Mike Amiri is in Paris to premiere the latest runway episode of his brand’s globally alluring evocation of Hollywood fantasy, sex appeal and glamour. This season, however, he is also thinking hard about LA’s current reality. “It’s tragic,” he says of this month’s devastating wildfires. Like many thousands of others, Amiri and his family were forced to evacuate their home. “We were fortunate,” he says, their house was spared. His priority when leaving, he adds, “was making sure my family and the dog were fine. Beyond that, there were some photos that I’m nostalgic for. That was it.”
When discussing the aftermath, he says: “It has reminded us that LA is a community. So many people have come together, helping individually and through organisations. Everyone was checking on everyone. That is the best of LA. And, you know, LA is where you build things, and you dream. So now we will dream and rebuild.”
Amiri’s love for Los Angeles, his nostalgia-laced vision and his instinct to build are the foundations upon which his eponymous brand has blossomed. He founded Amiri in 2014, first showed in Paris in 2018 and has since built a $300-million annual business with 300 employees globally — of whom around 100 are in LA, 35 in Milan and 160 spread across a current network of 27 stores that is due to grow to 30 by the end of this year. “Ten years ago, we were three people in a basement. But that’s what Hollywood’s about, right?” As well as founder, he is chairman and chief creative officer.
Revenues are projected to grow in the next 12 months, Amiri continues, before adding: “But I don’t see Amiri as a one-year brand or a 10-year brand — I see it as a 100-year brand. Every decision we make is with the idea that this is a house that will grow through time. So where do we progress, where do we evolve, how do we diversify?”
This season’s steps towards building a 22nd century fashion house include reintroducing womenswear (currently around 15 per cent of the business) to the runway. A new range of Japanese-made eyewear — “Very Jack Nicholson,” he says as I try on some yellow-lensed aviators — is both a retail proposition and a form of positive visualisation. “We’re going to have global eyewear distribution one day, so let’s build the fundamentals for that,” Amiri says. Other future categories he is manifesting include fragrance and cosmetics.
