebrate, and all of the girls were so amazing and cool and felt good in their outfits. When we were dressing, all of them were like, I love it. You don’t always get that. To make 11 girls feel amazing and happy, feeling their best selves on the carpet and at the party, you know it’s going to be the best night ever.

How hands-on were you in the process?

So, I always work as a team, that’s just how I vibe. Even when Julia and I were doing Franziska Fox, we had our technical designer, and our employees, but we all worked together to build those collections. I feel like working as a team is the best way to do things because that’s when ideas can be thoughtful and full of love. I have my girls now and we all also build all of our looks together. And Abel and I love each other so much, so this is like our love child. We co-created all of it. Abel has all of these technical and amazing ideas, but overall, it showcases things we both appreciate and conceptualized together really.

Natassia Dreams & Ryan Reid

Do you have any memories that come to mind from the months spent working on this project?

There is a story that people don't know about the collection. So Abel actually got really sick earlier this year and had to go into surgery. I got the news of us doing this collaboration a couple days before he went into surgery actually, so we didn't know if we were going to do it. He came out of surgery and it was super hard for him to adjust, as he was in a wheelchair throughout the process of making this collection, but at the same time, it also gave him life and hope. When we were finally finished with the collection, Abel was walking again.

Wow, that gives me goosebumps.

It’s a story that means so much to us and truly a collaboration that is beyond what it came to life as for us internally. Now he’s doing really, really well. He’s basically back to normal now, but this collection — the creativity it gave him — truly healed him. That’s just the power creativity can have.

And community, being surrounded by people that you really connect to and want to work with. Could you see yourself doing similar collaborative projects in the future?

Well, I have a shoe coming out in September so it is something that I’m working on. It’s created, but in sales now. It just takes time to drop. But yeah, I would love to create with Abel again and other emerging designers.

And you also worked with Julia on OMG Fashun which is coming out on E! pretty soon?

Yeah, so I executive produced OMG Fashun, and I styled Julia. The show is so amazing. There are so many talented young designers — and some of it is virtually untapped, similar to Seks when we met and they’ve already come so far. With the show, the world’s going to be able to see all of these incredible designers and they’re going to be able to grow, and that’s my favorite part of it all, meeting all of these talented people and seeing what they do, who they dress next, where the world takes them.

Yeah, totally. And there are so many amazing designers that people have yet to hear about, so that’s exciting.

Yeah, I get to work with a lot of young designers from really everywhere — Paris, Florence, Milan, Amsterdam come to mind — and it’s so great because everywhere, it’s basically caters to their communities. Like here in New York, we have our young designers like Women’s History Month, who have an amazing store where they sells some of their own creations and vintage as well. Then there’s Lucky Jewel, James Valoria, Retail Pharmacy, all of these places that are part of our Downtown community. Retail Pharmacy highlights so many different designers in New York while mixing in pieces from around the world, and similar hubs are popping up all over the place.

Everyone’s also so connected because of social media.

Yeah, the internet is such a great place to tap in. That’s how I talk to a lot of designers. They begin as strangers and then sometimes I get to meet them when I go somewhere in the world, say for Fashion Week. Those moments are just so nice and also just creating this community around the world. I think more people will tap into it, especially with the show coming out, highlighting young designers, sustainability, and buying into that as the cool thing to do. It would be great to develop more with the designers on the show, and others around the world, a place for everybody to go to shop for them.

You should make the new modern day department store, like Retail Pharmacy x100.

Oh my God, that would be my dream. That's like heaven for sure.

Happy 424 Day!

Simon Rasmussen — What's going on?

Guillermo Andrade — Right now we're just setting everything up.

So, what are you doing, is it a party?

Well, I kind of felt universally forced, right? Because 4/24/24, I was just like, I don’t really have a choice here. The stars also just kind of aligned, so to be honest, I got this settlement that came with a bunch of clothes so I had this idea to give back to the kids who fuck with us by allowing them to buy our shit first. Not handing stuff out for free, but to do it in a way where we could skip the middleman of the industry, so to speak, and not allow clothes to disappear into the abyss of Farfetch or whatever else. So what we’re going to do is a sort of warehouse sale, which we’ve never done before so that was really exciting for me. I didn’t want to do just another warehouse sale, so it’s like a sample sale turns rager. We teamed up with Adidas and a couple of other sponsors, then drinks, DJs, and a performance.

