Across from a bike path and an outdoor gallery, amid North Hollywood’s music recording studios and furniture dealers, fashion brand Simon Miller has carved out a slice of neo-mod heaven as it plots its growth into the lifestyle space.
Creative director Chelsea Hansford has transformed a 500 square meter warehouse into a dazzling studio and showroom with hanging yellow Kartell pendant lights, red clothes racks, blue carpets, a block-shaped wooden table with a Gaetano Pesce vase in the center and a monumental copper wall. “Pendulum” sculpture by Leonard Urso hangs nearby.
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Hansford has seen sales grow 77 percent year-on-year from 2023 to 2024 by tightening its price point and focusing on a Space Mod aesthetic that harkens back to the Swinging Sixties Rudi Gernreich, the body-con era of LA fashion, while putting her in the company of the city’s contemporary fashion queens, Jasmin Larian of Cult Gaia, Sarah Staudinger of Staud, Erin and Sara Foster of Favorite Daughter and others.
“Her vibe fits the brand perfectly – she brought such colorful, retro and vintage ideas to Simon Miller,” says Shopbop fashion director Caroline Maguire, who has known Hansford for a decade.
The brand switched from denim to ready-to-wear in 2020, had a high-profile collaboration with Spanish fast-fashion giant Mango in 2023 and sells a vibe with lots of crochet lurex dresses; sexy striped poplin sets (including the signature Loch tie-back shirt); custom tank top and pant sets; gummy green sequin dresses; mirrored platform slides and crescent-shaped button-up bags via Shopbop, Neiman Marcus, Saks and Revolve, which have bought deeper into the collection.
“Truly embodying the brand’s ethos, Chelsea has mastered cult-favorite styles that can be reinterpreted and adapted seasonally,” said Divya Mathur, chief merchandising officer and fashion director at Revolve Group, adding that the brand also “a strong level of authenticity and novelty every season.”
The company’s 15 employees work in the design studio next to the showroom, where Hansford has an office with a vintage French Mod red desk and a Verner Panton wool chair. “I find a lot of things at auction,” says the designer, whose 1960s home in Studio City is featured in Architectural Digest.
“Being in LA and having the space to create your own home has reignited my desire to design,” she said. “My aesthetic is 60s/70s modern furniture, lots of fiberglass like the Wendell Castle Molar series, Pierre Paulin fabric and waves and ribbons and tongues, Frank Gehry architectural, Frank Lloyd Wright, Gaetano Pesce. I call it Space Mod.”
Hansford, a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology who started her career at Opening Ceremony and Blk Dnm, joined the Simon Miller team in 2014 to launch womenswear at what was then a men’s denim label. Shortly afterwards, the brand launched accessories, including the popular Bonsai bag and Bubble clogs, which have been worn by everyone from Bella Hadid to Martha Stewart.
In 2016, Hansford took over the company as owner, CEO and creative director, deciding to move away from denim and expand into rtw, which now makes up almost 70 percent of sales, of which 30 percent is accessories.
She celebrated her latest collection ‘Nights in Tangier’ for summer 2024 with a party last week at another fantastic interior space, the Mosaic House.
Dree Hemingway, Langley Fox, Laura and Nathalie Love, Rocky Barnes and Ally Hilfiger were among the guests at the house, a Middle Eastern-meets-medieval wonder in the Hollywood Hills that’s covered in mosaics handcrafted for more than 49 years. were installed by George Ehling (with assistance in the 1970s by neighbor Harrison Ford, then a carpenter).
“She has the eye. She just has it naturally and good taste cannot be learned or studied. You either have it or you don’t, and they do,” Hilfiger said of Hansford, who played up the Moroccan theme with greeters in red-and-white striped bellhop outfits, a hookah setup and a table of Instagrammable treats.
“I love that Morocco was an eclectic hotspot wonder in the 1970s, so I really got into that era,” says Hansford.
Over the past year, she has tightened Simon Miller’s price, lowering the suggested retail price by about 30 percent. Prices range from about $245 to $495 for rtw, and average $345 for shoes and bags.
“Where we have seen success is in perceived value. We really lowered our price point to be ultra-competitive because that white space has become smaller and smaller and the advanced contemporary price point is so difficult,” she said.
The company is 65 percent wholesale and 35 percent direct-to-consumer, but DTC is growing. Shutting down during COVID-19 was an opportunity to relaunch the website and pull back on wholesale. Sales are 95 percent domestic, but Hansford wants to expand internationally.
Simon Miller also rents on Nuuly.
“I know so many people who are renting now,” Hansford said, recalling a recent trip home for Christmas to Florida when her sister arrived with no luggage and a package waiting for her with an entire wardrobe for the trip. “And it was cute stuff!”
Over the years, Hansford’s view on marketing has evolved. Initially, she built the brand based on organic influencer placement. “I remember when Blanca Miró published our first printed jeans and we sold so many, but now that’s just not the case anymore. Everyone has an affiliate link and you don’t know what’s what,” she said.
Simon Miller has shown at New York Fashion Week, but the designer now thinks it’s too cluttered for a small brand like hers (its annual sales are less than $20 million) to make much of an impression.
That’s why she focuses on brand moments like the Nights in Tangier party.
“Building a lifestyle is more important, and it was great to move here because we finally had a space big enough to create,” she said of moving from New York to Los Angeles during the pandemic.
Simon Miller has also been increasing brand awareness through collaborations and has more in store for 2025.
“Coming from Mango, my expectations have become higher,” she said, praising the retailer for bringing luxury quality to the mass market through heightened photography, marketing and design sensibility. “It was huge for brand awareness; first they wanted to roll it out to 13 doors and then they were so obsessed with the partnership that they rolled it out to 75 doors,” she said.
“Identifying who is interested in strengthening is critical,” she cautioned, before evaluating potential partners. “I worked with Melissa, a great product – we actually gave them our ‘It’ shoe for a small royalty – but with no marketing amplification aside from Instagram posts, posters and store displays in New York.
“That’s the challenge when you’re trying to run a profitable business and grow your brand awareness.…They’re two different things. So we just try to be very resourceful and creative.”
So far, LA has been a fitting muse.
“I just can’t believe some of the houses you see driving down the streets. It’s like, where am I? she said. “And the art fairs and design fairs that are coming back, and Casa Perfect.…I know they have it in New York too, but there’s something about combining home and art space. I think it’s really cool about LA. And designing for the women you watch in these spaces is what I do.”
Launch Gallery: At the Simon Miller Studio in North Hollywood with designer Chelsea Hansford
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