Speaker & Moderator: Douglas Hand
Panelists: Luis Fernandez, Creative Director at @LUISFERN5, Raan Parton, Creative Director & Partner at Apolis and Holly Jovenall, Designer at BILLY.
Notable fashion attorney, fashion law professor and sharp dressed man, Douglas Hand, will moderate a panel of menswear designers. Topics of discussion will range from the design process and inspiration, the state of the menswear industry today, formal dress and the casualization of the business uniform, and the challenges for emerging brands and personal presentation, followed by a book signing.
Couldnt make it? We bring the roundtable to you:
Luis Fernandez, Creative Director, @LUISFERN5
Through the multi-disciplinary CREATIVE DESIGN AGENCY @LUISFERN5, Luis lends creative expertise, bridging the gap between Fashion, Tech & Experience; working on various creative branding, fashion projects, architectural Design and RetailTech ventures focusing on the ‘Store of the Future’.
Most recently, as the Creative Director of Craft Atlantic, a TechLuxe Men’s Designer brand, he garnered noticeable press & established a core business. Alongside visioning the brand’s ethos, he designed its’ concept store in NYC. Luis co-created P1V0T with UBM, a platform for connecting FashionTech innovators with brands/retailers to enable better business. He is Adjunct PT Faculty at Parsons School of Design teaching Y4 Menswear Thesis and Executive Education for large companies in China.
Luis studied architecture at Cornell University (B’Arch 1999), starting his career as an architect in NYC, including Kohn Pederson and Fox, & Jeffrey Hutchison + Associates, where he was ProjectArchitect for the Barneys flagship stores in SF and LV. He transitioned into fashion in 2005, co-founding NUMBER:Lab, a brand that proposed a TECH+TAILORED design sensibility, blending athletic performance with tailored sportswear; pioneering what has become the ‘ATHLESURE’ mainstream. Luis was inducted into the CFDA in 2011.
Raan Parton, Creative Director and Partner, Apolis
Raan Parton oversees all branding and creative strategy for Apolis, a socially motivated menswear label he co-founded in 2008 with his brother Shea. He also takes care of product development with regard to design, fabric sourcing, and fit within the brand. Apolis now focuses on its robust global direct to consumer business and 2000 wholesale accounts globally. Raan joined CFDA as a member in 2014 and was named "10 of Tomorrow" by WWD in 2017.
He and his wife Lindsay created Alchemy Works, their eclectic home and lifestyle retail concept in 2013 which now has 2 locations and has done popups in Tokyo, New York and consulted for a hotel project in San Diego. He has also done design and branding work for other consumer brands, including Nike, HTC and Warby Parker.
Holly Jovenall, Designer at BILLY
BILLY Los Angeles, founded in 2017, is ready-to-wear, designed by Holly Jovenall and handcrafted in Los Angeles, California.
Rooted equally in the streets of Los Angeles and the fields of Western Pennsylvania, BILLY Los Angeles represents the confluence of influences that make for a uniquely American story. The regions that innately seem so disparate, share many of the same style cues when brought into focus by Jovenall. Raised outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by her horse farming father Billy, the Los Angeles transplant began her career as a stylist with an innate sense of what men want to wear.
BILLY Los Angeles' comfortable basics are multi-directional and can be elevated or slouched in. Attention to silhouette brings a casual elegance, enhanced by hand distressing and hand screened details. Elevated outwear, trousers and tops are foundational but subversive in their proportions and bend simplicity into something entirely new.
Using unique washing and aging techniques, BILLY Los Angeles encompasses the many aspects of the modern man - comfort, utility, understated cool and refined with just a hint of danger. The duality of the American condition - the rural desire for pace of the city and the urban pining for a connection to nature - is brought to beautiful and powerful reality through Jovenall's designs. They are instantly recognizable and desirable, yet somehow new. Clothes for living - no matter where you live.
Panelists are members of:
The book “The Laws of Style: Sartorial Excellence for the Professional Gentleman” was published this year by the American Bar Association and will be available for purchase at Fred Segal’s retail floor (and for signature by Mr. Hand). His podcast, The Laws of Style is available on iTunes.
His ongoing musings on fashion, the law and style can be followed at @handofthelaw.