Sick, I love it.

Yeah. My dream sample sale. Also, it’s not just hoodies and t-shirts here in there, it’s proper collections from the past three seasons. I’m also not picking and choosing, trying to make it accessible, like this was the only way I could afford to buy shit when I was a kid, bro. Sample sales were the thing I looked forward to the most.

I feel you. In New York, there's the annual CDG sale, which is when I used to cop all my CDG.

The only time I could afford Rick. I flew to New York once for a Rick sample sale and I was like, Wow, I can't believe I got invited. And it was mental. I still have those pieces. I will never sell them. Not even because I got 'em cheap. It was also just really fun. Even on the flight to New York, I was like, I can't believe I'm going to New York for a sample sale, what a fucking loser I am. But it was like the adult version of when I was a kid and I was like, Wow, I can't believe I'm 20-something and I'm still doing the thing I was doing in high school. So I hope we can create moments like that for kids here in LA.

Yeah. I love that. It’s important to connect with them; they’re essentially creating the brand. If you don't have them, good luck.

I mean, yeah. Fuck, bro. It's cool that we've been around for this long. I mean, it got a little rocky there for a second I think, for all of us. So coming out of it, tomorrow is a celebration. And it’s like an odd day of the week. It's a Wednesday, super random. And now that we've set it up, the homies are all like, Yo, I'm coming. I'm coming. Let me jump on stage, let me do this, and that's really what it's always been about. It's not some other strategy to get likes on the internet.

That’s how the best things happen, you just couldn’t help yourself. It was intuitive.

Yeah, it all came together in a really nice way.

Would you say that’s how 424 started as well? I remember we met in like 2010 on Fairfax and I was visiting with Rasmus…

Oh bro, it’s probably the time when I started the branch… do you remember Cecilia from Black Dakini? She’s the one that introduced me to CIFF and honestly, I didn’t even care what she was doing, I was just like, I’m coming, I’ll go with you. She said she’d give me half of her booth and I said, Awesome count me in. At the time, I had just gotten my green card and I wasn't allowed to ever leave America, so Copenhagen was one of the first cities I went to when I could finally travel. I mean, you see what we did at CIFF bro? It became our fucking hub for half a decade.

That was a moment for sure.

I remember the first account I got was Antonioli, and he came super gangster, being like, You're going to sell me these clothes. And I was like, bro, I didn't come to sell clothes. I'm just kind of catching a vibe with my homie and I made these things. And he's like, No, you're going to sell it to me. And then I was like, Oh my god that’s Claudio Antonioli. So then I went home, I googled wholesale, and figured that shit out. [laughs]

[Laughs]

Like you said, I couldn't help myself, but I didn't just make t-shirts and hoodies either. I was really on my Rick wave, so I made my version of the Rick things. It was that meets like The Boondock Saints, because I'm still a little bit of a Cali bro, sort of rock kid, but not really. I like hip-hop, but I like the way the rock stars look. I like the contrast. I thought it was cool. After that, I just never stopped.

It was clear to me when I first met you that you were onto your own thing in LA. It made a lot of sense, and it was so cool. It was before 424 was its own brand; you just had the store and this really cool curation.

It was all my shit, bro. I was very, very invested in sharing all of these things that I was finding from all over the world, like Astrid Anderson. She was one of those designers at the time, so important to 424. The connection to Copenhagen specifically for me was huge. I had a big fan base there. It was incredible. And then here in LA, we were sharing the things that we were a part of and finding; it was still the early days of Fear of God, Rhude, Martine Rose. A lot of these brands, we were the first store to ever sell it — we were selling Hood By Air on the West Coast.

You had Rick as well, I remember.

Oh yeah. It took me a long time. But I got Rick, bro. By the time I had to close the store on Fairfax, I already had a Raf Simons account. I had reached my ultimate dream. It was really all the stuff I wanted to wear at the time. It was dope. The best of the best.

