le PÈRE Wants to Be Your Favorite Artist’s Favorite Fashion Label

It’s a brisk April evening on the corner of Orchard and Broome in New York City’s Lower East Side, and the le PÈRE store’s subtle yellow glow cascades over a rambunctious herd of melophiles. They’ve gathered, iPhones up, to see Omar Apollo basking in his fame under a massive fur coat, taking drags from a cigarette and twerking to Drake's “Rich Baby Daddy” from atop a parked pick-up truck. It’s mere hours before his single “Spite” meets streaming platforms—the real reason the infectious hitmaker has invited a “few” people to the downtown fashion brand’s flagship. Instead, however, the block is fan-infested in every direction, while the singer performs for the masses in a manner you’d only believe to be real in New York.“It got a little crowded so we moved the party outside,” le PÈRE joked on Instagram the following morning. With dumb luck, the cops never showed up; and with even more fortune, the less-than-two-year-old brand pulled off the tremendous spectacle in the first six months of its inaugural storefront’s opening.“It’s moments like these that people really hold onto,” Abhi Janamanchi, le PÈRE’s co-founder and brand director, says, seated in the center of the lemon-colored shop. It’s early June now, the wild night still a fresh epitome of what le PÈRE represents.“This label is really about the community and the artists that we want to highlight,” he adds. “There’s so much potential for us, as a clothing brand, to find talented people to work with.”Before le PÈRE, Janamanchi cut his teeth building the independent music label AWAL (an acronym for “A World Artists Love”). Apollo got his start on their roster, which also propelled artists like Lauv, Kim Petras, FINNEAS and Gus Dapperton (who, in a full-circle moment, recently recorded a live rendition of his track “Lil Tune” at le PÈRE’s store). At AWAL, Janamanchi worked alongside le PÈRE's present-day CEO Ryan Wright, who acted as the burgeoning label's chief marketing officer. There, the two built a massive network of aggressively talented graphic designers, photographers and illustrators that formed the backbone of the music industry’s most influential album covers, music videos, animations and more.So when Janamanchi uses the word “artist,” musicians only scratch the surface of his sprawling Rolodex. le PÈRE exists as a fashionable canvas for creatives across practically every medium to express themselves through the lens of clothing — but the result is a far cry from plopping an illustration on a T-shirt. That’s where Samuel Choi, the imprint’s design director whose résumé includes stints at Ralph Lauren and R13, comes in.“Ryan specifically did not want somebody from a traditional streetwear background to lead design,” Choi says, seated next to Janamanchi and surrounded by his Spring 2024 “MASCULIN FÉMININ” creations, which, as their title suggests, explore opposing identities by juxtaposing hyper-masculine designs with sensual double entendres. “I wouldn’t call this streetwear, but I wouldn’t call this fashion either. We want to be situated in a space where streetwear would typically sit, but we want to elevate the product.”One of the ways the brand aims to achieve this goal is by tapping neighboring creatives for unlikely collaborations. In the current season, Los Angeles-based multimedia artist Tony Camaro—whose mediums span painting, print techniques, sculpture and a podcast titled YNOT RADIO—lent his zealous canvases to the cheeky “Top Boy Tee” and “Top Bottoms.” His paintings of a young man’s back straddle the chest of the shirt and the legs of the shorts; the result is somehow both hedonistic and sophisticated.The “Camaro Cycling Shirt,” meanwhile, takes Camaro’s ‘80s-inspired "Ice Cold” pop-art, orients it on its side and lays it across a quarter-zip biker top as part of the label’s bid to subvert classic sportswear. “I love incorporating my artwork into fashion to a higher degree than just the streetwear stuff,” Camaro says of the collaboration.The line also platforms Tokyo-based, Lisbon-hailing illustrator and visual artist Ema Gaspar, whose work champions nostalgic childhood joys and whose portfolio touts a clothing line with pop starlet Gracie Abrams. “I’m interested in the process of creating something and not being able to undo it, like you would digitally,” she says. With le PÈRE, her mythical drawings — teddy bears juggling soccer balls and “Bad Daddy” emblems included — become the permanent patch-like backdrop for mesh football jerseys.“We prefer to decenter ourselves and let these artists exist at the forefront of the brand, which is why we’ve foregone the typical creative director-led model."Camaro and Gaspar are just two constituents of le PÈRE’s “Quartier,” the title bestowed upon the brand’s ever-expanding community of collaborators — be they high-profile visual artists, emerging graphic designers, niche photographers, cult-followed illustrators or expert playlist curators. “A lot of the people we work with have roots in music,” said Janamanchi. “These are folks that might not have otherwise had a chance to work on clothes in a more in-depth way.” Previous seasons held the spotlight on art director Faysal Matin, known for spearheading the visual identity behind Kaytranada’s BUBBA album; collage expert Ian Woods, known for remixing legendary artists’ milestone imagery, and mixed-media talent Anton Reva, the brain behind A$AP Rocky’s fiery PacSun campaign, among others.