Studio Visit With Pam Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor, the Designers That Invented Athleisure
In a loft space in the heart of Hollywood, Pam Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor have placed their desks side by side. The pair, known for founding mega-brand Juicy Couture, always work together, which is a sensibility that includes their desk location. “We’ve always done this,” Skaist-Levy says. “Ever since we first started.” The duo met while filling in shifts at a boutique in L.A., where they were frequently mistaken for one another, and have been inseparable – and sometimes impossible to tell apart – ever since.
Their new line, Pam & Gela, takes over where Juicy Couture left off, capturing the sort of casual luxury the designers have cultivated throughout their career. Skaist-Levy and Nash-Taylor founded the line to embody their own personal aesthetic – as in, the sort of clothes they would wear every day. Even today, as they’re sitting in adjacent desk chairs, Skaist-Levy and Nash-Taylor are dressed almost identically in head-to-toe Pam & Gela pieces, including matching T-shirts that read “Blonde Power.”
“You get into trouble if you’re designing for a fictitious character,” Nash-Taylor says. “You have to take it back and go, ‘Am I going to walk around with that on?’ You have to be more rigorous with yourself and keep it real. It’s got to be comfortable. It’s got to make you feel empowered in some way, whether you want to be sexy, sophisticated, chic or whatever. Comfort is powerful so that has to be in everything we do.”
“Comfort is king,” Skaist-Levy chimes in. “Comfortable is the epitome of chic,” Nash-Taylor continues. “Everybody has seen somebody who is in pants that are not cut well or shoes that are too high and they so uncomfortable in their clothes – that’s not chic.”
Pam & Gela recently launched their Spring 2015 collection, which embraces that vibe of being low-key upscale. Its colors and relaxed fit silhouettes feel distinctly Californian, but the line is meant for a broad range of women despite its specific aesthetic origins. Skaist-Levy and Nash-Taylor count several women close to them as muses, including Nash-Taylor’s daughter and step-daughter and Skaist-Levy’s sister. “If none of those girls would wear it and you wouldn’t even give it as a gift, it has no business being there,” Nash-Taylor notes.
Success wasn’t necessarily inevitable coming out of Juicy Couture, founded by the duo back in 1997. To them, Pam & Gela, which already counts celebs like Naomi Watts, Reese Witherspoon, Gwen Stefani, and Jennifer Lawrence as fans, is a start-up and a new beginning. Although it is certainly an evolution of the sort of high-end comfort they instigated in fashion with Juicy.
“There’s the question of ‘Are you going to be relevant again?’” Nash-Taylor says. “Well, I say ‘Hell yeah.’ Of course we’re going to be relevant again. We’re relevant right now. The line is taking off right now. People are responding to it in a really major way. It’s feeling good. Will we be as monstrous as Juicy? I don’t know. That’s not the goal.”
“We’re just doing our thing,” Skaist-Levy adds. “We want it to be successful, of course, but Juicy was like a rocket ship.”
They are, in fact, grateful to experience the early stages of a company for the second time. “It feels like the beginning of Juicy,” Skaist-Levy says, leaning back in her chair and surveying the busy office, which is scattered with fully packed clothing racks and boxes of the duo’s recent book ‘The Glitter Plan.’ “We’re very used to being hands on, working in a small office together. We did that for a long time. It feels right.”
“We like the lo-fi vibe,” Nash-Taylor adds. “Our offices were always patchwork hovels.”
The advent of the Internet marks a major shift from Juicy Couture to Pam & Gela, however. Whereas Juicy started in a non-computer era, when the designers handwrote all their early invoices, Pam & Gela has been able to establish itself immediately online with its e-commerce site. The duo is interested in using the web to create the brand’s narrative with their fun, funny voices. They’re prepping a blog aspect to their website and hope to pitch a YouTube series based on their work. They’re into the blogger/influencer culture and joined in on Rachel Zoe’s Coachella party in April. Accessories and pop-up stores are next on the agenda, and Skaist-Levy and Nash-Taylor want to ensure that everything they do with the brand is both chic and accessible, just like the two of them.
The pair’s sense of excitement is evident in Pam & Gela’s graphic tees, which boasts slogans like “FYI All Brunettes End Up Blonde” and “Bleach Please.” They even designed a one-of-a-kind shirt for longtime client Madonna that reads “The World Is My Bitch.” It’s the same sort of fun that put the word “Juicy” on the butt of a velour sweatsuit all those years ago.
“We’ve always had a sense of humor about what we do,” Nash-Taylor explains. “You’ve got to. Without that, how do you get through the day? You can’t be so crazy serious about everything – it’s clothes. We thought the Juicy thing was the funniest thing.” Skaist-Levy chimes in: “We wanted to do ‘Duh’ on the butt.”
As for the infamous sweatsuits? Pam & Gela is making their own version of the iconic item and the designers have recently been re-experimenting with the possibilities for velour. Their sweatsuits these days are more modern, including a two-piece leather version that can be worn together or as separates. It all adds back up to comfort, an aspect of fashion that Skaist-Levy and Nash-Taylor legitimately initiated. You can thank these ladies for the current trend of chic activewear that’s not just for the gym anymore.
“We invented athleisure,” Nash-Taylor says. “And why do people respond to it? Because you feel good. That was the first time you could go out to Neiman Marcus and you could have lunch there with your girlfriends and you didn’t have to wear stockings and pumps. Now everybody accepts that you can wear whatever you want.”
“We made your body look insane while you were comfortable,” Skaist-Levy notes. “Sweatpants had never been thought of like that – as casual clothes you could wear out. We thought it was cute and we thought it was going to be successful. We feel like we’re the barometers. If we like it then a lot of girls will like it.”
Related: Juicy Couture Founders Say They Would Never Wear a Pink Tracksuit Now
Related: 90 Beach-Ready Accessories to Help You Kick-Start Summer
