Louis Verdad photographed in his Downtown LA studio with client Bahia Haifi Gold, who is wearing one of Verdad’s custom pieces.
WOMENSWEAR
LOUIS VERDAD Known for his impeccably tailored pieces and feminine, shapely silhouettes, Louis Verdad has been through many incarnations as a designer. Over the years, he’s done denim, developed products for big companies, dressed celebrities like Madonna and Cate Blanchett, and lost, then regained, the rights to his name. Yet he seems to have found perfect happiness as a bespoke designer, working in his atelier alongside his pattern maker and sewers. “I’m involved in every step of the process. I have clients who come in and order 20 pieces, and I have clients who just want one special dress,” says the 40-something Verdad, whose customers tend to be high-profile women between the ages of 30 and 65. Verdad starts by taking 60 measurements on a client. After making a personal pattern for her, he creates the garment in an inexpensive fabric, like muslin, and does a fitting. Once the client is happy with the drape, he moves on to the real fabric and makes additional adjustments. Surprisingly, the whole process takes only a week. “I’m a technician,” he says. Prices for his creations start around $600. LA-based actress Bahia Haifi Gold owns quite a few of Verdad’s pieces and ordered two new dresses for her upcoming screenings. She likes that his clothes “make you want to be a woman and dress up, instead of slouching and wearing jeans. Also, I have curves, I have hips. We are not all android-shaped. With him, you’re allowed to have curves. He gets that.” Indeed, working with clients one-on-one has taught Verdad to “understand the real body of a woman.” Taking the bespoke route, he says, “brought me closer to being the designer I always wanted to be.” By appointment only, e-mail louisverdadpress@ gmail.com to schedule. 213-422-6280; louisverdad.com
Custom of the City
Paris? New York? Los aNgeLes is iNcreasiNgLY grouNd zero for aN emergiNg cLass of masters of made-to-measure—à La mod! By Kathryn Drury Wagner Photography by Scott Witter
128 la-confidential-magazine.com
“His clotHes make you want to be a woman and dress up. witH Him, you’re allowed to Have curves. He gets tHat.” —bahia haifi gold
opposite page: photography by Jon Kopaloff/filmmagic (underwood)
the Ladies maN