Maurice Malone 1965–

Fashion designer

At a Glance…

Sources

Fashion designer Maurice Malone built a solid name for himself designing a line of men’s clothes that appealed to an urban, hip-hop market. It was the success of his line of T-shirts and blue jeans that afforded the young designer to make the jump from his native Detroit to New York City to ply his trade. With each collection, as he became more successful, Malone has taken more risks, from tailoring men’s suits and introducing a women’s line that received a critical nod in the New York Times, to following his love for music and launching a record label.

Like most artists, Malone’s career had humble beginnings. He was born in 1965 and raised in Detroit. At age 19, Malone was living in his mother’s basement and spending a lot of time watching MTV. He saw a hat on a show that he thought he could copy. He copied the simple “jughead” hat, and soon was making many more, as friends and family were lining up to buy them. The success of Malone’s hats inspired him to fashion other articles of clothing, which he could create, but had difficulty sewing—the only experience he had with a sewing machine was during a middle-school sewing class that he barely passed. “Although I could create the clothes,” he was quoted as saying in the Detroit News, “I didn’t know how to sew.” Not one to give up, he ordered instructional books from New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, and studied how clothes were made.

Malone launched his first fashion enterprise, Hardware by Maurice Malone, in 1984. His line of leather coats was soon successful enough for four years that he felt he was ready to take New York City’s Seventh Avenue fashion district by storm. The designer then moved to the Big Apple. Once there, he took odd jobs to support himself and ate “hot dogs and rice for every meal,” to save money, according to the Detroit News. He finally found a partner to finance Label X, a clothing line that featured hip-hop styles and boxer shorts. New York proved to be too competitive for Label X—the line failed and Malone headed back to Detroit.

Once back home, Malone regrouped and opened a new fashion venture, called Maurice Malone Designs Blue Jeans for Your A—. Like the name implied, the line was based on faded and stone-washed denim jeans. Malone then opened a retail outlet, the Hip-Hop Shop, to sell his designs, and other independent clothing labels, on Detroit’s west side. The Hip-Hop Shop became a Detroit hotspot—DJs and local celebrities frequented the store, and Malone hosted regular dance parties there.

Still working from his mother’s basement, Malone built his line into a million-dollar business. By the time he moved back to New York in 1996, the line’s annual sales had reached &2 million. Malone’s men’s line debuted in 1997 to favorable reviews. In 1998 Malone spent &500,000 on an ad campaign that prompted customers to “Ask Any Designer Who Makes the World’s Best Jeans.” “There are a lot of jeans coming out … which are reminiscent of the jeans I made in the early 1990s,” he told Daily News Record (DNR).

Though his success in Detroit was for his funky, urban designs, Malone wanted to reach beyond the hip-hop

At a Glance…

Born 1965 in Detroit, Ml.

Career: Fashion designer. Founded Hardware by Maurice Malone, 1984; moved to New York and founded Label X, which failed, 1988; founded Maurice Malone Designs Blue Jeans for Your A—, c. 1990; opened the Hip-Hop Shop in Detroit; returned to New York, 1996; introduced women’s line, 1999; launched record label, Hostile Takeover Records, 1999; debuted high-end denim line, 2000.

Member: Council of Fashion Designers of America.

Awards: Nominated for the Perry Ellis Menswear Designer of the Year award by the Council of Fashion Designers of America, 1998.

Addresses: Office —Maurice Malone Designs, 42 W. 39th St., 18th FL, New York, NY 10018. Internet— Maurice Malone Website, http://www.mauricemaloneusa.com.

label. With the help of Tom Smith, Malone designed his first tailored suit. It was a successful move for Malone. “Few designers have been able to marry hip-hop flavor and designer fashion as successfully as Mr. Malone has,” wrote New York Times fashion critic Constance C.R. White. Considered one of New York’s rising fashion stars, Malone was nominated for the prestigious Perry Ellis Menswear Designer of the Year award by the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

Malone unveiled both his 1999 men’s line and his first-ever women’s collection at the same show, leading to unavoidable comparisons of the two, White wrote in the New York Times review. With his men’s clothes, White wrote that Malone’s “street-wear influences were upgraded with sartorial workmanship … Malone seemed to be paying homage to guerrillas, of both the military and urban sorts.” Malone’s female models wore “tough urban accessories over slithery knit dresses.” White also wrote that Malone maintained “perfect pitch” with his women’s line, noting that “glittery dresses and other sweetly feminine styles are, for the moment, beyond him.”

In 1999 Malone made what was for him the next logical business step—he started a record label. He founded Hostile Takeover Records with long-time friends Scott Goldfinghaz and producer Mark Kitchen.

The three, who had attended high school together in Detroit, immediately signed three groups to the label: Bags, Bullets, and Gunsmoke, a Harlem rap group; free-style rapper Proof, rap superstar Eminem’s partner; and Gerry Gunz, an R&B singer. “Designers like Malone … have a demographic awareness for what young people want in style,” Alan Light, editor-in-chief of music magazine Spin, said in an interview with DNR. “They can predict what the youth will wear before they wear it, and hear before they hear it.” An amateur deejay since his high-school days, and for him fashion and music go hand-in-hand. “I decided that when my clothes became successful and I made some money, it would then be easier to spin off to music,” he told DNR.

Malone debuted his 2000 women’s line at an exclusive nightclub in Detroit. Maurice Malone Designs (MMD) was a women’s line of sportswear that emphasized style and comfort. Malone used materials like soft lambskins and buttery leathers in neutral tones to tailor his form-fitting designs. Virtually every piece was finished by Malone’s signature wide cuff, cut like a French cuff. Fall 2000 also marked the debut of Malone’s higher-end Italian-made jeans line, called the Maurice Malone Platinum collection, which sold for &100 to &190 per piece. Sales for MMD were projected to be in the &8.5 million range for 2000. Every piece on his 2001 collection bore a new chrome logo plate which read MOJEANS Denim de Lux.

Sources

Periodicals

Daily News Record, July 20, 1998, p. 6; February 22, 1999, p. 46; April 19, 1999, p. 20; January 24, 2000.

New York Times, February 15, 1999, p. B6.

Online

Detroit News Online, http://www.detnews.com/2000/detroit/0001/17/01120111.htm (December 1, 2001).

Maurice Malone official website, http://www.mauricemaloneusa.com (November 7, 2001).

—Brenna Sanchez