All Grown Up : William B. Has Gone From Flashy to Tailored--and Straight Into the Spotlight
Before L.A. fashion designer William Beranek sits down to an interview, he passes a slip of paper across the table. On it are his typewritten answers to a series of unasked questions.
I design both my men’s and women’s collections for people who are a bit adventurous in their look. Hopefully, my designs are elegant and don’t knock you over the head.
Beranek is not a control freak trying to direct the conversation. He is, however, so socially awkward and painfully shy around the media, he’s afraid of stumbling over his words.
But lately, the 31-year-old designer is getting lots of practice talking with the fashion press. Ever since his William Beranek collection of tailored clothing came out this summer, he and his line have been in demand.
The current Vogue cites him as one of the few West Coast talents to follow in the footsteps of Richard Tyler and Mark Eisen, two highly successful Southern California designers who have achieved international status. And at New York’s spring menswear market last month, more than 30 buyers lined up at the recently opened Beranek showroom.
“I think he’s got a good eye, great taste and beautifully tailored clothing for the value,” L.A. store owner Scott Hill says. “I like the fact a guy can get a dynamite fashion suit for $700. And I also like that I can support a local designer and hang him in the store right alongside Donna Karan and Vestimente.”
Hill says he wanted to invest in the collection in its early stages because “you never know when a guy like William is going to be the next Donna Karan.”
Like Karan, Beranek is no newcomer. For four years, the designer created cutting-edge menswear under the William B. label.
“When I first started designing, it was about Hollywood,” he says. “I was doing real flashy stuff for the entertainment and music crowds. I was young and I wanted people to see that I was doing something really different.”
He said, however, that most stores considered his early designs “a little too hard.” The form-fitting vinyl suits, primary-colored blazers, velvet vests and quilted leather jumpers looked good only in nightclubs or on MTV.
A tamer version of his William B. label is still intact, selling exclusively to the Traffic stores in the Beverly Center and Sunset Plaza. But the newly launched William Beranek collection, which includes men’s and women’s wear, is indicative of the designer’s more serious side.
“Artistically, I’ve learned not to over-design,” Beranek says. “I’m getting a lot more respect nowadays because people see the change and the sophistication and a maturity in my work.”
Cleaner and less theatrical than his William B. label, the fall collection blends classically tailored silhouettes inspired by the ‘40s and ‘50s with texturally rich and technologically new fabrics from the 1990s. The collection of loosely knitted cropped sweaters, wool crepe suits, fitted suede skirts and shearling coats has attracted a star-studded client list, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Janet Jackson, Nicole Kidman, Jody Watley and Belinda Carlisle.
Yet Beranek believes his upcoming spring line is more representative of the softly tailored look he wants to be known for.
To wit, the fabric-driven spring collection includes a hairy nylon knit spun into form-fitting men’s shirts and women’s pullover tops; a chamois-like cotton/wool and a new kind of rayon processed to look like linen and used in fitted blazers, curvy vests, high-waisted slacks and A-line skirts; a sheered and crinkled fabric that resembles rice paper pressed into billowy slip dresses.
Available locally at Fred Segal Flair in Santa Monica and Scott Hill on Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles, the fall collection ranges in price from $240 for slacks, $450 for jackets to $1,200 for the shearling coats.
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Beranek, who grew up in Torrance, was 23 and working in his father’s aerospace contracting business when, at the suggestion of a friend, he enrolled in fashion design extension classes. In 1988, he and Henry Duarte, a high school friend and surfing buddy, started Sqwear, a contemporary menswear label.
The duo designed a quirky collection of clingy Lycra knits; bright-colored, form-fitting blazers; piece-paneled vests, and leather jackets that found favor with bands such as New Kids on the Block and Tony Toni Tone. The extroverted Duarte received most of the credit, while Beranek--occupied with the technical aspects of the operation--seemed destined to remain a background figure. The pair parted in 1990.
“I wanted to do more tailored sportswear and Henry wanted to go more into the leather and the really wild custom stuff,” says Beranek, still visibly angry about the breakup. “For a while, we tried to do both. But in the end there was just too much head-butting going on, and it was dragging me down.”
After the split, which Beranek likens to “an ugly divorce,” Duarte found an instant career wardrobing entertainers, among them Lenny Kravitz, Melissa Etheridge, k.d. lang and Seal. He also formed his own signature label, selling exclusively at Roppongi on Melrose Avenue.
Beranek says he spent more than two years paying off his share of Sqwear’s debts while struggling to find an audience for his own label.
“I’m still trying to reach a designer level--which is hard to do anywhere,” he says. “But I think it’s a bit more difficult in Los Angeles because Los Angeles has this reputation for turning out the stereotypical California designer.”
And the stereotypical California designer makes surf- and street-wear, not tailored separates.
Beranek hopes to change the stereotype:
If I become nationally prominent I would like to show the world that there are tasteful, designer-level clothes being designed and made in Los Angeles . There are so many levels to this city. Great things are being done in the arts. It’s not all about overblown Hollywood glitz.
