Who is the David Lerner woman? Is she real or theoretical?

She’s a woman who is confident and therefore sexy. She’s a woman who is well traveled, smart and caring. A woman who likes to have fun, who is serious but not too serious. The David Lerner woman is someone who has her own style, she’s a woman who sets trends and has an appreciation for the highest quality fabrics that we use.

Your basics are also super fashion forward. Where do you get your inspiration & design details? Do you pay attention to trends?

I get inspiration everywhere, it can come from music, art, cities, people and even television shows. My Fall 2011 collection was inspired by Boardwalk Empire, and the 1920’s prohibition era. At David Lerner we strive set trends, not adhere to any existing ones.

What’s the first thing you think about when designing a new piece?

I think of the David Lerner woman, and if that piece will instill more confidence in her.

What’s your personal style like? Favorite brands? Go-to outfit?

My personal style is business, but casual. I always wear brands that recognize that less is more when it comes to fashion. My go-to brand is Rag and Bone, and in terms of outfit, a pair of jeans and a button-down.

What do you do in your spare time (hobbies, passions, down time)? 

In my spare time, I play with my 10 month bulldog Mashuganna. I watch Homeland on Showtime, but my favorite thing to do is spend time with my family.

Do you have any New Years resolutions?

Go to the gym.

What are we going to see from David Lerner in the near future?

We are going through a huge expansion as we prepare to show Fall 2012. The line will become a full collection finally. We have introduced new fabrics and moved into new categories of clothing. We just took new offices and showroom in the Meatpacking District and brought our sales in-house. In the near future, I hope there will be David Lerner retail stores in both New York City and Los Angeles.

You’ve had a lot of success in a short amount of time — 2008 is really not that long ago! What’s the best business advice you’ve gotten along the way?

The best business advice I have gotten is to never take the last dollar off the table. The relationship is always more important than a little bit of extra money.

Among the long list of celebrities that live in and love David Lerner, here is AnnaLynne McCord wearing a David Lerner skirt.

Bradley Davidowitz

Where does the imagery for the screen-printing stem from?

It’s an extension of what we were already doing, which is traditional with a twist. We’re taking things that have already been done before and doing it a little bit better, a little bit different than people have seen them. I take iconic imagery and do it in a sort of “One Grey Day” way, which is to put a little twist on it and to get something that everybody’s familiar with, but have not seen in that form before.

You said that your name is a play on words. How did one great day become One Grey Day?

The concept for the line, tones of black, gray and white, was in place before we had a name for the line. I got me and my friends together and we were throwing around ideas. We were saying, ‘What’s the commonality that ties everything together?’ My own wardrobe, even my house, everything’s gray. I knew that gray was going to be the underlying concept through the whole collection. People ask me, “Why gray?” Everybody knows in Los Angeles, when I say, “a gray day,” they know what I mean because we have these days all the time. Even in summer. In April, the beginning of spring, you’ll wake up and everything looks gray. It’s not in a bad way, it’s just a gray day. It’s not cold outside, it’s overcast, it’s cloudy and has this grey hue over the city.

How big is your design team?

My design team right now is three people. I have 2 amazing young designers who at some time soon I’ll be able to introduce to everybody, but right now they’re working and developing their craft. I’m lucky that they’re doing it for one grey day. I have one sweater designer, one cut and sew designer, and they also are working together to develop the new part of the collection that is a hybrid between the sweaters and the cut and sew pieces. And I have an artist that does all of my images for screen-printing.

What was your Aha! moment that got this company started?

I don’t know if there was an exact “aha” moment. I know, for me, when I realized everything was going to work out was when we did the Coterie trade show in NY. We had put the collection pretty quickly and we were making the decision of whether we should wait one season to launch, or to just go ahead and do it that fall of ’09. And we decided we should go for it. We waited as Coterie opened for 5-10 minutes and there was literally nobody in the hall yet. The first person to walk by our booth came in and started looking at the collection and asked some simple questions. Two minutes later they had written a pretty nice order and walked away. So five minutes into the life of the brand, we had gotten our first order. For me that was really exciting, like, Okay maybe we are onto something here. It gave me the confidence to keep going forward. It was a great start for One Grey Day.

