Richie Rich (designer)

Richie Rich is an American fashion designer, television personality, figure skater, singer, actor and author. During the 1990s, he was part of the original group of New York City dance club personalities aptly named, Club Kids.

Richie Rich
Richie Rich 2019 Press Shot
Born	Richie California, United States
Occupation	Fashion designer television personality figure skater singer
Years active	1993–present
Label(s)	Heatherette

Rich was born in the New York Metropolitan Area and at a young age, his family relocated to San Jose, California where he began studying theater and competing in figure skating.

In 1999, Rich and Traver Rains founded the fashion company, Heatherette.

Early life and discovery

Rich was born in San Jose, and raised in California.

Rich began figure skating at a young age with the famous Ice Capades. During his teen years, Rich would sneak out of his house to fulfill his “glittery crowd calling” at Club I-Beam in San Francisco's famed Haight-Ashbury. While dancing on the bar, Rich was asked what his club name was. He easily replied “Richie Rich of course!!!.”

The Club Kid name “Richie Rich” derived from his experience at the hands of childhood classmates from kindergarten who jokingly teased...."Hey Richie Rich, where’s your dog Dollar?” ; and with blonde hair and blue eyes, Richie owned the moniker.” While maintaining straights A’s during the day and unbeknownst to his parents, Richie Rich became synonymous with the San Francisco nightlife scene.

In the fall of 1992 club kid diva, Julie Jules, encouraged Rich to enter the “Club Kid Style Summit” contest. Rich entered and won a trip to New York City to host the opening of Club USA on December 17, 1992.[1]

Early career

Ice Capades

While training under renowned coach Christy Kjarsgaard Ness, trainer of Kristi Yamaguchi for the Olympics, Rich was scouted to tour as a skating performer with the Ice Capades under the choreography of two time Emmy winner, Sarah Kawahara. Kawahara's choreography subjects include Peggy Fleming, the 2002 Olympics opening ceremony, Will Ferrell in “Blades of Glory” and Margo Robbie in I, Tonya.

Original Club Kid

As a club kid in the '90s and a fixture of embattled nightlife mecca, The Limelight, Rich created a name for himself bouncing from party to party with the likes of Michael Alig and DJ Keoki, drawing attention with his theatrical clown-punk makeup and over-the-top outfits that he made on his living room floor.

The New York club kids of the late ’80s and early ’90s picked up where Studio 54 left off. Gay kids, trans kids, fashion freaks and art weirdoes all converged nightly in cult Manhattan hotspots like Danceteria and The Limelight. They would wear outrageous outfits and party to thumping house music.

Fashion

Heatherette

The name Heatherette was inspired by an opera singer named Heather and the song by Grace Jones " Warm Leatherette."[2]

Heatherette was launched in 2001, with a runway show during New York Fashion Week featuring a video by famed photographer, David LaChapelle, starring Amanda Lepore for a collaboration with MAC Cosmetics. Heatherette went on to show as a part of the official New York Fashion Week 16 times over a period of nine years, featuring well-known models and celebrities such as: Naomi Campbell, Paris and Nicky Hilton, Kelly Osbourne, Boy George, Anna Nicole Smith, Mýa, Kim Kardashian, Ellen DeGeneres, Jake Shears, Lydia Hearst, Tinsley Mortimer, Devon Aoki, Alek Wek, Bridget Hall, Liya Kebede, Cintia Dicker, Lily Cole, Theodora Richards, Miranda Kerr, Tiiu Kuik, Heather Marks, Hanne Gaby Odiele, Anouck Lepere, Chanel Iman, Raquel Zimmermann, among many others.^{[citation needed]}

Heatherette also showed around the world in other fashion weeks, including: Los Angeles, Mexico City, Miami, Moscow, Osaka, and Tokyo.^{[citation needed]}

Heatherette has been featured in publications such as Vogue, Teen Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, Time, Newsweek, Glamour, Elle, People, Paper, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Trace, W, WWD, New York Times, and others.

