April 25, 2025 |
Lauren Amos’s style is so distinct that, amid a sea of selfie-seeking street-style fanatics, she can be spotted from a mile away. (To wit: she can wear a Balenciaga couture look that obscures her face and people will still recognise her.) The experimental fashion queen has a particular penchant for colour-studied creations from Rick Owens, rare Comme des Garçons confections and early, futuristic works from Nicolas Ghesquière. Amos’s passion for fashion became a career when she took over the boutique Wish in Atlanta in 2004 and then founded her shop ANT/DOTE in 2022. Both stores are in her adopted hometown of Atlanta, where she has lived since 1997. The avant-gardist is always searching for outré pieces that spark emotion, whether for her closet or her shops. Here she walks us through some of her favourite looks.
DILARA FINDIKOGLU
Kristen Bateman What is your earliest fashion memory?
Lauren Amos Watching my grandmother, with her blonde, football-helmet hairstyle and pink nails, which matched her pink bag and pink shoes, putting on her make-up. I thought she was incredible. I grew up in a conservative Southern environment and my mother wanted me to look a certain way. There was nothing in my DNA that looked like that. I remember my dad secretly taking me shopping at Goodwill. I would find clothes, resew them and wear them. My mom wanted me to wear pearls and curled hair, and I went in the opposite direction.
KB When did you realise you wanted to work in fashion?
LA In college I started paying attention to what was going on in Japan. I was fascinated by the Japanese interpretation of American hip-hop culture and how streetwear was much more elevated. I wasn’t looking at designer clothes until Junya Watanabe’s AW04 collection completely changed my life. I was working at Wish then, and the owners were closing it, so they approached me to see if I was interested in buying it. I was 23. I purchased Wish and it changed everything. I did a massive remodel, built a vast sneaker room and brought in a mix of ready-to-wear and Japanese and New York streetwear brands. We were also selling collectible objects. We became the first Nike Tier 0 account [the brand’s most exclusive retail partnership level] in the South. I brought in Julie Hogg in 2015 and she became a partner in 2020. She runs the day-to-day at Wish and I now run ANT/DOTE.
IRIS VAN HERPEN COUTURE SS21
KB What inspired you to start ANT/DOTE?
LA In the early 2000s, going shopping in Atlanta frustrated me due to the lack of access I had to my favourite designers. In 2006, I tested the market by incorporating more avant-garde designers at Wish, like Maison Martin Margiela, but the market wasn’t ready. Over time, Atlanta’s demand for high fashion grew, which inspired me to conceive ANT/DOTE in 2016. Despite delays following my husband’s cancer diagnosis in 2017, we launched in 2021. ANT/DOTE connects retail, fashion and culture, with a focus on exceptional design and fearless style, championing emerging designers while embodying three principles – one must be absolutely modern, quality in everything and for fashion fans by fashion fans. Lastly, I do not believe ANT/DOTE is avant garde for the area. We’re a response to the fearlessness that Atlanta’s style relies on.
KB Let’s get into the pieces you’ve chosen for our shoot. Is there one in particular that you want to start with?
LA The Ghesquière for Balenciaga [he was creative director at the house from 1997 to 2012]. I think he has an insane level of artistic and design rigour and I love his obsession with new techniques, new fabrications and sculptural tailoring.
IRIS VAN HERPEN COUTURE SS21
KB What about the fantastic Comme runway look, the big and colourful one?
LA I felt like that entire collection [SS18] was magical, and the dresses felt ceremonial. There was this heightened sense of importance and a lot of the pieces have these protruding shapes and trains. The print, by the 16th-century artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo, was my favourite – it’s of Vertumnus, the [Roman] god of produce. When you wear that type of thing in public, you move into other people’s space. It’s important to be able to take up space physically, emotionally and spiritually in the world, but I feel like you can only wear something like that in specific environments, otherwise people will just be annoyed.
KB What about the pink dress?
LA It’s Dilara [Findikoglu]. I love it. I’ve worn it to dinner and to work. I always like it when something looks feminine and sweet, yet there’s tension because of ravaged textures. Maybe from a distance it seems one way, but when you get up close it’s challenging.
