It’s a bold decision to dedicate your entire company to a single product, but for Laura Petrielli-Pulice, it overcompensated tenfold. The founder of Vex Latex has delivered the likes of Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and Bret Easton Ellis with custom latex products.
It’s been north of twenty years since she made her most memorable pieces while learning at FIT in New York, enlivened by Thierry Mugler’s plans. “I absolutely never set out to be a business visionary or maintained my own business, the objective was simply to accomplish something I love,” she tells Vogue. “I knew that [latex] could be removed from the fixation world and executed into the design business.”
Vex has made brilliant science fiction isolates and noisy plastic dresses for Kim – see the bra and tights she wore with bug-eye sunnies for her Skims send off recently – as well as custom pieces for music forces to be reckoned with Christina Aguilera, Nicki Minaj, and Doja Cat. The brand has likewise been behind plastic embellishments worn by Billie Eilish; Halloween outfits donned by Hailey Bieber and Cardi B; and visit looks shook by Beyoncé.
Of the relative multitude of A-listers Laura has worked together with, however, Lady Gaga may be her undisputed top choice. “She generally redefines known limits, and I love planning for her hence, in light of the fact that I get to really plunk down and utilize my inventiveness and make something uniquely great.” Among her Gaga features: the limb pieces she made for the vocalist’s Artpop visit, plastic tufts for the Joanne period, and the unusual fetishwear Gaga wore at the VMAs in 2020.
The design scene has changed decisively since Laura sent off her business; she made her most memorable web based business website at the turn of the thousand years and worked before the online entertainment blast. Before all else, she was a one-lady band, however these days, she has one right hand in Chicago who boats orders, and another who sparkles, cleans and readies the plastic.
Working with plastic is difficult. “You’re either great at it, or you’re bad at it,” she proclaims. All creases are stuck, and the littlest misstep can destroy a whole article of clothing. With respect to cutting examples? It’s finished with absolute attention to detail utilizing instruments that Laura compares to pizza cutters, as a slight obstacle or scratch can make a whole board tear.
It is similarly requesting: it should be really focused on and put away accurately to Invest in plastic. “I invest a ton of energy attempting to teach,” says the planner. There’s likewise a committed “care and sparkle” segment on the Vex site. “You need to hand-wash it, hand-dry it and let it hang or it gets crumpled. You would rather not fold it up. Daylight harms plastic and eats the sparkle, so when you’re not wearing it, you want to keep it put away. Try not to drape it in that frame of mind with a window,” says Laura, adding: “There’s such a lot of that goes into it and I believe it should keep going quite a while. I have clients that have pieces from the mid 2000s that they actually wear.”