Michel Berandi: LA Design Like You’ve Never Seen It

LA fashion is synonymous with American Apparel, Ed Hardy, and a bevy or actors-turned-designer ... not heels with horns and black leather waistcoats topped off with motorcycle helmets. But that's exactly the style of Michel Berandi, the LA-based designer responsible for a namesake men's and women's wear collection that's drastically darker and more conceptual than one would expect to find in the City of Angels. His Monday-night SS10 presentation took place at the Geffen Contemporary MOCA. Style Section LA, a newly launched West Coast style porthole which I've mentioned in the past, took a look around the eccentric designer's studio in honor of his then-upcoming LA Fashion Week installation, "etLUXOR."

In addition to “a menagerie of antelope and rams’ heads mounted on the white walls,” they found a pair of ballet flats morphed into painfully high heels thanks to horns resembling those of a gazelle (the latter of which immediately call to mind Alexander McQueen’s otherworldly footwear creations for his recent SS10 Paris fashion show). While LA Fashion Week has just gotten underway, considering the bi-annual event has been struggling to improve its image for seasons (without much success), there’s a good chance Berandi’s art-meets-fashion installment will mark one of the event’s high points.