Moore From L. A.
● Even if the similarities aren’t apparent between a men’s streetwear brand with “Adam Bomb” as its icon, and a women’s accessories brand built from a cool leather workbag, the duo have found kinship.
Bobby Kim of The Hundreds and Clare Vivier talk about their friendship, new collaboration and more.
The street, c’est chic.
Friends first and now collaborators Bobby Kim, Los Angeles’ pioneering streetwear founder of The Hundreds, and Clare Vivier, designer of her namesake Cali-French women’s accessories brand, are releasing their first collection together on Thursday.
The Hundreds x Clare V features a unisex leather tote, fanny pack, sweatshirt, T-shirt, socks, card case and key fob, priced $28 to $399 and available at their respective stores and e-commerce sites, that combine the L.A. fashion leaders’ colorful aesthetics and printed sayings, such as “Vive la Resistance” and “Insouciance” (hers), “Maintain the Mystery” and “DIY” (his) and “Les Cents” (theirs together).
Even if the similarities aren’t readily apparent between a men’s streetwear brand with “Adam Bomb” as its icon, and a women’s accessories brand built from a cool leather workbag, the duo have found kinship in the way they bootstrapped their businesses, built online communities, and given voice to political causes and organizations like Every Mother Counts, Planned Parenthood, Everytown for Gun Safety and Black Lives Matter (even before the current cultural awakening to the need for social justice).
Both have also found success with collaborations — Vivier with Toms, & Other Stories and Garret Leight, among others — and The Hundreds most recently with the estate of Stanley Kubrick (on skate decks!), rock band Blondie Beach, and the “Back to the Future” film, as well as licensed Disney, DC Comics and Sanrio properties on apparel and accessories.
Kim, who launched The Hundreds in 2003 and chronicled its ups and downs in his 2019 memoir “This Is Not a Shirt,” calls Vivier “OG,” and the denim and T-shirt store she opened in 1991 on Haight Street in San Francisco “foundational to streetwear, before we even called it streetwear.” For Vivier, who launched her brand in 2012 and is partnered with Shinola-owner Bedrock Manufacturing, Kim is an L.A. hometown hero and sounding board.
WWD FaceTimed with the two friends to discuss their collection, leaning on each other for advice during the pandemic, what’s been working and what’s not, and how they see the future of fashion in L.A.
WWD: How did you two meet?
Clare Vivier: At a DeRay McKeeson book launch party. Bobby made the T- shirts for the event and I said, “Who is this guy and why do I see him on all my friends’ Instagrams?” Then we reached out to one another.
Bobby Kim: Both of us starting out in L.A. in the same era of makers and entrepreneurs, she was always around, and my wife is super into her brand and was always educating me about it. There are so many parallels...but when it came to collaborating, it was still kind of a courtship, I was so nervous of the rejection...
WWD: What parallels? Because on the surface Bobby, what you do is men’s-focused and street and what Clare does is women’s-focused and girlie.
B.K.: Our paths and careers in terms of bootstrapping it, building the brands, building communities, doing fun collaborations, having this signature aesthetic people recognize. Then Clare and I as people and our perspective on things. Right when we signed onto this call, I said her outfit is so cool. Everyone loves how she dresses. As far as the product we make, they are two divergent worlds, but when we started embarking on this collaboration process a year-and-a-half ago, we were noticing that even within our world of young streetwear guys hanging out on Fairfax, the cross-body or side bag or fanny pack, that piece has been prevalent for five or six years to the point where we’re like, it’s normal, there’s no difference between a men’s and ►