Beauty and the Beast
Here’s something you don’t expect Nikki Sixx to say: “There’s just so much opportunity with layering.”
And maybe you’re surprised to see Kelly Gray, recently of the St. John line of durable knits for ladies, painted with glitter eye shadow at a Motley Crue concert, grinding to the music and blowing a kiss to Sixx onstage, where he snaps it up with his hand, licks it and swallows.
Of course they’re an odd pair, the former heroin addict and the former corporate executive. That’s part of the attraction of Royal Underground, their men’s clothing line, which Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and other mainstream retailers will begin stocking in late October. Gray has the fashion industry chops, which helped sell the retailers, and Sixx the cool factor, which has totally sold 15-year-old Tim Farnsworth Jr. Leaving the Germain Amphitheater outside Columbus, Ohio, after the first stop in Motley Crue’s “Route of All Evil” tour with Aerosmith, Tim declares that he will buy any Royal Underground garment that he can afford (probably none) for one reason: “Because Nikki designed it. I don’t care what it looks like.”
Royal Underground looks like this: Soft Italian leather jackets, classic blue and black jeans, cotton polo shirts in sea-foam green, 100% cashmere sweaters in browns and blacks, some articles embellished with shields and Old English iconography. (There are no skulls. “It would have been so expected,” says Sixx, who has skull tattoos spiraling across his hands and on numerous other spots on his body.) The Royal Underground message is as simple as the clothing. “Come hang out with us,” he says, “and you’ll be cool.”
When Gray, 39, met Sixx, 47, for the first time this year, he was in full Motley Crue regalia, and she was wearing Gucci and Prada. “He scared me,” she says. “Before the first concert I had Googled Motley Crue and looked at their Web page, and the Web page looked so scary I said I couldn’t go.” But her friend Tommy Lee, Motley Crue’s drummer, had invited her, so she gathered her courage and watched from a distance, safe near the lighting booth. When Lee introduced her to Sixx, “I called him Mr. Sixx and he never corrected me,” she says and makes a face. The two bonded over lunch in late June. They went shopping together at stores from her world--Beverly Hills haunts like Neiman’s and Saks--and discovered how much they have in common, including a love for luxurious fabrics and an appreciation for the details that make a garment work. That’s when they decided the world could use another high-end menswear collection. “We thought there was an opening,” Gray says, “to take the inspiration and the spirit of the rock industry, but do it with a twist. Real rock stars.”
She’s been in the fashion industry most of her life. Her parents founded the upscale St. John line in their San Fernando Valley garage in 1962, and their daughter started working for the company when she was 12. “My parents told me that a summer vacation would give me unrealistic expectations unless I was going to be a schoolteacher,” she recalls. That wasn’t in her future. She was St. John’s only model for 15 years--a blond in conservative suits surrounded by handsome young men--and served as chief executive until 2005. The family sold a majority stake to Vestar Capital Partners in 1999.
Her parents support her venture with the spiky-haired, glam-rock bassist, whose trademark is spitting fake blood onstage. “I’m excited for her,” Marie Gray says via Kelly’s jewel-studded pink mobile phone as her daughter, on Sixx’s tour bus, listens. “I think she’s really good at what she does and I’m really proud of her.” As for Sixx, whom she’s gotten to know over the months, she says: “He’s such a gentleman. When you look in his eyes the tattoos just blend away.”
Sixx is indeed heavily painted, with the names of his four children, Japanese characters that represent “spirit,” a big sun and more. He looks harder than he is. He quit heroin after nearly dying in 1987 of an overdose; adrenaline injections saved his life and inspired the song “Kickstart My Heart.” Now he’s hooked on Diet Coke and raising his kids, including Storm, 12, who is writing some of the copy for Royal Underground’s promotional brochures. Dad’s a writer too: His book, “The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star,” will be published next year.
Fashion statements are part of Motley Crue’s approach to heavy metal. Onstage, Sixx is all about leather, platform shoes, heavy eye makeup and hair products. He’s been experimenting with clothes since high school, when he would buy suits and chop off the pants, add platform boots and a tie and spray his hair silver. He launched two other clothing lines--Outlaw U.S.A. and N. Sixx by Dragonfly--neither of them lucrative for Sixx. This time, he says, it will be different because of Gray. She doesn’t disagree.
“I’m able to open doors,” she says, “and the doors that I can’t open, Nikki can.”
He and Gray are sipping sodas and smoking cigarettes on the tour bus before the concert in Ohio, teasing one another, laughing, finishing each other’s sentences.
“I was always interested in putting it all together,” he says. “It’s like writing a song. You’ve got to have all those little things--but still it has to be a hit.”
