It’s a beautiful Summer’s day in Los Angeles and it’s only January. The soundtrack to L.A. is playing loud and clear — sirens blazing, cars honking, people chatting, the fruit guy on the corner yelling… awwe yes, as a native Angelino this is music to my ears. I’m driving towards the DimePiece headquarters in Downtown L.A. and as I circle the block looking for parking, I begin to clear my head and collect my thoughts to prepare myself for this interview. Ashley and Laura “Dimes” are the founders and designers of DimePiece Designs, an ever expanding women’s street wear line. DMPC started a few years ago with basic screen-print tees with female empowering logos emblazoned on them, but has blossomed into a more intricate and detailed collection of cut & sew pieces, jewelry, all the while still staying true to its original foundation. As I enter the office, I am greeted by both Laura and Ashley and am offered a drink, “Would you like water, juice, beer, vodka?” With such an offering, I am immediately at ease and know off top that I’m really going to like these girls!
Tell us about the origins of DimePiece?
Ashley: We created DimePiece when we were in college. We met in L.A…
Laura: Through friends, the scene, party scene kind of.
Ashley: We wanted to create a brand that young women could be inspired by and also just do things that we love and not have to work in a cubicle everyday from 9 to 5. So that was kind of how DimePiece started.
Laura: We started with independent funds and then we came up with a name, we sat down, we created a logo. Ya know, we wanted something that was really cool and really tangible and easy to purchase. So we started getting American Apparel tees and started screen printing them. Then we learned that American Apparel is… eh. And then we started doing our own cut and sew garments. We love it, it’s amazing! We’re gonna keep moving forward.
Ashley: We’ve learned a lot!
What are your thoughts on the market right now? Is their competition with other female street wear lines?
Laura: I don’t really feel like there’s competition between brands that I see that are out. They have their own brand vision so I think that everyone is unique in their own way and they’re running with it. Ya know? We definitely have our own totally different direction of where we want to go in the future.
Ashley: Yeah, I mean there’s definitely no competition amongst female brands. It’s just we’re doing what we want to do and it’s our vision that we’re going with. We’re not looking at anyone else and what they’re doing. We’re just doing what we love to do!
What separates DMPC from everyone else?
Laura: We have a lot of creative spark. Every time we do our look-books we like to do farfetched, whimsical ideas. Like we use wigs, our colors are really bright, our styling is really bold and out there. I don’t know, it’s special!
Ashley: Yeah I mean I guess you have to see it for yourself. Everything is a little weird. It’s a little quirky, but it’s also I think very stylish and it’s still tasteful. But it’s very fun and something that a young female consumer would still be attracted to.
Do you want your clothes to have an exclusive appeal or be available to the masses
Laura: I think our brand is very exclusive, it’s still unknown and girls are still Googling and researching to find out what DimePiece is. But we definitely do mass quantities. So I mean we want girls from all over the world to find and rock DimePiece ya know? So it’s in-between… exclusive, but still mass produced.
Ashley: I mean even for us as buyers of fashion we want to wear stuff that is exclusive, but is still affordable. So that’s why we try to do really key pieces that are very different and phrases that you won’t find at Forever21 or something like that, but it’s still moderately affordable for everybody.
I loved the Foxy Brown tee from one of your previous collections. Has hip-hop culture influenced DMPC and your designs?
Ashley: I think hip hop culture has definitely without a doubt influenced us. We’re both from the Inland Empire (in Southern Cali) which is all hip-hop based and that’s just what we grew up around.
Laura: I think hip-hop, rock, pop, everything has definitely influenced us. Because, I mean, we’re kind of in the new millennium where everything has been watered down and everything has triculated down from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s so we kind of got the outcome from all of that music.
Ashley: Yeah we always talk about that. We feel like our generation is somewhat what’s leftover from all the cool eras and we’re just picking up the pieces and mixing it in.
Laura: Yeah, we’re just trying to figure out where we fit in and where we’re going to take those ideas… and basically just run with it!
Ashley: Yeah so I guess it’s a bad thing and a good thing, but definitely hip-hop and other genre’s of music are… well… everything is influential!
Laura: Especially our culture and L.A. It’s all a big melting pot of genres of music and fashion. It’s a really good thing to live off of and feed off of.
Ashley: Especially downtown L.A. and the fashion district! I mean it’s not glamorous. It is NOT glamorous! [both laugh] Trust me!
Laura: It smells like urine. Every time we go to a parking lot it always smells like piss and we have to hold our breath and it’s like fuck! [both laugh]
Ashley: But that culture of downtown L.A. definitely influences us and really
