EL AY SEEN: HABER
For some reason, Los Angeles and New York City are forever at odds with one another, constantly vying for the title of 'America's Best City'. Every year, there's bound to be some sort of published list explaining why living in 'city x' is just so much more terrible than 'city y'. Really people? We get it. That being said, we will admit that in the realm of fashion, NYC has really been leaps and bounds ahead of LA, well, forever. That is, until now. Over the past decade or so, the fashion scene has grown some strong roots in the SoCal sand, providing Los Angeles with some serious players in the game. Monique Lhuillier, Rodarte and Jenni Kayne are just a few of the incredibly talented (and successful) designers to come out of LA, not to mention a whole roster of up and coming talent who are sure to be some heavy hitters.
Lucky for us, we recently had the pleasure of previewing one of these emerging brands called Haber. Silver Lake-based designer Heather Goldberg invited us to an intimate preview of her new collection, held at the incredibly well-curated West Hollywood boutique, TENOVERSIX. And what a perfect location it was! The space aligned brilliantly with Haber’s aesthetic, featuring perfect little vignettes of accessories, clothing and jewelry around the presentation- even the light fixtures seemed to be a part of the collection!
The clothing itself was a pastel daydream of hand-embroidered gauzy dresses, something you’d image a modern day Daisy Buchanan would wear. Her inspiration for this collection was “making the invisible visible”, describing the moody color story as a “melancholic seascape.” The collection evokes Alberta Ferretti's timeless, goddess-like gowns mixed with modern metallics reminiscent of the Spring '13 Burberry Prorsum catwalk, yet Goldberg delivers something completely new. Frayed edges give her pieces that special raw quality; gowns with cascading ruffles remain flattering and body conscious; and metallic disco details add a playful finishing touch - right down to the model’s silver glitter toenail polish; it was truly an ethereal, hipster fairytale.
Goldberg's collection is influenced by California’s rich and diverse history from the vibrant skate and surf culture to old Hollywood films and noir literature. Goldberg also mentioned that she loves to play with extreme opposites. Particular inspirations came from conceptual artist Bas Jan Ader’s “In Search of the Miraculous" and the French films "La Piscine" and "La Collectionneuse." She says, “having this innate inspiration from all these different sources and mixing them together, is something that I think is really indicative of my generation.”
Heather attributes the “underlying tomboy nonchalance” of her line to growing up with three brothers. The name “Haber” comes from Heather’s great grandmother’s last name, whom she was also named after. She describers her ideal customer as, “someone who exudes a really nonchalant confidence and follows her own path in life and career.” Sounds like our type of SoCal sistah. We'll definitely be keeping our eyes open for Haber to appear on racks and runways around the globe.