Shrine Clothing

Shrine Clothing

Originally designing clothing and jewelry exclusively for their Hollywood store, the design duo of Peter Graham and Rhonda Bordenave started Shrine as a way to create clothing they liked personally.

But when others began to take notice of their designs, which blend elements of cyberpunk and industrial, the company quickly grew.

"I do a lot of men's stuff because I wear it when I go out and I like to look good, or at least try," jokes Graham. "I still like to go out and see cool new bands and I see the new stuff people are wearing. I'm not trying to redo all the same old stuff from the early '90s," he continues.

"I'm trying to come up with new ideas and move in new directions and it's basically from the inspiration I get from being out in clubs and listening to new music and just being out there. That's one thing that's to our advantage is we live in Los Angeles, it's got a strong club scene and we see what people are actually wearing in clubs. We're inspired by that and make things that fit into the types of clubs we like to go to." That approach also goes for women's clothes, which Shrine is also known for. And when it comes to goths, Graham doesn't see a huge difference between the way he designs for each gender or the way they react.

"Women’s clothes are like drugs," he says. "You come up with a good dress and you can't make enough of them, especially if it fits different body types and is flattering to different girls. With guys, especially in the gothic underground scene, you get that, too. We get mainstream people that come into our store and the mainstream guys are pretty much clueless. They have to bring their girlfriends in and say, 'Does this look good? Should I buy this?' Whereas a gothic guy ... will come in and know exactly what he wants, try it on and know exactly if he likes it or not and doesn’t need to check with his girlfriend or mom or anything.

Aside from the clubbers, you're also likely to see Shrine designs on many a rock star. From likely subjects like Marilyn Manson, Alice Cooper, Disturbed and Evanescence to non-goth luminaries like Prince, Lenny Kravitz, Kool & the Gang and Steven Van Zandt of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, Shrine’s influence reaches pretty far into the music world.

Another thing Shrine has been known for in the past is Bordenave’s jewelry designs. But with clothing production taking up much of her time, she hasn’t had the opportunity to focus on creating new pieces lately. But she hopes to get back into that this year.

"We got to the point where we had to put jewelry on hold for a few months,” she says. "But I'm planning to bring that back towards the end of 2008 or maybe the beginning of 2009 depending on how things pan out."

"We'd like to continue with the jewelry, but we’d like to do it in a way that Rhonda’s not custom making every piece, which is a lot of what she did in the past," adds Graham. "We want to free up her time to help organize the company and help with the clothing design and sales. We’re pretty well known for making jewelry, so we want to bring that back at some point.” But clothing will remain a focus in 2008 as Shrine plans to unveil its Last Days of the Empire line throughout the year.

"We've gone in directions of cyber stuff and futuristic themes in prior years, but this year we're sticking with more traditional," says Graham. "We're going in a different direction at the moment. It's pretty detailed and intricate designs. It's very aristocratic with a decadent theme, very dressy with some kind of medieval European imagery. It's opulent and over the top."    shrinestore.com