Skip to content, skip to search, or go to the top of the page.
Daily Fashion & Runway News
Sep 12, 2007
With Theodora Richards, Diddy, Tinsley, and Jenna Jameson.
Considering the “trash and flash” mantra it lived by, the Heatherette label fared well during its existence. Infamous club kid Richie Rich and cowboy-esque then-boyfriend Traver Rains launched Heatherette in 1999 when a Patricia Field buyer spotted Rich in one of his own leather tops and ordered twenty of them on the spot. Their fan base soon blew up. Foxy Brown saw the tops at Patricia Field and asked Rains and Rich to design her outfits for the MTV Video Music Awards. Lil' Kim bought five leather shirts for her tour. And Gwen Stefani wore one of their tops in Entertainment Weekly. Soon the label found an investor—Weisfeld Group—and launched a juniors’ line. Industry elites eventually gave the glittery label a nod, and they began showing at Bryant Park, presenting kooky, thematic garb from collections titled “Star-Spangled Smiles” and “Over the Rainbow.” Their runways were famously populated with “models” like the Hilton sisters, Mena Suvari, Lydia Hearst, Mya, Kelis, and some of New York’s best-loved drag queens. The hard-partying duo’s success eventually started to plummet when they lost their financial backing, and the two decided to pursue individual projects in 2008.
“Since they launched their collection eight years ago, designers Richie Rich and Traver Rains have defied expectations and steadily built a business out of their cartoony, club-kid gear.... That said, Rich and Rains haven't lost an iota of the outrageously kooky spirit that makes entering the world of Heatherette a bit like dropping down a psychedelic rabbit hole.”—Meenal Mistry Style.com
“I'm always sick of going out until about 3 p.m. Then my biological clock kicks in. I like to dress up, and going out to the deli just isn't the same.”—Richie Rich W Magazine
Richie Rich and Traver Rains