“Kelly,” he continues, “knows how to make a hit.”
She smiles happily. She declares she couldn’t do it without him.
“I’ll be honest with you,” she says. “I lack the cool factor.”
According to Gray, Sixx has an eye for detail. He can discuss at length the merits of a well-placed rivet and argue with her for hours about a thread color. He usually wins.
They both live in Southern California but are often on the road, he with Motley Crue and she for Royal Underground or as a consultant for St. John. They grab time for their business when they can. Gray describes how they work: “It’s literally 4 o’clock in the morning, lattes in hand, and Nikki’s doing spec sheets himself. And he says, ‘You sure a quarter-inch on that seam?’ I’m like what? ‘That’s exactly right.’”
Because they threw the upcoming collection together in about a month--designing the clothes, picking the fabrics, contracting with manufacturing plants, sealing deals with retailers, planning a marketing campaign--Sixx had to be a fast learner. “I’m a sponge for information,” he says. “If you understand how it works from the bottom up, you can understand how the top works.” He cites as his role model his uncle Don Zimmerman, who started out sweeping floors at Capitol Records and worked his way up to president.
Over the summer, the partners began planning Royal Underground’s spring line. They circumnavigated the globe, visiting six countries in seven days, looking for inspiration in India, touring factories in China, dropping in on London and Dubai. Fashion photographer Paul Brown joined them in Jaipur to shoot photos for the spring brochure, which Gray and Sixx say will look a lot like a rock ‘n’ roll band’s tour program.
Somewhere down the road, they say, they’ll pursue a women’s line, accessories, maybe even linens and furniture.
“I’m excited for women’s,” Sixx says, standing in the tiny kitchen area on the tour bus, flicking cigarette ashes into the sink. “With men you are somewhat limited. But with women, you are so much more open.”
Gray reaches over from her perch on the black leather banquette to lay a hand on Sixx’s arm. “Honey, we’re way far away from that.”
But she’s excited too. “We want to make Royal Underground a house,” she says. “Once rock stars ‘make it,’ they like nice things, I’ve learned. They like cashmere and they like leather and they like croc.”
Royal Underground will deliver, at rock-star prices: A men’s suede blazer, with a fleur-de-lis silk-screened on the breast and back, will retail for $1,200; a black Italian leather motorcycle jacket will go for $895; soft cotton T-shirts will be priced at $95. All leather jacket linings will be inscribed with lyrics to Motley Crue’s ballad “Home Sweet Home” from the 1985 album “Theater of Pain.” The idea, Sixx says, is for the person wearing the clothes to feel like he’s a member of an exclusive club that Sixx would belong to--a feeling a lot of celebrities try to sell when they attach their names to consumer products. Royal Underground is different, Sixx says, because he is as intimately involved as Gray is in every step of the process. Other rock stars “don’t bicker and tug and get passionate about everything” with their fashion partners.
“We bicker?” Gray asks.
“I like that word ‘bicker,’” Sixx says. “Bicker.”
“Well, as your fashion wife, I guess bickering is part of the lifestyle.”
Gray won’t be sleeping in her bunk on the bus tonight; she’s flying back to L.A. with Tommy Lee for an early morning business appointment. But she’ll rejoin the tour, hooking up with Sixx in cities where they can steal a few hours to personally show buyers the spring line. “People ask me, ‘Are you having fun?’” she says. “I’m jamming with a rock star. Who wouldn’t want to be me?”
Motley Crue’s four members are warming up in their private dressing rooms, trailers parked around a makeshift lounge area fashioned out of indoor-outdoor carpet, a picnic table and scented candles. Sixx is tweaking his mascara and dusting his one-of-a-kind Royal Underground garb--a military shirt splattered with voodoo symbols--with talcum powder (thus making it look more rock star-like and mysterious). Tommy Lee is dancing around and waving his black drumsticks, banging them on the side of his trailer, playfully dinging them against Kelly Gray.
Earlier, Gray’s mom sent Sixx a text message, wishing him luck. “It said have a good show and you rock it, or something like that,” Sixx says, laughing. “We’re going to rock it all right. I’ve got a flamethrower and a mouthful of blood.”
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Kelly’s Faves
Song
“Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down” by Fall Out Boy
Album
“The White Album” by the Beatles
Movie
“Casino”
Article of Clothing
full-length YSL shearling coat
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Nikki’s Faves
Song
“Dream On” by Aerosmith
Album
“Sheer Heart Attack” by Queen
Movie
“Time Bandits”
Article of Clothing
black leather, Converse Chucks