BALENCIAGA SS08
KB Let’s talk about the white look. Is that Rick Owens?
LA Yes. I love Rick Owens. He creates this otherworldly universe and I always feel ready to join his nation. He’s a brilliant colourist. This collection came out during the pandemic and felt dystopian. At that time I dressed up every day. I went into my closet and put on runway fashion because I was depressed and scared. Getting dressed felt terrific, even if sometimes my husband would look at me like, “What are you doing?” But he caught on to why I was doing it. My only sense of control was to control what I was wearing.
KB What kind of reactions do you get from people when you wear statement pieces around Atlanta?
LA I’m on the board of the [city’s] High Museum of Art. Occasionally, when I’m at the museum, the sweetest, most conservative little ladies will think what I’m wearing is impressive. When you’re open and excited to share the happiness of that piece, people ride that wave with you.
from left: RICK OWENS AW21; dress by COMME DES GARCONS AW24, shoes by BALENCIAGA
KB It’s always interesting to wear fashion that feels like art.
LA Fashion is just this lifeless thing when it’s on a hanger, but it becomes totally different when you embody it. And if you and I wear the same thing, it will energetically feel and look so different. It depends on the person who’s wearing the garment.
KB I agree. What about the head-to-toe Balenciaga look?
LA This one was from the 51st couture show [AW22] and it felt super-dystopian. It reminded me of when I was in middle school and reading Fahrenheit 451. I returned to that mindset. Also, I have tiny shoulders and I love anything super-dramatic. The shape of this is fantastic. One woman I encountered while wearing it had an extreme reaction. She said, “Some women have to veil themselves in other countries and you’re choosing to do that in this country.” I get it, but at least it was thought-provoking, right?
dress by COMME DES GARCONS SS18, shoes by SCHIAPARELLI
KB Exactly. When worn with the mask, it conceals your identity. Did that feel weird at all?
LA Totally, which is quite incredible. I don’t like indoor sunglasses. If I think about it, I’d like to say that it’s narcissistic. But the anonymity of wearing that was quite nice. I didn’t have to worry about my facial expressions or whatever. I bled into something else and became much more intimidating. It’s like, who’s that cyborg?
KB Tell me about the white dress with the headpiece.
LA This dress was Iris van Herpen, spring 2021. She was inspired by Merlin Sheldrake’s [2020] book Entangled Life. It’s about fungi networks and how life forms interact with one another. It’s a pleated dress and I even have the crown, which moves. I didn’t buy couture until [I bought] Iris. I helped organise her first US retrospective in Atlanta in 2015. I got to know her and now have many of her pieces.
dress by BALENCIAGA COUTURE AW22
KB That’s amazing. And then the all-black Comme look?
LA While doing interviews for the [autumn] 2024 collections, Rei Kawakubo said she was pissed at the world and had a lot of anger. It was around the time that my husband died, so I felt a lot of kinship with that show. At the time, I felt really angry and was wearing a lot of black. It almost looks like an 18th-century dress with this big bustle in the back, up near the butt. After the show, I met Rei for the fourth time. She’s intense in all the best ways but so intimidating. I don’t usually get nervous around people, but I get nervous around her.
KB Do you ever repeat outfits?
LA Yes. My life is so fragmented. I’ve got different groups of friends and I could wear things multiple times without being seen by the same people. I want to get money and emotional worth out of my clothing purchases.
KB I love finding something that I forgot about and then wearing it in a new way.
LA It’s important to contribute to history, as when you’re creative, that’s what’s happening. Oftentimes, people are repeating ideas, so we don’t move forward. When there’s an original and groundbreaking idea, like something that Rei or Margiela create, you want to wear that piece over and over. That piece pays homage to a thought process. Fashion can have so much power in that way.
Taken from 10 Magazine Issue 74 – MUSIC, TALENT, CREATIVE – on newsstands now. Order your copy here.
LAUREN AMOS: FANTASTICAL FASHION
Photographer GREG KESSLER
Talent LAUREN AMOS
Text KRISTEN BATEMAN
Photographer’s assistant TODD BURANDT
Production CHLOE MINA
