Images by Magda Wosinska - Heidi Merrick (R) with model Natalia
What do you get when you've got a surfboard-shaping father and a business savvy mother? Perhaps the coolest and best fitting line west of the Rockies.
L.A. Designers Foam Magazine - by Maude Deitch
- Heidi Merrick-
Hood: Silverlake
Haunt: The newly opened Silverlake Meadow
L.A. Story: “I love the lifestyle [living here] affords me; it’s the best of everything. I have a gorgeous studio downtown with total access to design, production and even sourcing. It’s eight minutes from my house, which feels like the Hollywood Hills, but younger and cooler. In just an hour I can be surfing with my family. I feel really blessed to live here.”
“I wanted to give [the line] an heirloom feeling. I was collecting fabrics that would be staples, and then combining it with pieces that would have a standout effect—gold that shimmers and fur that’s like your grammy’s...things that seemed like you found them in the attic.” Heidi Merrick sits, feet tucked under her, in her studio in Downtown Los Angeles, sweeping her hand over racks and racks of lush, rich pieces. From a fur sweatshirt to ringspun denim sheaths and metallic silk capri pants, her fall line is what you would find in your attic if you had the coolest grammy, ever. “At the base of any line,” Merrick adds, “I want to have a boyish feel, a classic feel, so women never look like they’re trying too hard.”
Heidi Merrick is the epitome of the cool girl. Raised by the legendary surfboard shaper Al Merrick and her detail-oriented mother who ran her family's business, Merrick has both a surf-tossed strength and a relentless need for perfection and precision. “I have to be good at whatever I do,” Merrick says, “I was raised that way.”
This careful scrupulousness flawlessly meshes with her uniquely homegrown flair and imagination. She makes all of her own patterns and samples and has her clothes produced within walking distance of her studio. Merrick’s entire philosophy reflects what she wants to see in her line—an exquisite attention to detail, principal and luxury, and an inability to stop trying to do better. “My design is where the fantasy you and the reality of you meet in the morning,” Merrick says, “I want to design where it’s exciting and you want to put it on but it also helps you and fits perfectly and will last forever.”