Who was the first celebrity to wear your designs? What did that feel like?

There were some people that were wearing One Grey Day pieces before it launched, just some close friends, but it was never something that happened organically. There’s giving something to a friend and you know they’re going to wear it and support you no matter what. There’s a difference between that and getting a phone call saying, “I saw someone wearing your clothes.” That happened for me. I was getting ready to go on vacation that afternoon, and about a half hour before I left for the airport, I got an email and it was a picture of AnnaLynne McCord from 90210 wearing one of our dresses on the red carpet for the Taking of Pelham 123. I remember seeing the picture from the side and thinking, that looks like a One Grey Day dress. And then I looked closer and was like, omigod that is a One Grey Day dress! And then 15 minutes after that, the phone was ringing like it had never rung before. We had a multiple line phone at the office, and I don’t think more than one line had ever been used at once. And in that few hours the phones were ringing. It was a good feeling. It was pretty cool.

Where do you ideally see your girl wearing One Grey Day?

I think she’s all over. I think that’s one of the great things about One Grey Day is that with each individual person it can be worn differently. The reason I say that is because what we’re doing is taking cool basics and doing them with a twist. What I mean by that [for instance] is taking a traditional v-neck sweater and adding a back slit to it where there’s a peekaboo of the back. And things like that for sure can be worn differently. What that means is that for a certain girl the piece can make them look sexy or feel sexy, but for another girl, they make the piece be sexy, and I think that that’s important that it’s going both ways. The ideal situation would be someone who has plans to go out on a date or to dinner, but in the meantime has to go to work and they don’t want to have to change their whole outfit.

What’s one piece of advice for designers wanting to start their own line?

Not get too ahead of yourself. Whenever you’re dealing with something as creative as a clothing line, there’s always going to be time to choose the things you want to do, but sometimes you have to choose the things you need to do, in order to be able to get to that point.

What’s your favorite piece of the collection?

The stuff that we are selling right now for the stores in fall – the boyfriend sweater. It’s an oversized v-neck sweater. For me it’s just a sexy piece. A beautiful girl that’s wearing a piece of menswear inspired clothing; that just does it for me.

What trend are you most excited about for next Spring?

Time to introduce a little bit of color to One Grey Day.

Bradley Davidowitz

AnnaLynn glams up for a shoot with Nylon Magazine. Not sure how I feel about the bra over tee shirt look, but loving the hair looks.

Quotes on Just Jared

Mena Suvari and AnnaLynne McCord both recently wore this olive green, draped dress from Alice + Olivia by Stacey Bendet. Who do you think pulled it off best?

I’m going to go with Mena. I like her accessories better & it goes better with her hair color and skin tone. The color makes AnnaLynne look extremely old and I hate that shawl.

Annalynne Mccord shows off some of her sexy side  in the latest issue of Cosmo. I’ll be honest here, i might have seen one or ALL of the new 90210 CW show, but let me just say “Naomi” (annalynne) in the show is by far my favorite.

LINK LOVE: Annalynne McCord’s Push-Up Bra for Cosmo of the Day

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY

• Washboard abs and washboard chest. Guess the Pirates of the Caribbean stole the booty and the boobies.

Solange Knowles stars alongside AnnaLynne McCord, Sophia Bush, Joel Madden, Brody Jenner, Cody Linley, and Bow Wow in new ads for juniors line Op.

LINKAGE: NY Mag via WWD

AnnaLynne is the star of the Feb issue of GQ Mag, but honestly, I’m sick of seeing her. Yes, she’s hot, and sexy, blah blah, but she only has one look…

Anyone agree?

GALLERY: AnnaLynne McCord for GQ

LINKAGE: Egotastic

Not that wearing Christian Audgier doesn’t already classify you as a Fashion F*ck Up, but when you are dressing like a pirate hooker for Christian Audgier, you deserve to be sterile. AnnaLynne McCord of 90210 fame displayed her true lack of fashion knowledge by getting all dolled up in an ugly space pirate for Christian Audgier The Nightclub at Treasure Island in Las Vegas. Now I understand this is a one time this, but this is one time too many. So please Christian Audigier, stop ruining fashion and the people who are oh so close to it.

Thanks Just Jared for this train wreck.