IT’S TIME FOR TEN:02
IT COULD BE A MATTER OF A LITTLE LUCK — AND LIL’ KIM — TO LAUNCH LAUREN REYNOLDS INTO “IT” DESIGNER STATUS.
Byline: Deirdre Mendoza
Designer Lauren Reynolds has her fingers crossed. She’s hoping hip-hop star Lil’ Kim will wear one of the ultra-sexy side-knot tops from her just-out spring collection in an upcoming music video.
And why not? Reynolds is friends with the director. “I love Lil’ Kim,” she beamed. “She needs to be in my stuff. It would be so amazing.”
And, as every young designer starting out in Los Angeles knows, celebrity exposure can be a real coup, a needed break and possibly the key to getting Ten:02, her line, some media highlights.
So Reynolds waits to hear what happens. And prays a little.
Sitting in the company kitchen of her family-run warehouse space in a desolate stretch of Jefferson Boulevard, Reynolds, 26, traces back to her early days as an aspiring designer. She grew up in La Jolla, two hours south of Los Angeles. Both her parents worked in the junior sportswear business.
“”I made matching outfits for my friends in junior high school and turned turtlenecks into skirts — I was always making things,” recalled the attractive brunette.
She remembers giving her brother $5 bribes to model her homespun creations, at times forcing him to wear girlie get-ups and be photographed in a makeshift “studio.”
It made an impact on her now 23-year-old brother, Jarrett Reynolds: he, too, found his inner design muse, recently launching Tokyo 1, a young men’s and unisex line for the electronica music set.
Jarrett’s older sis hadn’t intended on going into the family business. The San Francisco State psychology and business major returned to Los Angeles in 1996 set on working with animals.
Eventually, however, an interest in fashion prompted her to enroll in downtown Los Angeles’s Trade Technical College.
At the 1999 MAGIC show, Reynolds unveiled a 20-piece collection under the Ten:02 label at The Edge. The highlight was a ruffled skirt reminiscent of the Fiorucci side-ruffle pants she wore as a pre-teen in the early Eighties.
Even as the rest of the fashion world has jumped onto the Eighties bandwagon, Reynolds continues offering her unique spin on the decade’s looks. Her tight-fitting jeans come in eye-popping solids like fuchsia, turquoise and coral. There are low-rise pants with “fins” — sharkfin-shaped folds of fabric sewn into the seam at the hip; stretch camouflage bottoms with lace and front cord ties; and denim with inverted contrast stitching. One-sleeve and lace tops are designed to barely meet the low-rise bottoms. Wholesale prices range from $15 for stretch-fabric T-shirts to $50 for dresses, pants or skirts.
The line is carried in better junior stores nationwide. Ten:02’S spring collection is available at X Boutique in Los Angeles, Mini Mini Market in Brooklyn and Belmont Army Surplus in Chicago.