“Getting to know what women like personified the Los Angeles based luxury brand Richfresh.”
Memphis, TN native Patrick Henry aka Richfresh has taken LA by storm with his sleek, luxury brand of the same pseudonym. Think luxury-clad celebrity with a rock star aesthetic and Richfresh is somewhere nearby, adorned on the likes of Dwayne Wade and Gabrielle Union-Wade, The Weeknd, Lena Waithe, John Legend, Diddy and Kenya Barris. A master at his craft of tailoring and bespoke composition, Henry joins the ranks of many other emerging design dynamos who had previously worked with noted designers – Italian luxury house Ermenegildo Zegna in his case. Richfresh was honored by Harlem’s Fashion Row ‘s 13th annual style awards “Black is the New Black” last year, and holds his own on CFDA’s RUNWAY360 platform.
To whom or what do you owe your inspiration for designing a luxury label?
Wow! This is going to sound like a vain answer but…..what made me want to start designing and paying attention to fashion was a cheerleader! I tutored this cheerleader in middle school named Tamera. I came to realize I had a crush on her, and during one of our sessions I had the foresight to ask her: “What do girls like?” Not, what does she like? But like hey…you know girls really well, and I know math really well. I suck at girls, you suck at math…I’d like to do better with girls, you’d like to do better with math. This seems like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich if we can find some bread. That was our thing. I asked: “Tell me what girls like, I want to have luck with the girls one day.” She shared some stuff, but it didn’t quite work for me. The last thing that she said was: “If you dress better, I think girls will like you.” I said: “What’s that called?” She said: “I think it’s called fashion.” And that’s how it all started.
How has COVID-19 and this pandemic affected your fashion business? If at all, has it been negative or positive?
I don’t really have many negatives; everything is positive somehow. It definitely slowed the fashion business down. People did not have as many places to go. I think people didn’t know what was next so they were conserving their money. Richfresh is a premium product. It is a luxury product. It’s not something people just wastefully consume. So..yeah that business slowed down a lot. Fortunately, my brother and I are entrepreneurs, and although I happen to be in the fashion space, ultimately, we are guys that like to solve problems. We decided to start a mask company and we call it “HENRY Mask” after our last name, and it has really picked up a lot of the slack. The fashion business is coming back online and picking back up but the mask business has definitely been huge for us during this period.
What words of advice or business wisdom, would you offer someone that wants to be successful in the fashion business, that has interest in creating a luxury line?
I would just tell that…it’s incredibly possible. You just have to make sure it’s exactly what you say it is. If it’s luxury, it’s luxury for a reason. There are things that you can point out and certain luxury characteristics. If you want to do the luxury thing…just do it all the way! Study other luxury brands and beat them at their own game. For many of the young designers, it’s not about figuring out how to do it perfect because we’re new to the game. It’s about seeing who has already done it really well, and just redesigning that. That would be my advice.
