Nylon - November 2008 - (Page 56) high fidelity HOUS OF HOUSE OF CASSETTE’S LOW FI AP OACH FI APPROACH FITS R HT – RIG IN WITH IN WITH THE HIGH-FAS ION ASH WO WORLD. BY SAMANTHA GIL GILEWICZ. PHOTOGRAPHED I BY LUCAS WILSON Peter James Lee keeps a cool head. At press time, the founder and creative director of Los Angeles–based label House of Cassette is counting down the days until his New York Fashion Week debut. Perhaps Lee is unruffled because he didn’t actively seek out this opportunity, which some designers would kill for; in fact, he was invited to show his collection. In the past three years, Cassette has gained a following for their inky colored denim and architectural pieces, and now they find themselves at a high-fashion juncture. “I’m kind of anti-hype,” says Lee. “Everything comes to us organically, through friends, or friends of friends. So, when Fashion Week came up we were guarded. We weren’t like, ‘Yo, we gotta do this shit.’ It was more, ‘We’re crazy busy, can we handle it?’ And everyone just manned up.” Since its inception in 2005, House of Cassette has promoted a minimalist, monochromatic aesthetic. For fall, Lee looked to “cold, hard” Alaska, which translated to a darkly romantic collection: woven shirtdresses with covert pockets, batwing and boiled wool cardigans, harem pants, selvage denim with vintage washer rivets, and a cape with leather overlays. “We like to hide things,” says Lee. “We build clothes from the inside out, so at first glance they appear clean, but upon closer inspection you see the details.” And for spring, inspired by “winter’s first thaw,” Lee juxtaposes fluid silk blouses with braided straps against military-style jackets and drop-crotch shorts; denim is dipped in cyan, yellow, and salmon dyes; and T-shirts are emblazoned with Navajo patterns, zebra prints, and boombox-inpired graphics. “If I said L.A. skate culture didn’t have an effect on the line, I’d be lying,” says Lee, who studied fashion and conceptual art at the city’s Otis College of Art and Design, and cut his teeth at Puma, Paul Frank, and Hudson Jeans—to name a few brands—while also running his own T-shirt line, Secret Agent, in Japan. “Growing up, I was into graffiti and breakdancing, so whenever I bought new jeans my mom would hem them short so I could wear them low. Skate culture is about rebellion, and Cassette is that same energy—we make clothes that are fashionable but can withstand some wear and tear. We use a skateboard to take out the trash, but is it a skate clothing brand? No.” And thus Lee is in town to present House of Cassette to the fashion elite, quoting Coco Chanel on his raison d’être: “‘A fashion that does not reach the streets is not a fashion.’” 56 profile stylist: liz cresci. hair: jake dingler for artistsbytimothypriano.com. makeup: sara stewart for artistsbytimothypriano.com. model: ivory rose at empire. black dress by cassette, grey dress by yigal azrouël, shoes by sonia rykiel, bracelets by alexis bittar. http://www.artistsbytimothypriano.com http://www.artistsbytimothypriano.com
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