When Vena Cava's Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai inked a brand expansion deal with Li & Fung in April, they said one of their goals for the future was to create a movie. Six months later, they've financed a horror film called Heartland that they appear in with a group of their girlfriends.
The movie, directed by Josh and Benny Safdie of Red Bucket Films, paints the story of a women's cult led by a man named Willie Gillis that becomes a popular artists collective. In the trailer, Gillis is overheard telling his followers, "If a wild animal is trying to do you and yours harm, it is OK to kill that wild animal. And sometimes, a wild animal is a human being."
Details about the movie's plot are scant, but the trailer shows the cult traveling to Los Angeles's Chateau Marmont and singing songs in a car. It also shows the cult's women wearing pieces from Vena Cava's Fall 2012 collection, which itself was inspired by the neo-noir movies of the '70s.
A look at the film Buhai and Mayock created in the video below.
Childhood trips to Tijuana inspired Sophie Buhai and Lisa Mayock's Spring 2013 collection for Vena Cava. The offering was infused with the feeling of Summers spent south of the border: plenty of colorful stripes abounded on everything from jackets to skirts, while a triangle cutout detail decorated the necklines of a number of garments.
There were office-appropriate clothes (a pair of plain yet well-tailored black trousers comes to mind) as well as flirty cocktail frocks in vibrant colors and skirts in interesting prints. A feeling of inclusiveness made it an even richer offering. "The clothes are not just meant to look good on an 18-year-old model," Mayock said. "They are for real women to wear every day."
Source: Courtesy of Vena Cava
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Photo: Neon nails on Christian Dior's Spring 2011 runway.
>> The pieces Sophie Buhai and Lisa Mayock created for Fall 2012 espouse a colorful optimism that is tempered only by practical tailoring. Maybe that sense of delight comes from the knowledge and comfort of the licensing deal Vena Cava struck recently with global trading firm Li & Fung.
The happy news is as good a reason as any to dust off summery shades of turquoise, yellow, and cobalt and serve them up playfully during the coldest months of the year. But to keep them in the season, Buhai and Mayock grounded their brights in basic black and sewed them into some decidedly '40s silhouettes. These looks are strong, and as Vena Cava regains its strength as a corporate entity, it's only imaginable that the clothes will get even more powerful.
>> Vena Cava is positioned to grow its business by leaps and bounds over the next few years thanks to a new partnership with trading firm Li & Fung.
The deal gives designers Sophie Buhai and Lisa Mayock complete creative control over their eight-year-old brand, but Li & Fung's global approach to building and marketing brands will push Vena Cava into new territory. The plan is for Li & Fung — which also works with brands like Rachel Zoe, Guerlain, and Keds Apparel, among others — to help Vena Cava enter categories other than making clothing for young women.
"We now have all the production, sourcing and technical help that we could ever dream about," Mayock told WWD. "We have so many ideas we tried to execute in the past that just haven't worked because we didn’t have those kind of resources and couldn't figure out the best way to make something actually happen."
Buhai added that eventually, they'd like to add homeware and menswear. "We are interested in doing more print publications, little movies and eventually one day we'd like to have our own stores."
This is a huge turnaround for a brand that just five months ago was rumored to be on the verge of collapse. After presenting their Spring 2012 collection with a dinner party, instead of staging a runway show, it was widely reported that Buhai and Mayock's financials forced them to lay off much of their staff and take their offices back to their New York homes. Buhai says the rumors were just rumors.
"We just hit a point where we realized that in order to take [Vena Cava] where we wanted to take it in terms of our vision, we had to get some investment help," Buhai said. "So we decided to take a little bit of time. We were just regrouping."
>> In the wake of opting for an intimate dinner party — in lieu of their usual runway show or presentation — for the Spring 2012 season in September comes news that Vena Cava may be in trouble.
WWD reports that the label was in the final stages of negotiating a financing deal with an unnamed investor earlier this month when talks broke down. According to WWD's source, Vena Cava's current financial state is "drastic," and it won't be able to move forward without an angel investor or partner coming forward.
Fashionista, meanwhile, reports: "According to a source close to the situation, the label moved out of their Soho headquarters this week and laid off a lot of staff." Apparently founders Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai, who started Vena Cava in 2003, have moved their offices home, and still have a deal with TJ Maxx in the works.
“We love what we built with Vena Cava and are dedicated to seeing it thrive and grow. We have had some very positive talks from potential partners and feel confident about moving forward,” Mayock told WWD.
![Vena Cava Spring 2012 Dinner Party [Pictures]](http://media4.onsugar.com/files/2011/09/36/3/166/1668379/5ae6ee123b4ba1fb_VenaCava_109.xlarge/i/Vena-Cava-Spring-2012-Dinner-Party-Pictures.JPG "Vena Cava Spring 2012 Dinner Party [Pictures]")
>> In lieu of a runway show or presentation this season, Vena Cava's Sophie Buhai and Lisa Mayock hosted an intimate dinner at MPD in the Meatpacking District, dressing friends like Tennessee Thomas, Stephanie LaCava, Kate Young, Nora Zehetner, and Lily Kwong for the occasion. “We really design for our friends so we thought this was a great way to do that and have a nice evening,” Buhai explained.
See Vena Cava's Spring 2012 collection here.
Without hesitation, Vena Cava is on my shortlist of must-wear brands, and the designer duo and BFFs Sophie Buhai and Lisa Mayock are two of the coolest PopSugar City girls I know. The ladies haven't taken a break since debuting their 2011 Fall collection in February. Currently, Buhai and Mayock are in Vietnam, rounding up inspiration for Spring 2012 (talk about springing forward). They just launched their awesome new ecommerce site, and even a world away, they still managed to give us the inside scoop on what every New York girl should have in her Spring wardrobe, where they find inspiration in the city, the best street "treasures" they've come across, and more.
PopSugar NYC: As a fellow West Coast defector, I'm curious, what was it about NYC in the initial stages that made you stay indefinitely?
Sophie Buhai: We both attended Parsons, so school is what brought us out to NYC. New York is really the place to be if you want to start a small fashion line; the industry is very supportive, and you have access to amazing production and all the editors. We felt very connected to an emerging group of designers who were all starting brands around the same time. The early 2000s were when the word "young designer" was exploding, and the economy was ripe for new talent. We were lucky to be in New York during that time, I don't think that could have happened if we had been in LA. We hope to make it out to LA at some point . . . perhaps when we launch our caftan line!
To find out what else the ladies have to say, head over to PopSugar NYC to read the whole interview.
![Vena Cava Spring 2012 Dinner Party [Pictures]](http://media1.onsugar.com/files/2011/09/36/3/166/1668379/5ae6ee123b4ba1fb_VenaCava_109.xxlarge/i/Vena-Cava-Spring-2012-Dinner-Party-Pictures.JPG "Vena Cava Spring 2012 Dinner Party [Pictures]")
