This month and every month, we are proud to celebrate our AAPI heritage. LCD's founder, Geraldine Chung grew up in Southern California and in Taipei, where her Chinese-Filipino father taught her hilariously useless phrases in Tagalog and her Chinese mother ingrained a sense of responsibility and hard work. LCD has been a labor of love and so much of our success is a result of her upbringing and culture. Today, we are showcasing other AAPI owned businesses so you can support them alongside us!
AAPI DESIGNERS & CREATIVES WE LOVE
1. SANDY LIANG
New York-based fashion designer Sandy Liang has caught the eye of all the top stylists and editors in the nation with her brand of particularly perverse, quirky, and beautiful downtown-inspired womenswear. As seen on only the coolest of the cool (model Soo Joo Park, stylist Kate Foley, photographer Hannelli Mustaparta), Sandy Liang's incredible outerwear and whimsical accessories have made her distinctive style a hallmark of downtown New York fashion; she has been recently named by the NY Times, Fashionista, and New York Magazine as one of the top 10 designers to watch.
2. Kkco
Inspired by "feminine utilitarianism," camping, and a desire to focus on community and local production, KkCo (pronounced "kay coh") is a Los Angeles-based fashion brand founded by designer Kara Jubin. We love the studio's non-traditional point of view on fashion development, collaborative ethos, and approachable style that results in clothing that is ultimately both fashionable and very wearable.
3. SVNR
Publicist Christina Tung’s SVNR (pronounced “souvenir”) was never originally intended to take off the way that it has. What started as a spontaneous rainy-day crafting project is quickly growing into an established brand with editorial placements and recognition, from Into The Gloss to Vogue. Handmade from found materials, SVNR is sustainable and unique in its use of color and natural shapes, a refreshing break from an increasingly homogenous landscape of minimal jewelry.
4. KARA
KARA is a New York City based accessories brand founded by Chinese American designer Sarah Law in 2013. KARA is an enthusiastic dedication to the intimate recognition that for many of us, identity is complex, conflicting and fluid. Each design is a blank canvas, encouraging individuality and reflecting the attitude that you should wear the bag, the bag should not wear you. KARA derives from the Japanese word ‘karaoke’, which means ‘empty orchestra’. Emptiness creates space for personal interpretation and self expression.
5. FARIS
Handmade jewelry sculpted to perfection and produced in small, limited edition collections. That’s Faris, the high-end accessory line created and inspired by its owner Faris Du Graf. Faris' designs are sleek but their forms are natural -- polished but organic, well-tended, and flexible. Faris specializes in everything from earrings to hair barrettes, offering new classics in every category of accessory imaginable for women looking to travel a less conventional path to style.
6. Sanditas
One of our favorite humans on the planet, Sandy Ho is a creatively-minded Australian professional chef whose work focuses on the careful use of locally-sourced and sustainable produce. You may know her from her rainbow-colored dumplings and delightfully decorative cakes. LCD has featured Sandy in the past and we're so excited about her future food-related projects! Her work aspires to spark positive sharing of flavor and food for everyone.
7. LoQ
Keren Longkumer and Valerie Quant realized their mutual love for unconventional forms and proportions after meeting in Los Angeles while studying footwear design. Hailing from Nagaland and Los Angeles respectively, the friends became partners in 2015 and founded a line of shoes for the modern woman called LOQ. Look for rich hues and textures inspired by India alongside a laidback aesthetic as they aim to redefine the classics.
7. ENY LEE PARKER
Named to Sight Unseen's "Breakout Design Star" and member of their American Design Hotlist for 2017, Savannah-based designer Eny Lee Parker's furniture, earrings, ceramics and workwear focus on her innovative use of terra cotta (our favorite color ATM!) as a structural material for furniture. A millennial designer for millennials, Parker's work and excellent eye for capturing the perfect scene resonates with all the best design themes of today: an embrace for wabi sabi, an organic, hand-built texture, clean geometric lines and shapes, and a dash of inspiration from mid-century modern design.
8. WWAKE
A dear friend of ours, designer Wing Yau's minimalist jewelry brings a new perspective on heirloom jewelry with signature contour shapes & unexpected stones. WWAKE is a 100% women led, design driven, and sustainably minded fine jewelry company based in Brooklyn, New York that utilizes recycled diamonds & gold to achieve spectacular, delicate, intentional jewelry for every day wear.
9. RAINA LEE
The experimental eponymous ceramics line, Raina J. Lee, is hand produced in Los Angeles, California. Raina J. Lee is known for its eccentric textures, color ways and firings. Inspired by nature, on earth and beyond. Coupling the outdoors within your home. The impossibly charming designs are on display in the designer’s treehouse showroom in Mount Washington, as featured in the New York Times Style Magazine.
10. I LOVE CREATIVES
Founded one of our favorite people in the multi-verse, I Love Creatives is an online community for creatives looking to share / grow / and learn new skills in the digital space. LCD has previously partnered with founder Puno (last name also Puno) on a whole series of Q&A's with fashion designers, and we love their fun, approachable method of learning.
+ EXTRA LOVE TO OUR RETAILER FRIENDS AT ROW DTLA: POKETO, FLASK & FIELD, BODEGA, PIKUNICO, CHERIN CHOI, dRA, CAFE DULCE, KINTO
Even though we and many of our retail colleagues have since closed our shops at ROW DTLA, we truly loved and appreciated the camaraderie and support that we gave each other during our 4 years at that development. Shout out to these amazing retailers helmed by AAPI folx!!
Graphics and imagery courtesy of their respective owners.