Fashion Designer Mike Amiri on Mentoring Otis College Students

“Being in the room with a creative person early in their journey puts me back in that sense of discovery. Every time I leave Otis, I feel invigorated again.”

“Wow, this is tough,” says Mike Amiri, looking over a selection of sketches created by an Otis College senior in the Fashion Design program. “It’s all really great.” He leans in to touch one of the textured fabric swatches hanging on a nearby wall before sticking an orange Post-It note next to his favorite look—a cropped jacket with sharply angled, voluminous sleeves. 

His voice echoes as he walks through the large, empty studio space on the third floor of the Anne Cole building at Otis College’s Los Angeles campus. But as soon as he’s done examining each collection, the students who created them flood the room, abuzz with the excitement of presenting their sketches to the renowned L.A.-based designer behind one of California’s foremost luxury brands, Amiri.

Mike Amiri is the latest in a long line of illustrious mentors—including Jason Wu, Ruth Carter, B. Akerlund, and Leo Lawson—who offer direction, guidance, and industry expertise to the Fashion Design students at Otis College. For his mentor project, he gave the students a color palette and tasked them with creating a spring collection that embodies “new California luxury.” The students’ sketches present everything from relaxed cotton twill shorts to a sheer organza suit jacket with special treatments that include hand-quilting, weaving, and leather engraving. 

“They’re really nailing the brand DNA,” says Jack Burns, Amiri’s senior menswear designer, who was also present at the sketch selection. “I can tell it’s going to be a good semester.”

Amiri’s brand DNA is high-end West Coast casual elevated by innovative silhouettes, expert tailoring, and skilled, artful embellishment. Mike Amiri grew up in Hollywood where, as a New York Times profile described, “his sensibility was forged along the Sunset Strip of the 1990s, the halcyon days of hard rock and Viper Room debauchery.” He launched his line in 2014 with a capsule collection for the avant-garde L.A. boutique Maxfield and within just a few years, grew Amiri to $40 million in sales. A perennial favorite at Paris Fashion Week, Amiri also recently received his fourth nomination for American Menswear Designer of the Year from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA).

“He brings a wealth of practical knowledge, a designer’s eye, a profound understanding of the nuances of the fashion business, and an acute awareness of detail and finishing,” says Jill Zeleznik, Chair of the Fashion Design program at Otis. “His insights can provide students with invaluable perspective.”

That perspective is shared one-on-one with the undergrads as he talks through their collections, asking questions, making suggestions, and sharing industry observations that provide an expert insider’s view of the process. “The design, it’s not one plus one to 10. It’s one plus one to 100—it’s a hundred decisions that nobody sees but you,” he tells a student, after suggesting she make a small change to a hemline.

With another student, he offers some inspiring encouragement. “It stuck out to me as something that I, as a designer, would walk by and be like, ‘Ah, I should’ve done something like that,’” he says with a laugh about one of her garments’ details. “It’s one of those thoughtful things that is really simple.”

The praise is genuine, and it’s a testament to the professional level of skills, from conception to execution, being taught in the Fashion Design program at Otis. “Going through the presentations, it’s actually no different from how we’re doing it on a luxury level—the thought process, the serialization, the thoughtfulness to silhouette, even the sketching languages,” Amiri says. “Needless to say, I’m really impressed.” 

Following the sketch selection, the next phase of the project is fabrication. The semester will culminate in a spring fashion show, with input from Mike Amiri every step of the way—an invaluable experience for the student mentees. 

It’s advantageous for Amiri the company as well. “It’s so amazing, as a luxury brand that’s growing, to be able to have this connection to an institution as a pipeline for talent,” says Burns. ”It’s a great way for us to also support young designers who are coming up in the industry.”

For Mike Amiri, the benefit is even more personal. “The longevity of a fashion designer is really parallel to their ability to touch the days when they became a fashion designer, why they became a fashion designer, what they love—the ability to explore, where anything is possible,” he says. “Being in the room with a creative person that is early in their journey puts me back in the spirit of that sense of discovery. Every time I leave Otis, I feel invigorated again.”

All images photographed by Gina Cholick/Otis College of Art and Design.

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