Ten Minutes with Lisa and Dan Soltis of LAS Jewelry

If you like your vintage  demure and dainty, then you might want to skip this post. If you’re in the market, however, for a boldly sculptural vintage remix—think a handcast crow’s skull charm and grandma’s favorite brooch—then you’ll love LAS Jewelry. Beautifully patinated butterfly wings, distressed leather rosettes, punk studs, vintage rhinestones, and drapey chains all take on new life as look-at-me pieces thanks to husband-and-wife designers Lisa and Dan Soltis.  Here’s more from the redux masters . . .

Oligoville: In five words or less, LAS Jewelry is. . .

Lisa & Dan: Detailed, corroded, layered, stitched, statement.

Oligoville: How would you describe your ideal customer?

Lisa & Dan: Someone who wants to make statement, who has an appreciation and excitement for our work and wants to have a piece of that process.

Oligoville: How’d you end up as designers?

Lisa & Dan: Both of us have always been artists and have had a number of careers in artistic fields. Inevitably we ended up with the desire to make a career out of our own work and felt that jewelry was a medium where we could combine both our 2-d and 3-d talents.

Oligoville: How/when did you launch your brand?

Lisa & Dan: 2009 was definitely a poignant year. We had been toying around with the jewelry for a couple of years before that, and decided to make a proper go of it.

Oligoville: What attracted you to working with vintage materials?

Lisa & Dan: Our love of old things, and our belief that they should be given new life. In addition, of course, the green aspect and using materials that don’t have to be newly manufactured always makes the earth, and us, happy.

Oligoville: Who and/or what inspires you?

Lisa & Dan: Scientific illustration and anatomy books; prints from India, Africa, and Mexico; desert plants and creatures; the L.A. architecture and color palette, which is a scheme of washed out pastels with pops of bright hues; our childhood toys and backyard explorations; our friends, family, and faith.

Oligoville: What’s 24 hours like in your life?

Lisa & Dan: Working at home in our loft, multi-tasking, and prioritizing a number of projects. Dan will be sculpting a new wax while Lisa, will be hand sewing a leather creation. We’re also snacking several times a day and maybe a walk with our puppy is mixed in there somewhere.

Oligoville: What’s in your closet? What are you wearing right now?

Dan: Vintage tees and button downs, worn out jeans, leather boots. Right now I have on a 1980s tee with an eagle screen print and jeans.

Lisa: It kind of looks like a costume house: prints, sequins, lots of vintage. Right now I’m wearing Earl jeans, an oversized 1980s printed cotton button up, and a vintage rainbow suede belt.

Oligoville: What’s in your bag right now?

Dan: In my french army man bag I have a sketchbook, shades, extra pens, emergency change.

Lisa: A vintage eel skin wallet from an estate sale, African print make-up bag, mini leather journal, micron pens.

Oligoville: Tell us about some unexpected setbacks you have faced since starting your business and what you learned.

Lisa & Dan: Facing our daily and dire need for wisdom—in both business and creativity. We’ve learned the hard way from looking at this from an artist’s point of view rather than from a business perspective. It’s insanely challenging to keep up with organization, updates of many kinds, idea development, and financial balance and intelligence, all to create things we love, to make art. We are constantly learning to edit, time manage, and to work effectively as a team.

Oligoville: What has been the most rewarding part of your career?

Lisa & Dan: Gaining recognition from doing what we believe we are meant to do.

Oligoville: Tell us where you expect to see your business in the next five years.

Lisa & Dan: We have a list of stores/retailers where we’d love to see LAS. We’d also love to have a steady flow of sales online, a solid fan base/following, and a definite voice in the fashion world.

Oligoville: Any advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?

Lisa & Dan: Keep going, creating, and acting on at least 90% of your ideas. There are bound to be some amazing things in the mix if you do so. Travel if you have the means and document everything you see. Keep insane journals and sketchbooks, inspiration walls, etc. Keep yourself grounded business-wise and get someone to manage that area for you if you can’t do it yourself!

Oligoville: What’s on your playlist right now?

Lisa & Dan: Rush 2112, the Raconteurs, MGMT, Miles Davis, Allison Krauss, Zeppelin….

Oligoville: Last words?

Lisa & Dan: Thank you.

FASHION BY THE RULES: MILAN FALL 2010

Keeping on trend for the season, Milan designers turned toward their individual histories in order to move into the future. It was a sort of homecoming for most. Rather than try to examine each of the collections, I thought it would be best to single out the few who really did it best.

CAVALLI and BLUMARINE stuck to their mantras of more are better and delivered eye popping collections that included every conceivable animal pattern and then some. The key here is that they are keeping their ladies happy, giving them what they want and hopefully even gaining a few new fans for the season.

ARMANI and MOSCHINO did what they did best. Mr. Armani used his tailoring expertise to deliver a collection that his stalwart clients will want and Moschino mined back to the days when Franco was alive and made this season a paean to his memory. There were no tricks in these collections, just salable wearable clothes.

GUCCI and PUCCI seemed to be on their way toward garnering new audiences for these two hall of fame names. Gucci returned to the concept of wearable clothes, well certainly more wearable than they have been in recent years. Pucci has continued to reinvent itself as the hot girl line with clothes that scream sexy and in your face looks.

MISSONI and DOLCE&GABBANA returned to their respective heritage with collections that featured the recognizable patterns and colorations of the past (Missoni) and then with an in your face presentation of sartorial wonders that forced you to remember the roots of Dolce&Gabbana.

While there was not a lot of stepping out on a limb during the showings, there were palpable trends that continued to shop up in almost every collection. Fur was plentiful, suits and more pantsuits than usual, the toning down of flash, a renewed focus on wearable and I think fashion that would be akin to comfort food.

Please remember to find comprehensive coverage of all the shows at http://jeffybruce.blogspot.com/ and for more photos at style.com

Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals Go To …

The 2010 Winter Olympics are over. Not only was the world wowed by the top athletic talent (and even more wowed by their brutal crashes) but we were also in awe of the Olympic fashion! From preppy beanies to wacky pants, below are my fashion picks for gold, silver and bronze medals.

The bronze medal goes to the Norwegian trousers. You cannot look at these trousers and not smile. I mean look at them! The trousers with their eye-catching red, white and blue diamond checks raised a few eyebrows at first, but it didn’t take long for the bright slacks to become one of the hottest items at the Games. And may I just say the Norwegian Curling team pulled them off brilliantly.

I will be awarding the silver medal to Ralph Lauren’s Team USA Opening Ceremony hat. This preppy hat has been hot ticket item since its debut opening night. Its ability to be worn for fall and winters to come is the basis of its appeal. Whether skiing in the mountains or walking the city street, this hat is a classic.

And the gold medal winner of this Olympic Winter Games is… the Red Mittens. Ugh, I am kicking myself for not buying them a month ago when they were only $10! Now being sold on EBAY and similar sites to close to $100, these mittens were THE item of the games. A little bit of trivia for our Oligoville readers, these mittens were added to the Canadian team by mistake. Apparently, the Canadian team and torchbearers were going to wear solid white gloves, but a snafu allowed the red mittens to take center stage. And boy, did they surpass everyone’s expectations. It’s been reported more than 3.5 million pairs of have been sold thus far.

Well, now that the Games have concluded, hopefully we can go to bed at a decent hour and not be zombies at work. Maybe…

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