We had an office magazine newsstand in there as well.

Oh yeah, we did! I came to visit the one you had, and I was like, Yo, I got to bring this whole fucking thing over here. But yeah, in LA, after two days people forget you exist, but everyone’s been super supportive. We’re all 10 years older now. We've been around forever at this point.

It can be dangerous to take those breaks when you’re figuring shit out, but there’s something very genuine to this comeback you’re having.

Thank you, thank you. We’ve been in and out of those fucking showrooms in Paris for long enough. I've been in and out of these factories for the past 10 years of my life. We had to figure something out. And I think now really diving in, being in Italy full time and being there to develop these products over time, I think that the whole thing just really shows the suppliers respect you more. The people who are making your goods understand why you're making them. And I think now I finally got to the place where I'm not making Italian things, I’m making my clothes, I'm making Cali-centric shit, but with that European technicality and execution. With this Fall / Winter collection, it clicked.

So what’s the vision for the next year? What are you manifesting?

I'm just fucking relentless, bro. This is the way I want to live my life. Now that we are more aligned, more prepared, and have more experience, moving forward it is just more of becoming a fully functioning company that can provide and create opportunities for all of the people around me. We’ve been operating just on instinct for a long time.

Sustaining a business is scary, trust me I know.

Scary as fuck, dog. I just opened a store next to Bottega, bro, and it’s like what am I even doing? You have to just believe in the thing you're doing more than anybody else.

100%, and it seems like that’s what you’re doing.

And fashion’s kind of a competitive sport, as much as people don’t think it is. We can reach a certain level without losing ourselves. My biggest ambition at the moment is to create something that, when you leave one of our neighbors you come into our place you don’t feel that the level has been sacrificed at all. And it’s not easy.

Definitely. I wish I could be there tomorrow.

Thank you, bro. 10 years now. You’ve always shown me so much love. We have to do a booth or have the office part of the next 424 day. Shit let’s do a 424 day in New York.

That would be sick. Let's do it. I'm here. Let’s catch up soon.

Next season’s right around the corner so I’ll see you in Paris.

Yes, see you in Paris and Happy 424 day!

Luis De Javier's Puta Takeover

April 25, 2024

Last night with Luis De Javier, guests were overheard confirming this generation's most vital conundrum: “If I’m cunt, I can still be pussy.” “And if you’re pussy, you can still be cunt.” This sentiment echoed throughout the night as we celebrated De Javier’s first-ever streetwear collection, "Puta". We spent seven hours at Ella Funt at a dinner turned party that only he could’ve thrown (co-hosted by emcee). It was too dark for even the most aspiring-to-look-mysterious of us to wear sunglasses inside. Under the semi-oppressive flash of party photographers, we danced as much as the space would allow, drank tequila out of teacups and kissed each other on the cheeks with a vaguely European intimacy. “I’m doing streetwear!” De Javier could be heard exclaiming — whether it be in disbelief or excitement, we couldn’t tell you.

Words and photos by Izzy Capulong

The Spanish-born London-based designer has been well-loved for his genderless tailoring, latex mastery, and overall message of empowerment. Dressing everyone from ravers to A-listers, De Javier’s latest drop pushes his design repertoire to a new level. “While designing for my celebrity clientele and showcasing my creations on the runway has always been my dream,” he notes, “It’s equally important to me that my brand resonates with a wider, more diverse audience.” While this collection’s medium has shifted from corsets to sweatshirts, the classic LDJ avant-garde sensibilities remain. Bikinis and booty shorts are shamelessly emblazoned with “PUTA,” blazers are constructed with ample shoulder padding, and I had my eye on the cheekily-named “Faguette Bag.”

The Puta collection will be available exclusively on emcee.

Nadia Lee Cohen Celebrates Paris Texas Launch at the Chateau

To celebrate the launch, Cohen and founder and creative director of Paris Texas, Annamaria Brivio hosted an intimate dinner at the Chateau Marmont pictured below. Arman Naféei entertained guests throughout the evening with a special playlist he curated for the occasion.