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It’s notably difficult to get Angelenos to show up on time for anything. It’s not our fault—blame the freeways and the infamous traffic (unless you’re one of the few proud bus commuters). Alas, the well-heeled and energetic crowd who recently gathered outside a white-walled event space on Western Avenue for cult British brand Damson Madder’s L.A. pop-up belied the cliche and arrived right on cue.
It’s only natural that Damson Madder would bring all the L.A. girlies to the yard; Emma Hill’s North London-born brand is known for light and easy-to-wear dresses and separates that are primarily rendered in organic cotton (always a draw given the often-sweltering SoCal temps. The clothes are also crafted with an eye toward sustainability, minimizing waste through the use of recycled and responsible fabrics.
“Everything is a lot bigger in L.A. and there are so many kinds of people here; it’s quite different to London, and as a brand, we were talking about whether we would fit in here, so to have a response like this is phenomenal,” Hill told Vogue. Nearby, the likes of Lily Allen, Iris Law, Barbie Ferreira, and Jaz Sinclair milled about, browsing the collection as they sipped perfectly chilled wine from Frank Family Vineyards. Chef Chloe Walsh’s snacks, naturally, nodded towards the brand’s roots—with plenty of caviar-topped deviled eggs, fish and chips, and nostalgic soft-serve cones that reminded this native New Yorker delightfully of Mr. Softee.
“Sometime around London Fashion Week, I was noticing, ‘Oh, all the cool kids are at the Damson Madder show’ and then I just became a fan. I’m so excited they’re here in L.A.,” actor and director Zoe Lister-Jones told me, gesturing to her filmmaker partner Sammi Cohen and explaining: “Sammi’s a recent convert too.”
After Lister-Jones and I bonded over our shared desire to nab one of Damson Madder’s mint-green baseball caps, I crossed the room to chat to model and media personality Vivian Jenna Wilson who noted that the six-year-old label had recently come across her radar thanks to its pieces that remind her of “what people wore at my high school.” Indeed, the ruffled camis and totes, whimsical yet practical track shorts, and asymmetrical-hemmed handkerchief skirts on display do look like what the coolest and most incongruously nice girls of your past might be wearing now—if they landed a decent job and were really into sustainable fashion, that is.
Damson Madder’s fashion DNA could probably be summed up as one part Ganni, one part Eckhaus Latta and two parts entirely its own thing; there’s plenty of fashion space for Hill and her colleagues to take up in the City of Angels, and hopefully, this bash and four-day pop-up was just the beginning of the brand’s nice girl-approved West Coast expansion.
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