Machine Gun Kelly rocked the Pan Pacific Park gym on Sunday afternoon, performing a mini concert for his friend Doni Nahmias' spring 2025 show.
“He was the first celebrity to wear the brand,” Nahmias said. “She was wearing a random sheepskin jacket when no one knew I existed. Since then we have always kept in touch. I texted him that I was doing my first show in LA and that I wanted a live band because I was hooking up with a kind of grunge high school, and he said, let's do it. “It wasn't necessary to convince him.”
Nahmias grew up in the Summerland area south of Santa Barbara and interned with Mike Amiri before launching his own luxury men's collection in 2018, including his Summerland t-shirts, if you know, which have become big sellers.
His first retail account was H.Lorenzo, and now Nahmias also has a presence at Ssense, Saks, Selfridges, Maxfield and more, alongside major LA menswear players Amiri, Fear of God and John Elliott.
His celebrity fan club has expanded to include Justin Bieber, who boosted Nahmias' business when he wore his “Miracle” hat in James Corden's “Carpool Karaoke,” NBA players James Harden and PJ Tucker and more.
On Sunday, Jalen Green, Ice Cube and Travis Barker were in the front row. Maxfield buyer Sarah Stewart, who gave the brand a pop-up in February, was also on hand to see the designer, who usually shows in Paris but decided to do so at his home in Los Angeles rather than pay inflated prices for the Olympic Games.
Nahmias took guests back to school with his spring 2025 collection inspired by his transformation from a troubled teenager who was under house arrest and went to a reformatory, as he put it, to an upstanding adult after finding the design and sports.
The gym where Nahmias now practices basketball with a coach (he plays in a league against people like Bieber) had been transformed into Summerland High School. “It doesn't exist, I invented this world and all the models are versions of myself through the years,” he explained.
Clothes also transformed from grunge-style mohair sweaters, crystal-embellished flannel shirts and distressed cargo jeans to sporty shorts, pullovers and letterman jackets to something even more modern: a sleek green velvet jacket and pants set. shorts, for example, and a black dress. Black and white flocked floral print jacket and pant suit that symbolizes “the brand becoming something beautiful,” the designer said.
Since Nahmias discovered that more women were buying his clothes, he added a couple of looks for them, including black cargo pants with heart-shaped stripes and stick-out boxers, paired with a cropped red sports shirt, which looked great.
It was refreshing to see the unmistakable California references to skate and music culture that inevitably crop up in menswear, at home and coming from such a sincere and heartfelt place. Everyone was rooting for Nahmias, even Kelly, who joined the crowd in applause and shouted, “Let's go, Doni!”
