Step inside Mychael Darwin’s La Habra office and you’d never guess you’re in a studio where $10,000 jeans are made.
Darwin, a onetime architecture student turned fashion designer, isn’t your typical fashion player.
Dressed in a white button-down shirt and black slacks, he lacks the pomp and circumstance of a designer who’s made jeans and leather jackets for Michael Jackson, Jamie Foxx, Natalie Morales, even former President Bill Clinton.
“I never chased after celebrities,” Darwin said. “I just pursued my craft and made it the best I can. That’s how our parents taught us: Do whatever you’re doing the best, and people will find you.”
For Darwin, who opened his La Habra studio about two years ago, people mostly have sought out him for his custom leather jackets.
Now a line of custom jeans have taken off. They sell for hundreds to thousands of dollars each.
His next step: a ready-to-wear jeans line for the masses that’s set to debut in the fall.
It’s a huge step for Darwin, who said he “spent three years perfecting the fit and pattern engineering” of his jeans before selling his first pair.
It’s all part of a plan to expand Darwin’s designs and brand worldwide.
The ready-to-wear denim line, priced at about $175 to $200, is set to compete with brands such as Hudson, Joe’s Jeans, Citizens of Humanity and True Religion, plus a slew of others. It’ll debut at New York’s Coterie trade show in September, with the line’s first sales expected there.
Darwin is eyeing specialty and trendy shops, such as Fred Segal and Kitson, and department stores, such as Nordstrom and Bloomingdales. He’s also eyeing markets such as Asia, where people are fashion-conscious and willing to pay good money for quality denim.
Niche
The premium denim segment is a good niche despite a sluggish overall jeans market, accoring to Darwin.
For the 12 months through April, sales of women’s jeans rose 1% to $8.6 billion, according to Port Washington, N.Y.-based NPD Group Inc.’s Consumer Tracking Service.
Men’s denim sales dropped 3% to $5.2 billion for the same period, according to NPD Group.
“There is a lot of competition,” Darwin said. “But it doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for a brand like ours that is focused on fit, fabric and construction.”
Projected sales for the ready-to-wear line are a “conservative” $2 million for the first year, Darwin said.
He still plans to do custom jeans, which cost upward of $350 and take about two weeks to make.
Darwin’s ready-to-wear line is set to use similar quality denim, albeit a notch below that of his custom denim. He gets high-quality denim from Italy and Japan.
Storied Career
Darwin’s career is a storied tale, filled with chance meetings, celebrity endorsements and amazing opportunities.
His first foray into fashion was a bit of an accident that started when his high school girlfriend made her own shorts for a beach day the two were taking.
“It looked like she bought them at Nordstrom,” he said. “I didn’t believe her, and she was like ‘Yeah, I made them.’”
He was studying architecture and design at the time. After seeing his girlfriend’s shorts, he said he thought about fashion as an “interesting art form.”
She taught him the basics of sewing and how to make a pair of shorts, according to Darwin.
He was hooked.
“That was it, it was over,” he said about his love of designing clothes.
Darwin studied fashion design at Fullerton College.
From there his career included stints with designer Kevin Hall, who now is known for his custom gowns and bridal designs that adorn big-name celebrities.
“That was a fun job,” Darwin said. “That’s how I started—evening gowns.”
And he worked for “Bijan” Pakzad, a menswear and fragrance designer known for his exclusive and luxury clothes and other products. It was during his time there that Darwin learned about making luxury clothing.
A big break came with the 1990s comedy show “In Living Color,” which was huge during the time he was working under Pakzad.
Darwin designed a jacket for the show’s cast and crew after seeing tour jackets at a Janet Jackson concert.
“I spent my last $500 to create the jacket,” Darwin said.
After talking his way onto the show’s production lot, Darwin said he took the jacket to the producers and pitched the idea and design to them.
Two of the producers loved it. It was the third one who dropped a bomb: Nike Inc. already was sponsoring a jacket for the show.
Wayans
Darwin, in his typical cool and calm manner, said “OK,” and thanked him for his time. On his way out, he bumped into star Damon Wayans, who instantly loved the jacket.