Heatherette has dressed such celebrities as Aerosmith, Mariah Carey, Pamela Anderson, Gwen Stefani, David Beckham, Pink, and Miley Cyrus.^{[citation needed]}

MAC Cosmetics

On March 20, 2008, a collaboration collection with MAC Cosmetics, called "Heatherette for MAC", was released and includes illustrations of Traver Rains and Richie Rich on the cardboard packaging. The limited edition line included much more than the original collaboration. The full line included powders, lipsticks, eye shadows, eye pencils, glitter, and nail polish.[3]

A*Muse, Popluxe, Villionaire

In 2008 Rich showed the line at the Waldorf Astoria New York Ballroom, titled "Richie Rich", with a guest appearance by Pamela Anderson. Inspired by his longtime friend, Rich and Anderson launched a capsule collection playfully titled A*Muse.[4]

The limited collection included t-shirts and swimsuits featuring images of Anderson and Rich. They launched a fashion tour, titled A*muse, in New Zealand, Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Miami, and Chicago.

Rich went on to launch two collections with former business partner and fashion executive, Keri Ingvarsson and with Chris Coffee of Gotham Beauty called Popluxe.

Popluxe debuted at Lincoln Center during New York's Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, with a guest runway appearance by Ellen DeGeneres.[5]

The second collection, called Villionaire, premiered at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom with runway appearances by Johnny Weir and MTV's JWoww.[6]

BEAUTYKWEEN

In 2020, Richie Rich was named Fashion Director of virtual beauty club, http://www.beautykween.com .

Television

In addition to appearances on the talk show circuit as a Club Kid, Rich was a featured role as himself on the Ashton Kutcher produced WB series, The Beautiful Life, guest judged on multiple iterations of Top Model (America, Canada, Germany), Project Runway (America, Canada, Germany) and has appeared on various other shows such as MTV's My Super Sweet 16, Made, TRL, VH1's Supergroup, Basketball Wives, The Fabulous Life of... (Pamela Anderson and Nicky Hilton), The Anna Nicole Show on E!, MTV News, Logo TV, the Tonight Show, The Tyra Banks Show, RTL German Television (mini reality series), The Today Show, Good Day New York Live, NBC's Fashion on Ice Live, etc.

Filmography

• Zoolander (2001)
• Party Monster (2003)
• One Last Thing... (2005)
• My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006)

Discography

Single	Single details	Album
"Love You a Million"[7]	Released: 1994 Format: Vinyl 12" Label: Unique NY Records Inc.	Love You a Million (1994)
"Magic"[8]	Released: 1998 Format: CD, Maxi-Single, Vinyl 12" Label: Swoon Records	Non-album single
"Collision"[9]	Released: 1999 Format: CD, Maxi-Single, Vinyl 12", Remixes Label: Swoon Records	Collision (1999)
"Celebutante"[10]	Released: 2008 Format: CDr, Compilation, Promo Label: Defend Music Inc.	Richie Rich Presents: Celebutante (2008)

References

1. Meter, Jonathan Van (1992-12-20). "Reborn in USA". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-01-10.
2. "THE INSIDER: HEATHERETTE". NYLON. 2008-03-26. Retrieved 2019-01-14.
3. "MAC Cosmetics - Heatherette for MAC Collection Product Pictures and Photos". Temptalia Beauty Blog: Makeup Reviews, Beauty Tips. 2008-02-10. Retrieved 2019-01-14.
4. BlackBook (2010-02-25). "To A*Muse the Muse: Pamela Anderson and Richie Rich". BlackBook. Retrieved 2019-01-14.
5. "Ellen DeGeneres ended the Popluxe by Richie Rich show, walking the catwalk while confetti sprayed overhead". BizBash. Retrieved 2019-01-14.
6. Hoo, Fawnia Soo (2011-02-11). "Richie Rich's Villionaire: JWOWW + Richie Sings + Banana Hammocks". Racked. Retrieved 2019-01-14.
7. "Richie Rich (3) - Love You A Million". Discogs. Retrieved 2019-01-11.
8. "Richie* - Magic". Discogs. Retrieved 2019-01-11.
9. "Richie* - Collision". Discogs. Retrieved 2019-01-15.
10. "Various - Richie Rich Presents: Celebutante". Discogs. Retrieved 2019-01-15.

External links

BEAUTYKWEEN Official Site - https://www.beautykween.com