Omiru: How did you get started in fashion design?

Parris: Once upon a time, a being by the name of Parris Harris had a love affair with the need to express. This being searched high places like Macy’s Christmas catalog and Kmart’s Super Store and low places like the depth of his soul. I had a love affair with the need to express, especially in places that call for fabulous attire like night clubs, red carpet world premieres, and Texas horse stalls. Overalls can be hot, and if you look hot, your animals may be more responsive to you. You heard it here first, folks. Write it down.

Long story short, I needed outfits, and I first started dressing myself. Fashion or clothing is one of my paints of choice and people’s bodies are notebook pads or expensive pieces of paper to pour all the lovely paints on.

What’s interesting is that circumstances suggest what to wear. They can DOWNRIGHT dress you. Poverty, pride, mourning, death, opulence, regret, sorrow, thug life, wealth, punkness, weddings, racism, hate, conservativeness, etc. I’ve always been observant of how people respond to what others wear and how we act in what we wear. If a 27-year-old accountant went dressed in an Armani suit one day, rags the next, overalls the third, and a Vivienne Westwood couture gown on Thursday, there is a good chance she would be received differently each time based on appearance alone. At some point of my existence, that realization grabbed my attention and kept it.

O: From where do you get your inspiration?

P: From the stars and the moon and the grass that minds its own business and doesn’t bother anybody and just grows. Again, in some way, poverty, pride, mourning, death, opulence, regret, sorrow, thug life, wealth, punkness, weddings, racism, hate, and the conservative all offer inspiration. The power of fashion, the fun aspect, the silliness, the history, the emotions it instills, the actors it suggests, the silence it speaks. Fashion can protect, intimidate, and demean through appearance alone. I’m a sucker for art in unexpected places (performance art) There’s all that to inspire and then some.

O: What is your design philosophy?

P: 1. Make the outrageous understandable, functional, obtainable, and within reach.
2. Make the simple scream while silent (as it does so often) and perhaps cause you to feel that feeling we get when we wished we had looked closer.
3. To cause one to enjoy and appreciate being annoyed (Love thy dreadful neighbor).
4. Make destruction beautiful to the look and acceptable regardless.
5. To enjoy just being dressed.
6. To cause you to enjoy the ugly and never want to be beautiful again.
7. Make the average girls of the club and world, boring, poor, looney and punk, as hot and sexy as the tall, blond, blue eyed, and vice versa.
8. Club wear at the office. 
9. To make arty, magnificently animated, nonsense garments.
10. And of course all the other deliciously boring things like making a woman feel feminine or help a gentleman’s outsides match his ego.

O: Thoughts on the San Francisco design scene?

P: Hot, Hot, Hot….Japan mixed with NY and Paris. It’s unaware of its fashion potential. It has the freedom of Paris to wear what you want. It’s courageous. It has trendsetters on the DL (down low) so comfortable in their skin.

O: Who are your favorite designers?

P: Vivienne Westwood, Diesel, Cov’et, Channel, Jncos, Armani, Jimmy Choo, Alberta Ferretti, V.W., Serious, Snoop Dog Clothing, Outkast Clothing, Sean John, Moschino.

O: What trends do you foresee for Spring 2006?

P: New is the new. Pink isn’t going anywhere. Trashy glam with new cuts and lace. Hip Hop Couture. Men in hip, witty, sporty blazers with patches, torn seams, etc. Office meets baseball court in the work place. Punk Proms. Golf Couture. Men in smarter stripes that pop. Women in gowns before 5 p.m. again. The 1700’s revisited, but this time, women in gowns at the water cooler, walking to get the mail, in the mall, and at soccer practice.

O: Last words?

P: I love how clothing can be so accessible. Every day or every moment (depends on the person), we are blessed with the opportunity to change our clothes again…and create again. Is that great, or what?

