Heatherette came out with a bang in late 1999 when Richie and Traver began collaborating on t-shirts and leather goods as a hobby on their living room floor. Richie showed up at a party in one of his own customized leather tops and caught the attention of a buyer at the downtown store Patricia Field who ordered twenty of them on the spot. The exposure at Patricia Field led to an almost instant celebrity following. Rapper Foxy Brown personally asked Richie and Traver to design a custom outfit for her to wear to the MTV Video Music Awards. The word spread and soon Gwen Stefani was featured wearing one of their tops in Entertainment Weekly, Rich and Rains found themselves on tour with Aerosmith creating nightly wardrobe magic, and a young not-yet famous Paris Hilton was buying Heatherette creations off the rack as fast as the boys could make them. Patricia Field asked Richie and Traver to create one of their “Name” shirts for Sarah Jessica Parker’s character on Sex and the City. The now famous Heatherette “Carrie” t-shirt was featured worldwide in HBO’s massive Sex and the City ad campaign.
Thanks to people like world reknowned stylist Patti Wilson and friend and superstar photographer David LaChapelle, Heatherette made a tremendous splash in the fashion industry very early on, receiving editorial credits in such magazines as Vanity Fair, W, Surface, Paper, YM, In Style, ID, Flaunt, Italian Vogue, and Rolling Stone among others. From their humble nightclub show beginnings to their most recent triumph in the Bryant Park Tents, Rich and Rains have kept audiences entertained with their unique mix of tongue in cheek glamour and outrageous fun. They've since been featured in Vogue, Cosmo GIRL, Seventeen, Teen Vogue, Luire, Blackbook, and more.
Aside from their ongoing presence in fashion magazines, they’ve managed to make their way onto your TV screens as well. From their live appearance on Mtv’s TRL, to news segments on Mtv News, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, E! News, BET’s Black Carpet, Extra, Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, CNN, The Today Show, Good Day New York Live, and Good Day LA. They’ve also done special appearances on Americas Next Top Model, Project Runway, The Anna Nicole Smith Show, Mtv’s MADE, Mtv’s My Super Sweet Sixteen, VH1 Super Group, The Fabulous Life of…, Love Ride, and much more!
Not only have they made their mark in the fashion industry, they’ve ventured into the world of music as well and had the honor of collaborating with super producer Swizz Beatz on the Fall/Winter 2007 “Over the Rainbow” show soundtrack. Other music ventures have included show soundtracks with Boy George and the Scissor Sisters very own Baby Daddy. Heatherette has also had the pleasure of: Costuming Danity Kanes nation-wide tour with Christina Aguilera, collaborating with Lydia Hearst and PUMA on the Heatherette Lydia Bag (modeled after a vintage tennis bag), an ongoing MACY*S IT Girl Search, collaborating with The Wizard of Oz, designing Pamela Andersons wedding dress, creating a custom MAC lipstick, collaborating with Irregular Choice to make FABULOUS runway shoes for their s/s & f/w 2007 collections, joining forces with Elle, Sephora, and Kelly Rowland to design a make-up clutch for VH1 Save the Music Foundation, and custom designing an exclusive ‘Love is Real’ Human Rights Campaign shirt as seen on www.hrc.org.
Heatherette is also active participants in the following charities:
- Hetrick Martin Institute
- Lower East Side Girls Club
- Operation Smile
- Youth Aids
- Designers for Darfur
- DIFFA
- Human Rights Campaign (where they were honored with the Visibility award)
- GLAAD
- MAC Viva Glam Campaign
- MACY*S Passport
- Vienna Life Ball (www.lifeball.org)
The pair has launched Heatherette internationally, and have continued to cultivate friendships with top celebrities the world over. Fans of Heatherette include Gwen Stefani, Paris & Nicky Hilton, Mariah Carey, Aerosmith, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Osbourne, John Galliano, Mary J. Blige, The Backstreet Boys, Shirley Manson, Lil’ Kim, *Nsync, David Beckham, Shakira, Courtney Love, Naomi Campbell, Alicia Keys, Karolina Kurkova, Miss Piggy, Pink, Missy Elliott, Pamela Anderson, Mandy Moore, Beyonce, Jessica Simpson, Peaches, Jaime Lee Curtis, Phyllis Diller, Anna Nicole Smith, Kelis, The Scissor Sisters, Aaron Carter, Lydia Hearst, Jamie Lynn Sigler, Pharrell, P. Diddy’s Making the Band: Danity Kane, Fergie, Gisele Bundchen, Daniela Sea, Vivica A Fox, Cuba Gooding Jr, Jenna Jameson, Alan Cumming, Kimora Lee Simmons, Mya, Kelis, Hannah Montana, Mena Suvari, Swizz Beatz and many more!
With 12 New York and a multitude of international fashion shows under their rhinestone-studded belts, Richie and Traver have continually proven to be an extremely powerful force in the fashion world. To quote Women’s Wear Daily, “All the kids — club and otherwise — can rest easy. Heatherette’s indefatigable designers, Richie Rich and Traver Rains, are here to stay.”
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