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Mike Eckhaus & Zoe Latta

Designers, Eckhaus Latta

The duo has built a gender-fluid brand that casts ‘non-models’ and rethinks the fashion system.

Biography

Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta are the founders of Eckhaus Latta, a New York and Los Angeles-based label that distinguishes itself from its peers with its gender-neutral designs and has built a reputation for casting models of all genders, ages, shapes and sizes in their runway shows and campaigns.

Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta met at Rhode Island School of Design, where Latta studied textile design and Eckhaus studied sculpture. After graduating in 2010, the duo cut their teeth working for a number of brands and institutions: Eckhaus worked as an accessories designer at Marc by Marc Jacobs , while Latta was a knitwear designer at Opening Ceremony and also ran a textile company that supplied fabric to Calvin Klein and Proenza Schouler. In 2011, the two came together to launch Eckhaus Latta and showed their first collection in New York for Spring/Summer 2013.

As authentic as it is influential, the brand has stood out through gender-neutral designs and casting non-models in its shows. The designers are also known for using unconventional fabrics like plastics and fishing lines. Eckhaus and Latta started working with European fabric mills for the first time in 2017, although the designers still use deadstock materials — a key element of their early collections.

In 2016, the label opened its first store in front of its studio space in Los Angeles. The brand is stocked in 55 locations around the world, including Nordstrom, Ssense and Opening Ceremony, and was one of the finalists for the LVMH Prize in 2018.

Vital Statistics

Nationality

United States

Location
United States
Member since
2018

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What is The BoF 500?

The people shaping the global fashion industry, curated by the editors of The Business of Fashion, based on nominations and on-the-ground intelligence from around the world.