About
Imani Lanier
Creative Director / Brand Builder
Imani Lanier is a Creative Director / Brand Builder with 23 years of success in the apparel industry. With humble beginnings that started in the Downtown Los Angeles garment district, Imani’s talents have lead to creative roles that have landed him in some of the most recognized design houses in the world.
Imani’s accomplishments have had a significant role in the direction of the denim, street-wear and active markets to this day.
Imani was the first designer for the highly publicized Supreme NYC skate inspired brand.
He was the first designer to take Levi’s into the premium denim arena with the design and development of the Levi REDline for both men and women.
He spent over 4 years living in Hong Kong as a senior designer for Nike Sportswear, were he was responsible for 3 collection that addressed premium fashion inspired sportswear and a collection that was focused on revenue generation and brand building.
Imani has also held creative director roles with Season After Season, Honns ColdsmokeCo, Sean John, Seven7 jeans, Blue Marlin and Ed Hardy. Imani has held the position of Creative Director for 14 years.
In 2012 Imani co-founded a premium / luxury outerwear brand called Coldsmoke Apparel. Coldsmoke was created to fuse fashion and performance apparel. Again proving that Imani is an innovator in the industry using his skill to always take his trade to the next level.
Imani approaches all aspects of the apparel business with a hands on style and a focus on team building. His focus is to balance art , innovation and commerce with brand success being the end game.
Notable projects Imani has also been the creative lead and intricate part in the development and success:
1. Supreme NYC : Imani Developed the first cut and Sew collection for the highly publicized New York skate influenced brand. Imani was recruited by James Jebbia to bring to SUPREME the same quality and craftsmanship that Imani had in his own brand which was sold in Union New York and Los Angeles, The retail store owned by James Jebbia in conjunction with Supreme.
2. Nike Sports Wear: Imani took on the roll of Senior Product Designer for NSW Asia Pacific for years. At Nike his collection spiked revenue growth in the mens apparel category as well brought innovation and newness to the brand.
3. 2K Sportswear: Imani work4 years as a consulting creative director for the artist inspired tee shirt collection. Imani manage and produced product utilizing art work from over 200 world renowned artist on a seasonal basis.
4. Levi’s Redline: Imani Designed and developed the first premium collection for the Levi’s brand, called Redline. Soon to become Made and Crafted.
5. Non-Fiction Brand: Imani designed and developed his skateboard culture inspired line for Japan only. The brand did an average of 4 million a year in sales in Japan alone. Imani single handedly designed and developed the collections seasonally as well sold and marketed the collection.
6. Coldsmoke apparel: Imani co-founded, designed and creative directed this technical outerwear collection based in Vancouver B.C. and Venice California. The brand was successful in merging the two worlds of outerwear and fashion.
7. Sean John: Imani took on the role of Creative Director for celebrity Sean Combs and his Sean John Collection. Leading a team of 20 designers and showing the brand what the future of urban would come to be.