“We prefer to decenter ourselves and let these artists exist at the forefront of the brand, which is why we’ve foregone the typical creative director-led model,” explains Janamanchi. He and Choi are “always, unfortunately, on Instagram,” building out an arsenal of talent they’d like to collaborate with. There’s no real criteria for who makes the cut; those chosen are usually the product of a casual chat between the duo.How the collaboration manifests varies on a case-by-case basis. Oftentimes, Choi starts by sending several sketches and silhouettes to his collaborators, catalyzing a back-and-forth discussion that frequently boils down to the nitty-gritty details. In some instances, like the brand’s team-up with designer Cherry Kim, the artist has design experience that lends itself to the collaboration more intensely. Either way, Choi’s goal is to surprise his selected talent with the sheer artistry behind the manufacturing, much of which he credits to the team’s head of production, Maria Turano. “It’s about marrying our thinking outside of traditional streetwear thinking with [Turano’s] expertise,” he says. “She’s worked with Italy and Portugal for 25 years. This woman can make anything happen.”le PÈRE’s fashion identity, however, does not end with its collaborations. If the label has graced your Explore Page, it’s likely that you’ve seen its independently designed hero pieces, like its playful “Joy Boy” and “Bad Dad” tees or its famed double sleeve button-downs. “Classics never die, they just get another sleeve,” the brand writes on Instagram alongside images of the latter silhouette, which layers a short-sleeve shirt over a long-sleeved version. It’s these subtle yet effective subversions of classic menswear that connect all of le PÈRE's unique shapes.“We don’t want our designs to be so philosophy-focused that wearability is taken out of the conversation,” Choi says. “We have fun with them while ensuring they can live in the real world.”“We want our clothes to be inviting, just like our store.”All of the above lives inside that bright-eyed Lower East Side shop, where everyday walk-in clients include millennial gay men and young girlfriends shopping for their less-stylish boyfriends—all with a creative edge. “This is arguably the liveliest, culture-setting neighborhood in New York right now,” Choi adds.He’s right: Orchard Street alone is home to community-centric streetwear labels like Angelo Baque's Awake NY, Ankur Amin’s Extra Butter and Trevor Gorji’s newly-opened Fugazi. Curated vintage outposts like LAAMS and Desert file in next to them, beside foodie favorites like the specialty Italian deli Regina’s Grocery and Scarr’s, the pizza shop with a never-ending line. Burgeoning creatives, locally famous skaters and thrift fashionites gather at the bottom of the block’s Dime Square, next to the bougie Nine Orchard Hotel, which frequently draws a well-connected crowd. “Most of the culture is happening in Brooklyn, but when it comes to Manhattan, it’s really down here,” the designer says.“I think our clientele is somebody that's much more sensitive and a little more aware of their masculinity ... they enjoy the armor, the production, the fits and the colors, and the idea that these clothes can be worn to have fun."“I think our clientele is somebody that's much more sensitive and a little more aware of their masculinity,” Choi muses. “It's not quite a gay man, but maybe they're a little soft. They enjoy the armor, the production, the fits and the colors, and the idea that these clothes can be worn to have fun.”Besides creative collaboration, having fun is a core tenant of le PÈRE, a brand also known to throw rave-y parties both in and outside of its boutique. When the brand launched in 2022, it did so by way of a pop-up shop and celebration at the experimental Terminal 27 venue, which was graced by an elusive appearance from Frank Ocean. “It was only three or four days into the brand being live,” Janamanchi remembers, calling it the moment that made him believe le PÈRE had legs for the long haul. “It was crazy. My phone just started blowing up.”Still, Janamanchi admits that fashion is an entirely different ball game to music, despite the brand’s crossover between the two. “It's so much easier in music to get someone to listen to a song,” he says. “We’ve built what we believe are beautiful things, and it can sometimes feel like we’re speaking into a vacuum.”The challenge now? To make more noise without it feeling contrived.Choi, on the other hand, says he’s still waiting for the moment that shows him le PÈRE is the be-all and end-all. Right now, he says the brand’s biggest challenge is transitioning to a larger team. “We’re lean,” he says. “I’m one designer with a lot of ideas, and I’ve got to bring them all to life myself. It’s the struggle of any start-up.” Both Janamanchi and Choi are timid about celebrating their wins; instead, their eyes are focused sharply on the work required to expand. "A labor of love,” they call it.“The dream is to grow le PÈRE into a brand that aspiring creatives can look to and think, ‘Oh man, everybody I look up to has worked with this label,’” explains Janamanchi. It’s evident that the “Quartier” is the imprint’s prized possession, a hub that the team is very careful not to tarnish with names too mainstream or artists too corporate. “That’s the antithesis of why this all started,” Janamanchi says. “I hope we can continue to be a hub for incredible creatives.”"There's a different way to present [our brand] to a wider audience outside of the traditional exclusive runway experience."Looking to the future, the duo’s dreams are pragmatic. A runway show certainly isn’t out of the question, though Choi questions whether the brand needs it. Fashion films, modeled like Hedi Slimane’s Celine, might be a better fit. “I’m hesitant to say, but I think there's a different way to present the collection to a wider audience outside of the traditional exclusive runway experience,” he says.Outside of the design room, a future le PÈRE record label wouldn’t be all that surprising, given the team’s professional history, nor would a more robust performance series or perhaps even an in-store podcast. (The seats in the shop's center are perfectly positioned for an interview, after all.) Nonetheless, Janamanchi and Choi laugh at the ideas when presented to them.“We’d like to be here for a while,” affirms Janamanchi. “We've maintained a level of restraint up to this point in terms of not doing things that feel shortsighted.” Every move is calculated, so le PÈRE can go the distance.Keep one eye on the yellow flare beaming from the northeast corner of Orchard and Broome. It’s hard to guess what’s next up their double sleeves.Click here to view full gallery at Hypebeast