Hellz Bellz interview with Lanie!

Itsdesignrelated.com got a chance to catch up with Lanie from Hellz Bellz check it out the interview!

Hellz-Bellz: "a tribute to non-conforming female youth of today." Tag team partners for life, Miss Lawn and Bam have risen to the top of lady lifestyle apparel by dominating the street scene all over the world with their eye catching and innovative designs. Read more about their passions, their struggles, their inspirations...


if iDR opened your purse and dumped everything out...what would
expect us to see?
I carry huge bags, so here you go: BlackBerry World Edition, Burt's
Bees® Beeswax Lip Balm, business cards, clean sheet notebook, Crooks &
Castles wallet (that holds way too many credit cards), Evian water
bottle, Lancome Juicy Tube, Sharpie highlighter, 2 LA Parking tickets,
#5 Mechanical pencil, Gucci make-up bag, Porter camera case for my
Canon digital elph, and tons of loose change

Favorite city?
New York City
       
Lanie, you must travel a lot...in cases of a delayed flight...what
do you do to remain calm, and occupied?
I work on my laptop/black berry or just chill out and listen to my iPod

What is currently playing on your iPod?
Ryan Leslie | Addiction




 By building your brand do you feel that you've developed a
following.
Developing a following with Hellz wasn't initially the goal when
starting Hellz. When I started Hellz, it was more of an outlet for my
creativity than a "brand". After a span of 3 years, it's grown from a
part time hobbie to a full time hobbie that puts food on the table. I
say hobbie, 'cause I'm having way too much fun doing this to even call
it a job.  But amidst all the fun and hard work, we've created a
following of strong, intelligent women who are able to relate to me
and what Hellz is all about.

Through being able to profile and understand purchasing patterns of your customer, has it influence your creativity or business decisions?
Although most companies keep in mind what sells and what doesn't when
designing, I try to not let it influence my creativity or business
decisions. I have to be confident in myself that even though there's a
style/graphic that doesn't sell well in retail that that doesn't mean
it sucked. There's been so many times that I've designed something and
buyers/consumers just didn't get it, then next thing you know another
company does something similar to it 2 seasons later and it becomes a
hit... urgh, that can be so frustrating. So as a creative person and
forward designer, it's my job to continue to push the limits of
design. The last thing that I want with my company, is to let buyers
or purchasing patterns of my customer dictate how I design.





Not many people know that Hellz is owned and designed by a wife and husband tag team. Some of us would imagine these ingenius designs might spring from a conversation during a home-cooked dinner!?
Yeah, both Bam and I own Hellz :) Not a lot of people know because for
a while I was designing Hellz on my own. Then luckily, I was able to
convince him to get on board and help me out. It's strange because in
so many ways we're alike and not alike in the way we design and work,
however somehow we make it work and we're the best "tag team".
Everyone always asks me, "How are you able to work and live w/ your
husband?" and my answer is always, "I don't know, it just works".
There's nothing better than working with your best friend... but like
all relationships we're gonna have times where we butt heads and have
disagreements, but we've learned how to work things out and not allow
any work issues bleed into our personal lives as husband wife.
That's funny that you say people would imagine us coming up w/ ideas
over dinner, because that's what happens a lot of the times, lol.

A lot of people look to HB as the first women's wear in a heavily male dominated industry. How do you find HBs position an advantage? Do you look to the guys lines as a source of inspiration?
Well, first of all Hellz definitely isn't the first female line in
street wear... there's been other lines like, MOB and Claw Money that
were established before Hellz was. I'm always honored to be
categorized with brands such as theirs. Just to be a part of this
movement of females stepping up and doing their thing (and killing it)
in an industry that's typically run by males is not only liberating
but also very empowering. We've been able to create a niche that was
untapped prior to us coming along. Now you have other female brands
coming up who have seen us as great inspirations for what they do,
whereas a few years back the only source of inspiration for us were
men's lines... it's dope to see that that isn't the case anymore.

iDR loves that you pick iconic, strong women of the 70s and 80s. If you could pick a batch of women today, which ladies would you like to add to your list?
Agyness Deyn, Kate Moss, Omahrya Mota, Santi White, Chloe Sevigney,
Angelina Jolie

check some of their favorite chicas of today!


How do you find HB paving way for future women's wear brands?
Hellz is opening up doors and creating opportunities for future
women's brands that weren't so opened minded to the thought of women
making a name for themselves in this crazy male dominated industry.

iDR cant get enough of your clever wittiness in your writing on your tees. How do you create these tees? Do you think of a strong direction in writing first or does the art/graphics/theme direct the writing?
Everything begins with an idea and goes from there. We'll take that
idea, do research and create a concept that's cohesive amongst the
graphics, design and verbage.





What is your process in developing a whole collection?
Research, research and more research

is there anything else you would like to tell your fans, friends, peers, women in pursuit of fashion?
Follow your heart and let your passion for fashion take you to where you wanna go to achieve whatever goals you may have... and do you and fuck the rest!!





Thanks Lanie for taking the time to catch up with us! All of the editors here are super excited to see your new goods. It's definitely inspiring to see women in the creative fields such as fashion succeed and prosper.

To see more of Lanie and her awesome line, check out her site: WWW.HELLZ-BELLZ.COM

Interview conducted by Courtney
Produced by Jessica
*thanks for the love! feel free to repost, link back to us and cite the source. mucho thanks!*