O: When did Local Celebrity come about, and why did you decide to focus on t-shirts?
J: We got a screen printing machine and lived at our grandmother’s house in San Diego and printed t-shirts out of a barn for close to a year. Urban Outfitters was our first account, and they started ordering and needed to really pick up the distribution of the production. We partnered with a production facility, and the rest is history.

O: Who comes up with the concepts for the t-shirts?
J: Primarily it’s me and my brother, but every once in a while, our designer will come up with a good concept or Andi will throw something in there.

O: How many t-shirts do you come up with per season?
J: We haven’t really been working in seasons. We’ve just been making t-shirts. Ones that sell well, we keep around. Ones that don’t, we just discontinue and replace with another one. We try to get at least 10 a month to our showroom.

O: What makes your collection unique?
J: When we started, it was very unique. We feel like we really influenced the market for humor t-shirts. But now everybody and their mother has a humor t-shirt company. So we stepped it up. It’s not so much clip art and words anymore because that’s everywhere, and we’re tired of seeing it, and we don’t want to wear it. Our shirts have more flavor than other companies. Most of our competition in the humor t-shirt market sell shirts with sexual innuendos, and they talk about getting drunk, partying, and really just the whole college lifestyle (therefore mainly targeting college kids).  We try to "rise above" that and keep our shirts clean and wearable for everybody.  We want them a little more thought provoking, confidence inspiring, and flavorful.

O: From where do you draw your inspiration?
J: Everywhere. A lot of pop culture and hip hop. Mainly, I like to draw inspiration from music. Everyone can have a Local Celebrity shirt because there’s an occasion for every one of our shirts. Music reaches everybody. We also have random personalities in our family, so we draw inspiration from each other.  

O: Describe your collection.
J: We have fleece, canvas slip on shoes, and hats that are being produced right now, and within the next few months, we’re working on producing long sleeves, thermals, and tank tops.

O: What stores are you sold in?
J: A good list of stores that we’re in are Kitson, Atrium, The Lounge, Urban Outfitters, Hollywood Stars, and Delias.

O: Who wears your t-shirts and who do you want to see in them?
J: We have DJs rocking our stuff, we’ve got Delias customers, and Hot Topic customers. We just want people to wear our stuff and feel confident. Our customer is anyone who keeps it real, anyone who’s cool, has flavor, personality, charisma.

O: From where did you get the name Local Celebrity?
J: It was pretty random. My sister actually came up with it. When it first started, it was called TheVeryBestTshirts.com. We were trying to brainstorm, and it just came to my sister I think when she was going to bed one night. We love it!

O: If your house was burning down, and you could only keep one thing in your closet, what would you keep?
J: I’d definitely rescue my dog, Champ, before I grabbed anything else.  He’s a 4 1/2 pound miniature pinscher, and I could never leave him behind.  The fire can have my clothes (I have a clothing company, so there’s plenty to go around, and I’d probably already be wearing my Local Celebrity hoodie).

O: Last words?
J: We really wish that people could get to know us because we are the best representatives for the company. That, and our t-shirts are really cool. They have flavor, personality, and it takes a really cool person to wear our stuff.

What are you inspired by?
I
am primarily inspired by anything and everything vintage. But I am also
inspired by what I want to wear. I love vintage clothes, but I steer
away from them because I just feel like a haggard when I wear them.
However, my love of vintage shows in the details I add into Rebel
Yell.  I try to make Rebel Yell clothes more updated. It just makes a
woman feel better about wearing vintage.

How has your style evolved over time?
It
doesn’t really. It kind of stayed the same. I’m super t-shirt and
jeans. Six-and-a-half days a week, I’m wearing a t-shirt and jeans.

Do you care about what you wear?
Well,
I don’t have time to think about what I wear, and that’s part of what
Rebel Yell is too. It should be something that doesn’t take too much
thought. You throw it on and feel good about how you look.

And in case you haven’t gotten enough of them, here’s our picks for the best Structured Hobo Bags, sorted with love just for You by price point!  Yeah, we’re really feeling the Bag thing this week.