The relationship between fashion and music can run the gamut from designer inspiration and runway show soundtracks to co-branded partnerships like Alexander Wang and Apple Musicor Justin Biebers ongoing #merch collections with various retailers.
Adding to the mix, newly-formed, all-female creative collective Les Filles wants to be the fashion industrys go-to music source, and the group is already taking the steps to do just that.
“Theres a real need for creative music direction,” says founder and music lawyer Bec Adams. “Because at the end of the day, especially in fashion, people are so fixated on the visual aspects of something and they forget that your brain receives five senses. The challenge that were happily accepting is educating people that music is important, but quite often overlooked or has a mistaken value in essence. ”
Its been a little more than six months since Adams started gathering a crew of like-minded women to form Les Filles, which initially included Alix Brown (Adamss right hand in all things management and operations), former fashion designerBrianna Lance and Blu Detiger. Recently, she added Leslie Kirchhoff, Hayett Belarbi-Mccarthy, Odalys and Zoe Gittem to the roster.
What most of these ladies have in common is that theyre not only sonically inspiring with a fashion-savvy aesthetic, but theyre also true music-heads through and through — no aux cord DJs here. “At the end of the day, they just have to be knowledgeable … they have to be musicians,” Adams says. “They cant be a girl that has 100K followers on Instagram and just has her laptop and plays from Spotify. ” But the skills and taste that they can bring to the table is far beyond just a DJ gig at a store opening. Though, they can easily do that, too — and on vinyl, if thats what you desired.
Adams sees Les Filles fitting within the fashion space in a few ways. There is, of course, the front-facing side of the business (with deejaying and public appearances), as well as more involved collaborations and projects, like music supervision, producing and throwing events and even original composition — all of which are just starting to gain momentum. In addition to a packed schedule of New York Fashion Week after-parties for Les Filles, Adams curated Tanya Taylors Spring 2018 runway soundtrack. In December, a few members teamed up with undergarments brand Jonesy for a female-backed fashion film, with Detiger creating an original track. Brown consults on all things music at the newly rebranded Roxy Hotel (formerly the Tribeca Grand), like booking DJs and live bands and curating the guestsin-room vinyl program.
“I want people to distinguish us as a legitimate music agency, not just DJs. We solve any music problem, and between all of us girls we can do anything,” says Adams
Plus, Adams and Brown are constantly approached by other music aficionados hoping to join Les Filles. “The future is exciting,” says Adams. “Im getting emails all the time from girls being like, What is this thing? Here are my mixes, my Soundcloud. Its really cool that people are wanting to be a part of it as well. ”
