Cerre honored with Moss Adams Fashion Innovator Award
Clayton and Flavie Webster, former models and the husband-and-wife designers of the Cerre apparel line, were honored with the Moss Adams Fashion Innovator Award at Tuesday night’s runway fundraiser organized by Fashion Business Inc.
“We couldn’t be happier to have Cerre win this year’s Moss Adams Fashion Innovator award,” said Martin Hughes, accounting firm Moss Adams LLP’s director of apparel, in announcing the honorees. “They truly exemplify what the MAFI was created for and we are thrilled to recognize founders Clayton and Flavie Webster for their timeless, yet modern and confident design aesthetic.”
On winning the award, Clayton Webster said, “For us, it’s validation, encouragement, a pat on the back. It’s great to have that in our hometown.”
The line of luxury leather and avant-garde draped jersey with a minimalist Goth vibe launched in 2005 with a collection of bags and small leather goods, expanding into apparel for spring 2010, and everything in the line is made on-site at the brand’s West Hollywood atelier on Melrose Avenue, not far from Maxfield.
Even if you’re not familiar with the name, you’ve probably seen their handiwork -- they created custom motorcycle jackets and bags for Rooney Mara’s title character in “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” In February, the designers will be taking their collection to New York to sell at wholesale for the first time.
Past recipients of the award, which recognizes the unique and innovative accomplishments of a fashion designer or company in the previous year, include Corey Lynn Calter (2003) Frankie B (2004), Petro Zillia (2005), Rozae Nichols (2006), Juan Carlos Obando (2007), Katy Rodriguez (2008) and Nally & Milly (2011). (The award was not presented in 2009 or 2010.)
In addition to honoring Cerre, the event, dubbed “All Aboard!,” included runway presentations by a cadre of emerging brands, some of which were FBI members (including Continuous Line, Krammer and Stoudt, Unspoken Lingerie, Gelareh and Liberty Sage), or recommendations by members (like Living Doll LA and Sam and Lavi) as well as a smattering of bigger brands such as Johnny Was, XCVI, Magicsuit by Miraclesuit, and Miraclebody Jeans by Miraclesuit.
It also included the first-ever trip down the catwalk for Melissa Rivers for the Cool People, a charitable collaboration with Zappos.com.*
Rivers co-hosted the event with comedian Brett Walkow at downtown’s Union Station. Organizers of the annual fundraiser for local nonprofit fashion company incubator Fashion Business Inc. told us they’d planned to sell 400 tickets, but exceeded that by triple digits thanks to Rivers’ enthusiastic promotional efforts.
“We had to go buy another 100 chairs,” one of the organizers told us. “It was an amazing response.”
ALSO:
Moss Adams Award goes to Nally & Milly
The designers behind Cerre are as stylish as their line
L.A. Fashion Week: Skingraft serves up stage-worthy leathers
[*Updated 9:49 a.m. 10/18/2012: An earlier version of this post incorrectly included American Apparel as a collaborative partner in the Melissa Rivers for the Cool People collection. It is not.]
