Prototype Issue
Beauty and the Beast
By Jason Venzor
(page 1 of 1)By winning last season’s much ballyhooed Project Runway, it seems that Jeffrey Sebelia painted himself into a difficult position.
His label, Cosa Nostra, has been widely acknowledged as a line that consistently challenges and inspires, but that doesn’t always translate into monetary success. Five years spent operating Cosa Nostra has been a foundation of substance for the ‘overnight’ explosion of attention that came his way following the Project Runway win. Unfortunately, that attention storm has down-played his aesthetic vision and caricatured him as a reality TV star with neck tattoos and a wicked mouth.
In truth, Sebelia has been doing his thing, contributing to the much dismissed fashion world of LA for years. Cosa Nostra has been a multi-ethnic business that has consistently added a rocked-out flavor of elegance to LA fashion. He graciously invited us into his offices on Broadway for a sit down.
RTLA: What is LA’s reputation in the fashion world? JS: (sighs) It’s awful. I think LA fashion, for the most part, got this reputation because it’s product-driven and doesn’t have a history in fashion. You take the European root and diffuse it and dilute it all the way to LA, and by the time it gets here it becomes superficial. Although I love a lot of films from Europe and Japan, maybe for the same reason that other places in the world don’t have the same impact on films that Hollywood does, LA won’t have the same impact on fashion as other places do.
RTLA: Where do you fit in LA fashion? JS: The thing I like about LA, having grown up here most of my life, is that other people seem to diss it because it’s spread out with a patchwork of suburbs. There’s an autonomy. You have room around you to be whatever you want to be. That’s just my favorite thing. People don’t dress the same in the valley as they do on Hollywood Blvd., and they don’t dress the same on 4th and Main.You’re allowed the freedom to do what you want to do.
RTLA: How do people of other cultures contribute to Cosa Nostra? JS: Other cultures?! I’m the one from another culture here! Natsu [Yamamoto, Cosa Nostra’s general manager and assistant designer] and I always joke about it. Between her, the cutters, the sowers and pattern makers, none of them speak English as their first language. Koreans, Japanese, Mexicans, Guatemalans and now Russians. Without people from other cultures, there would be no Cosa Nostra.
RTLA: How are you influenced by other cultures? JS: I think change of perspective is the biggest thing. The perspective from Japanese fashion is completely different from what it is in Europe. I really try to combine street wear from here with couture, with geometric kind of simple designs from Japan.
RTLA: Are you more influenced by the grotesque or the beautiful? JS: I think it just changes. I’m more influenced by the beautiful. My twist to the beautiful is usually grotesque.
RTLA: What’s the ugliest thing you’ve ever seen in LA? JS: (long pause) The lack of integrity in LA’s sustaining industries. There’s a lack of integrity in the music industry, there’s a lack of integrity in film, there’s certainly a lack of integrity in the garment industry. Part of that is because they’ve built themselves on the short con with no long-term goals. Cheap denim and T-shirt lines, Hollywood blockbusters, a lack of attention to detail or integrity or a real love for what it is these industries are putting out.
In my lifetime growing up, the architecture of the early ‘80s was kind disposable architecture. I think that’s changing a little now. To me, the best thing that’s happening in LA is the development downtown, but the thing we’re missing is kids. Actual families in these areas, not just affluent hipsters. Just my building has all walks of creative types, it’s just a matter of time before these people stick around and have families. We need a grocery store before that happens.
RTLA: Are there schools? JS: There are some. Le Petit Academy in Macarthur Park is really good. They have a long waiting list. Someone needs to talk to these people about opening up branches. Why not spread out deeper into the city and create schools for the people on this waiting list?
RTLA: What’s the most beautiful thing in LA? JS: I change my mind about everything: I love the fashion industry, I hate it. I love the architecture, sometimes I hate it. Everything else I change on, but I love my son. I love watching him grow, and that happened in LA.
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