A touch of Tough Glam & All American Litter

I am absolutely addicted to following Litter’s Mackenzie and Rachel Mann.  Their personal style as well as design creations represent the kind of unique and non-mainstream fashion le la Moda loves.  There is something old world about them; mix in tough edge, indie fashion, flapper attitude and you have Litter.  This is not to say that they do not enjoy the luxuries of high end fashion, a Hermes handbag is right up there with their costume jewelry. 

The best thing about Litter?  The laid back vibe and ability to create art out of used items, which they search for high and low.  Visit their blog/shop and you too will want to break free from the usual, take off extra layers of clothing and run like mad looking for vintage fashion.  This is why they are chosen to be the style mavens and le la Moda darlings for June/July.  We just love them and hope you enjoy our interview with the two sisters and designers. 

llM:How was Litter born and what does the name represent?

M&R: LITTER came to be when Mackenzie started getting experimental at the hardware store making jewelry out of nuts and bolts, and plumbing parts. It was really cool stuff, but not really wearable. At that time, it wasn’t named LITTER, it was just a concept. When we joined forces is when we decided to create LITTER using found objects, some hardware store finds, but mostly vintage chains and flea market scores. We brainstormed to come up with a name, and we wanted to stick with something “Trashen” because the jewelry was made from these cast off materials. Basically, we pulled out the thesaurus, and LITTER was the name we chose. 

llM: What influences your design creations?

M&R: We aren’t really influenced by other designers or people. We mostly influence each others designs here in the studio. Its great because we have this amazing resource in each other for style advise and design direction. We make something, and then we revise it based on one another’s ideas. Sometimes, our friends come in with ideas thinking they are going to help us out, but we usually end up wishing they would leave because they are in the way! 

We both went to The Academy of Art in San Francisco, but we studied different areas of the arts. Which is why we have a good partnership, because we bring different things to the table. Everything about us is different in fact. We have completely different style, different taste in men, and different interests. We do have the same taste in music, but that’s it. We love anything with tons of bass, like dubstep. 

llM: Once you realized you had something unique and marketable, what  were the first steps you took to promote your product? 

M&R: We started with just the blog, and from there it grew into needing a website to start selling the product. So, we threw together the online store, and its sort of caught fire all on its own through word of mouth and other bloggers. I mean, we owe all of our success to bloggers, they have fast tracked us to the place we stand now. We still can’t believe how many people have responded to us and to LITTER. Its been such a compliment and has kept us going and motivates us to design more. 

llM: How are you personal styles the same or different? 

M&R: We are 100% opposites! Mackenzie has a much harder look. She chooses more masculine fashions, where I am really girlie and softer. I love gold, and she loves silver. She likes Spikes and heavy chains, and I use the delicate chain and costumy vintage looking chain. She wears combat boots and I wear high heels. This list goes on and on…

llM: Where do you shop?

M&R: We love the Goodwill, Thrift Stores, Vintage Stores, and Flea Markets. We find amazing things, and then we bring them back to the studio and add to them, rework them, and turn them into our own creations.

llM: You create your designs from used items, what other ways do you live the green lifestyle? 

M&R: We try to be environmentally conscience, but our lives are not considered very green. We are happy that LITTER is technically “green” because it makes up for some of our other excesses. We both use energy saving light bulbs and recycle! 

llM: What fashion icons do you look up to? 

M&R: We love Karl Lagerfeld, Alexander Wang, Kate Moss, Keith Richards and love looking at old pictures of Musicians from the 60’s and 70’s for styles. 

llM: If you can tell, what futures plans do you have for Litter?

M&R: We have a trip planned in a couplemonths. We are renting an RV on the east coast and turning it into a mobile LITTER studio. Then, we are going to head west hitting up flea markets, goodwills, thrift stores, and garage sales in every state along the way. We will get chains, clothes, and accessories and rework them into new LITTER pieces. Then, at the end of our trip, we will put on a show of our “American” collection. So excited! 

To shop or for more on Mackenzie & Rachel, Go to www.littersf.com