Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Anthony.
Lauren, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Most people call me LJ. I’m from Cincinnati, OH where I started LaVingt (pronounced lay-von-t) in 2014. LaVingt is an outlet for my ideas and feelings. The medium being anything wearable for men and women with streetwear DIY feeling.
My start goes back to my parents who were into fashion and visual merchandising. I would go to my mom’s fashion design and merchandising classes, while my dad had his own merchandising company before it was an in-house job. From there, growing up riding BMX, skateboarding, and even team sports like baseball and hockey through college – it all played an important part in how I see things and where I pulled inspiration from when doing LaVingt.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It hasn’t been easy at all. It’s tough being a one-man operation. Doing multiple things at once, your focus is spread. Plus, since moving here in 2015, it was basically starting completely over again. One Ohio blog picked up my first release moving here, then it was quiet.
When you leave one place to go to another, you start to get a feeling of some people where you came from stop supporting you cause they feel like it isn’t needed when it’s needed even more. I never use that as an excuse though.
I’ve also always worked a full-time job, till now, while supporting LaVingt. I put my own money and money made back into the brand to keep things rolling. At times, money was super tight and I had to take a hiatus from releasing items cause I was close to shutting it down, but as always, something happened to bounce right back.
Things still get hectic at times with trying to ship, create, handle the finances, and everything that goes into running something. It’s a one-man show for the most part.
Please tell us about LaVingt.
LaVingt is an outlet for my ideas and feelings. A stream of ideas. The medium being anything wearable for men and women. There isn’t just one thing we have, but everything we have is unisex. Tops, pants, hats, etc.
The name came from a previous project I had, IVXX (the Four Twenty). I changed the name to LaVingt, which is french for “the twenty” but spelled lé vingt. The LA comes from my name and now being based in LA. Vingt stayed because my twenties were so influential in my life. We learn a lot about ourselves in those formative years and I learned many lessons.
I’m very proud to say that when I started this, I did it for the love and not to make a dollar. I’ve seen many people fall off because they were doing what was popular, trendy, and whatever just for the dollar. I stayed true to what I believed in and I’m still here. Not the most popular, not the biggest name, don’t have the biggest following – but I’m still here and still growing.
I’ll have a new collection releasing in May/June (post-corona) called LaVingt Sport.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
That’s a tough question. I always had a difficult time with product seeding. I was never big on giving the product to people just because of who they are, for free. I wanted people to like the product and want it for themselves. I may have been a bit too strict on that. Maybe I could have lightened up a bit. But it’s the people who are willing to pay, who bring value.
Contact Info:
- Website: Lavingt.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @lavingt_
- Other: @_laurenanthony
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