The Tamesis
It’s very difficult to get Angelenos to show up on time for anything. It’s not our fault – blame the highways and notorious traffic (unless you’re one of the few) proud bus commuters). Alas, the affluent and energetic crowd who gathered outside a white-walled event space on West Street recently to attend British brand Damson Madder’s pop-up store in Los Angeles didn’t live up to the cliché, they were perfectly timed.
Damson Madder, naturally, brings all the L.A. girls to the yard; Emma Hill, the North London-born label, is known for lightweight, easy-to-wear dresses and separates made mostly from organic cotton (always appealing, given Southern California’s often muggy climate). The clothes are also made with sustainability in mind, minimizing waste by using recycled and responsible fabrics.
“Everything is bigger in LA and there are all kinds of people here; it’s completely different to London and as a brand we were debating whether we would fit in here, so to get a response like this is amazing,” Hill told us Fashion. Nearby, stars like Lily Allen, Iris Law, Barbie Ferreira and Jaz Sinclair hung out, sipping perfectly chilled wine from Frank Family Vineyards and browsing the collection. Chef Chloe Walsh’s snacks, of course, also pay homage to the brand’s roots—plenty of caviar and deviled eggs, fish and chips, and nostalgic ice cream cones that remind the native New Yorker happily of Mr. Softee.
“Sometime during London Fashion Week, I noticed, ‘Oh, all the cool kids are showing at the Damson Madder show,’ and I became a fan. I’m so excited for them to come to L.A.,” actress and director Zoe Lister-Jones told me, pointing to her fellow filmmaker Sammi Cohen, who explained: “Sammi is a recent convert as well.”
After Lister-Jones and I bonded over our mutual desire to acquire a mint green baseball cap from Damson Madder, I crossed the room to chat with model and media personality Vivian Jenna Wilson, who noted that the six-year-old brand had recently caught her eye because its pieces reminded her of “what people were wearing when I was in high school.” In fact, the ruffled camisole and tote bags, quirky yet practical gym shorts, and handkerchief skirts with asymmetrical hems on display did look a lot like what the coolest, most incongruous pretty girls of the past might be wearing now—if they had a decent job and were really into sustainable fashion.
Damson Madder’s fashion DNA can perhaps be summed up as half Ganni, half Eckhaus Latta, and two parts entirely its own thing; there’s plenty of fashion space in the City of Angels for Hill and her colleagues, and hopefully this bash and four-day pop-up is just the beginning of the brand’s West Coast expansion.