“(Damon) goes, ‘Where did you get the jacket?’” Darwin recalled. “I told him I made it. He says, ‘Can I see it?’”
It was like nothing out there, according to Darwin: 100% virgin lamb wool, embroidery stitched “In Living Color” logo, lambskin leather sleeves. Everything was done in the exact detail as the show logo, he said.
“‘I love this,’ (Damon) tells me,” Darwin said. “He says to me, ‘Has my brother seen this?’”
That’s when Damon led him into the writers room to interrupt a meeting and show his brother, Keenan Wayans.
“Keenan holds up the jacket and says to me, ‘Can you produce these?’” Darwin said. “Then (Keenan) says ‘Call over to Fox and tell them to give him the exclusive license to ‘In Living Color.’”
Darwin was 22 years old at the time.
“That’s where it all started,” he said.
He went on to create exclusive, all Italian-leather jackets for some of the biggest stars and icons—Michael Jackson, President Clinton and Michael Jordan—from a studio in Los Angeles that he has had for the past 10 years.
He also did vintage, old-school-style negro baseball league jackets that were worn by actors such as Charles Dutton and seen in “In Living Color,” “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and “Mo’ Money.”
Darwin did custom tour jackets for bands Public Enemy and Arrested Development.
He recently did jacket designs for Walt Disney Co.’s “The Princess & the Frog” movie, Disney’s first to feature an African-American princess.
The designs use his Leathergenix technology (a device that literally puts an image of something into leather) and feature images from the movie.
His latest Walt Disney venture involves using Leathergenix to create pillows, themed around non-character Disney artwork. The first designs are from scenes from the movie “Fantasia.”
They are part of his Mychael Darwin Home line and have names like Autumn Awakes, Fall Retreat and Spring Garden.
The pillows are due in late fall on a Walt Disney Signature website as well as in specialty home decor shops and department stores for about $175 to $195 apiece.
Jeans for Wife
Darwin said he got into jeans while shopping with his wife “for that perfect pair of jeans.”
He said he finally just told her, “I’ll make you a pair.”
“When we set out with the jackets, we wanted them to be the best in the market,” he said. “It’s the same with denim.”
Darwin said he made 200 to 300 pairs of jeans, tweaking and altering them along the way. There are no “muffin tops” in a pair of his jeans, according to Darwin.
They are hand-stitched with 24 carat gold or silver buttons and rivets, silk pockets, embroidered initials, even Swarvoski crystals or diamonds, if that’s what a customer wants.
The most expensive pair of jeans he designed was part of a denim and leather suit for a National Basketball Association team owner at $15,000.
He said his favorite pair still is the first one he made for his wife.
“She still has them and wears them,” Darwin said. “That started everything.”
Darwin said he doesn’t get caught up in the hoopla of working with big names.
“The quality of my work speaks for itself,” he said.
His work even has drawn the attention of a king. He recently did monogrammed headrests in the $35 million private Gulf Stream jet for one of the kings of Nigeria, he said.
“I wouldn’t mind having my own plane,” Darwin joked.
Darwin monogramed the king’s initials onto the seat headrests using his Leathergenix technology.
That opened another door with his work set to be represented at an upcoming trade show, the National Business Aviation Association convention in October.
Other Products
Down the road, Darwin said he’d like to expand his brand to include fragrances, watches, shoes and other products.
“I have to do it one step at a time,” he said.
His company one day could go public, according to Darwin. An umbrella company—Omnific Global Marketing—was created as part of that goal.
Meanwhile, highlights continue to come, like creating the Jackie Robinson 50th Anniversary Baseball official celebration jacket, which Mrs. Jackie Robinson herself contacted Darwin to do.
President Clinton requested one of the jackets, complete with his name on it and certified number inscribed inside.
Darwin hopes to grace the White House again with a pair of jeans for first lady Michelle Obama, or even President Barack Obama.
“Nothing is solid yet, but we are keeping our fingers crossed,” he said.
Gomez is a former Business Journal editor and freelance writer in Long Beach.
