Brooklyn may be trending in Paris, but the vibe at Faith Connexion’s headquarters is distinctly L.A. sur la Seine. Step through the door at its hôtel particulier (part of which is a small hotel) and a certain very famous someone’s matte black Porsche Panamera is parked there. In the courtyard, members of fashion’s fabulous class are gossiping while eating lunch while texting on their iPhones. At the reception, a fashion shoot in which a blogger poses, lying shoeless underneath an antique chair, is taking place.
Upstairs in the showroom, where the racks are lined with torn jeans, graffitied leather jackets, and lacy white dresses that look like they stepped off the set of Guns N' Roses’ “November Rain” video, the sales are brisk. Faith Connexion has never done a runway show and refuses to name its designer (it's more or less an open secret that former Balmain creative director Christophe Decarnin is in charge). The brand has caught on in spite of all that, because nobody nails the grungy, I-woke-up-like-this lifestyle better. For spring, the attitude is essentially the same as previous seasons, only more California-fied. Tropical prints registered as new, as did sweatshirts spray-painted with palm trees. Hammer pants, which take their name from Oakland, California’s native son, MC Hammer, even turned up. But the big winners here will be the oversize army jackets tagged by Faith Connexion's resident graffiti artists, whose appeal appears to be universal. A rep reports they sent 25 of said jackets to a Seoul, Korea, store and they sold out in a week. In a savvy development, the brand is now also customizing the jackets to clients' specifications
