Paris
CNN
—
Few cities have been as fervently idealized, mythologized, and captured on film and in photographs as Los Angeles and Paris.
Earlier this week at the Jardin des Plantes, the spectacular botanical gardens in the heart of Paris, Mike Amiri, founder of the California label of the same name, fused these two worlds with a cinematic show that transported Hollywood to the Seine’s legendary “Left Bank.”
Accompanied by South London musician Yusef Dayes, the collection was about “modern jazz, which means both music and attitude,” according to the show notes. Among the artists who influenced him were: Miles Davis (who himself had a special connection to the City of Light), and Duke Ellington And his big band Dizzy GillespieAll of them fascinated him with both their stage presence and their lives behind the scenes.
Pascal Le Segretin/Getty Images
Amiri presented a collection that combined skate culture-inspired formal tuxedos with gradient beading, loose cut and flared pants, and added crystal pinstripes to create a luxurious look.
These inspirations were reflected in faded, sun-kissed teals, blues, greys and vintage-inspired knits. Formal tuxedos with gradient beading were paired with looser cuts and flared trousers as a nod to skate culture, and elevated with crystal pinstripes. Like a gold thread running throughout the collection, models wore drum bags with guitar picks as keys and music notes as brooches holding together silk foulards.
Interested in both technique and attitude, the 47-year-old Amiri tried to be, as he put it in a meeting a few days before the show, “optimistic but not boisterous.” He was calm and graceful amid the casting and fittings of models, multitasking even as his 13-year-old son, Ryan, joined him in putting the finishing touches on the collection, arriving in a makeshift studio set up off Paris’ Avenue Montaigne. Amiri’s other two children and wife were in Paris, attending the show.
Kay Paris Fernandez/Getty Images
Some of the models wore Amiri brooches designed to resemble musical notes.
Kay Paris Fernandez/Getty Images
Some people were wearing bags that looked like miniature drums.
Since launching in 2014, Amiri has turned to musicians and Americana, engaged in cross-continental discussions of luxury, and fused rock n’ roll, garage and skate subcultures with thrift store shopping. Growing up in Hollywood, two blocks from Hollywood Boulevard, to Iranian immigrant parents, Amiri was deeply influenced by the stark cultural differences and accompanying styles of Los Angeles neighborhoods like Silver Lake and Venice Beach.
Today, the designer is renowned for the quality of his clothes and his fluid, creative approach that walks the line between classy and pretentious. He says that everyone he dresses “want to have individuality, but don’t want to seem like they’re looking young. It’s a fine balance between looking modern and looking young.”
Despite the recent announcement that Korean musician Kim Sun-woo of K-pop band The Boys will be a brand ambassador, the brand said many of Amiri’s stars join the independent label naturally, rather than through paid endorsement deals.
Pascal Le Segretin/Getty Images
Mike Amiri, designer of the California-based brand of the same name, appeared at the finale of the show in Paris.
Perhaps it’s because Amiri feels at home in the celebrity world, having attended school with Angelina Jolie and Lenny Kravitz, whose outfits he recently worked on (along with Ryan Gosling, Omar Sy, Lena Waithe, Barry Keoghan, and many others). “It’s important to be natural and not chase everything,” he says, inspecting the final runway looks in the studio. “The right person will find you.”
In this age of heightened attention, Amiri seems to be rethinking luxury—or, as he puts it, “making the ordinary extraordinary.” This involves focusing on couture-level craftsmanship with DIY techniques, twisting and reworking denim, leather, and seemingly mundane fabrics, and on the tiniest details that the camera never catches.
To James Sleaford, editor-in-chief of Icon France, Amiri represents sophisticated chic, fusing American cool with technical know-how. “The things he does, like ripped jeans, are well known, but what you see in his shows is very different. He’s very cultured and very particular about tailoring,” Sleaford says. “He brings a real element of luxury to American cool.”
O’Connor/Arroyo/AFF-USA/Shutterstock
Actor Barry Keoghan wore Amiri to the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in March 2024.
Pascal Le Segretin/Getty Images
K-pop star Sunwoo (pictured here at the brand’s show in Paris on June 20, 2024) was recently announced as an ambassador for Amiri.
Now, with a flagship store on Rodeo Drive, an Amiri Prize that encourages, cultivates and showcases emerging talent, a second retail space in Dubai and a pop-up store in St. Tropez, Amiri is pursuing a global dialogue: “In a world where everything is shared and visible, there is definitely a convergence of cultures happening, not because of geography but because of what people are drawn to,” he said.
“If people relate to your story or your aesthetic, it may be because they see something of themselves in it,” he continued. “Something they want to bring out within themselves.”