The cohort connected with Raman’s cause via their mutual LA friend Chas McCarty, a restaurateur and man-about-town. Latta says: “It was in the back of Botanica [a local restaurant, where Raman was holding a campaign gathering]. I had my baby with me and the binky fell out and Nithya was mid-sentence and got up from the table, got under the table, grabbed the binky, continuing to talk about small businesses and handed it to me, and I was just like, ‘This woman has my book, whatever she needs.’”
In the weeks following Raman’s surprise bid against incumbent mayor Karen Bass, a shift in wardrobe wasn’t exactly at the top of her to-do list. In those early days, Raman wore what Latta affectionately described as, “a lot of capes,” but her traditionalism—and prior lack of a styling team—was part of her appeal. “She wasn’t doing anything wrong, she had other things to do,” says Latta. The task at hand: to give her wardrobe a little zhuzh. “She wears clothes really well, it is a treat to get to dress her, and she enjoys it. And that, to me, is so fundamental, it’s not in a peacocking way.”
Voting day: Cleo Camp top, Altuzarra skirt from The RealReal.
Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN/Getty Images
Latta, Typaldos, and Turner are all used to working with powerful women, but in a different arena of celebrity. The one thing they did know about dressing a prospective mayor: a subtle, sustainable approach is best. This included plenty of vintage and secondhand shopped from The RealReal, as well as local designers, casually blended with her preexisting wardrobe. Such fashionable thriftiness not only fit Raman’s grounded style, it spoke to the sensibilities of the trio as self-employed small business owners. “I’m thinking about [the client], the context, the world that they live in,” says Turner. “And I think Kat is probably similar in that we’re thinking about how to make them shine in this world. And so you’re taking into consideration who they are, what they are—you’re doing your research.”
