Meet Juliana Sorelli of Sorelli Presents in Hollywood and Los Feliz

Today we’d like to introduce you to Juliana Sorelli.

Juliana, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I moved to America from France when I was 19. After a few years of living here, I started making short films and then slowly converted my office into a small shop in Hollywood. We used to make only custom work on vintage garments, all punk and rock n roll inspired kind of stuff. After a few months, I started to make my own clothes, I got so many compliments that we decided to try and produce some for the store. That’s our line Hollywood Savage Society, it all sold out pretty quickly and a lot of really great articles came out within weeks. So, we then opened a bigger store in Los Feliz. That store was more like a rock n roll church. As well as making the clothes, I curated a lot of “rock n roll” events. From music shows to photo exhibition.
It all was very fun and pretty successful.

After doing this for 3 years I felt like it was time for a change, I don’t like routine, and having a store front is a giant routine. So now we moved to a big private space in Los Feliz. The building is a giant 1920’s French castle which was built by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, I still design for H.S.S and everything is online. A lot of the new items are per order only as they are high end tailored garments, such as silk suits and long velvet coats. Which is coming out this week.

This gives me the freedom to also work on different projects, in films or collaborations. I just did some design work with Linda Ramone, all new Johnny Ramone merch and website that will come out next week.

Has it been a smooth road?
I have been very lucky in anything creative project I have started. It seems to be appreciated by a lot of people and that’s the nicest feeling. There are a few people that even got our Evil Cat logo tattooed on them! So the general reaction and also the more professional side (press, stylists etc..) have all been really supportive of my work from the start.

I would say that the biggest struggle I have had was that I never worked or interned before doing all these different things. So, I’m 100% self-taught, in design, film, business, really any area of my work I just learned by doing it. So I would assume it’s harder and really stressful that way, because you make a lot of mistakes but at the same time I think that is absolutely the best way to learn and develop your own method.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
The thing that I’m the proudest of with my company is that I believe I have managed to build a strong personal identity with it. I do a lot of different things (clothing design, film, exhibitions etc.) but they all seem to merge together visually and in the quality standards I have.

For example, it’s very difficult in fashion to try and make high quality tailored garments that don’t go out of season. It’s more expensive but also you take the risk to maybe not be “in style”. Same for video work, it is more difficult to do things with no team or big budget but then what comes out is always 100% mine.

So I tried to focus and learn what it is I personally like and care for. This is not a usual formula for business but it seems to work for mine and that’s what makes me proud.

I have never compromised in anything, everything I have ever made I am proud of, I would believe that’s priceless.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I think Los Angeles is great for anyone wanting to start their own things, there is a giant amount of resources here. As for a store front I think that the way business is done is changing, even when we had the stores in Hollywood I would get online orders from a few blocks away. This is very different than Paris or New York, were people just walk around. If I ever wanted to open a store again, I would probably do it in New York and keep the office and production here in Los Angeles.

Pricing:

• T-shirts – starts at $45
• Jackets and Coats $400 to $900
• Tailored Silk Suits $1200

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sorellipresents.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @sorellipresents @hollywoodsavagesociety
• Facebook: sorellipresents

Image Credit:
Brad Elterman (Personal Photo)
Hollywood Savage Society

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