Mychael Darwin Scores a Hit With Negro Baseball League Licensing

TUSTIN â€”  When former architecture student Mychael Darwin changed his vocational blueprint, there were no lofty visions of grandeur. All he wanted to do was to make a pair of shorts.

“I was just joking around really, but I was intrigued by the whole process and the possibilities,� says the designer, 35, as he recalls the sewing lessons his old girlfriend gave him in 1982.

After his first project, Darwin found himself sewing every day, eventually neglecting his girlfriend so much that they broke up. That, he muses, was before he made it.

“Right, like I’ve really made it!� says the good-humored, modest designer.

Though he may not be on perfume bottles or making personal appearances at I. Magnin, his couture creations have graced Demi Moore, Bruce Willis and other Hollywood movers.

And his Negro Baseball League sport jacket designs have appeared on Fox’s “In Living Color,� ABC’s “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air� and in the feature length film “Mo’ Money.� Eddie Murphy will be wearing a Darwin design in “Beverly Hills Cop III.� Fuji Television in Japan, a home shopping-style network, will soon sell Darwin’s jackets.

Darwin’s affiliation with the Negro Baseball League licensing ventures will earn him an estimated $5.6 million in 1993, with $21 million estimated for ’94.

His most visible break came late last year when he showed his jacket to Daymon Wayans, who in turn showed it to his brother Keenan Ivory Wayans.

“They liked the clean look of my designs; they are more vintage looking,� says Darwin of his merino wool and lambskin jackets.

The Wayanses ordered Darwin’s jackets for the whole “Living Color� crew. Eventually, the brothers granted him the license to do apparel and accessories for the show, which includes mail order and retail accounts throughout the country. Orders followed for the movie “Boomerang� and the rap group Public Enemy put in an order as well. One of his jacket designs also ended up on an episode of “Roc Live� last year.

Darwin was born in Virginia, the son of an aeronautical engineer father and a psychologist mother. When he was in the second grade, he and his family moved to California. After a brief stint at an all-black college, he attended Azusa Pacific on a football scholarship. He attended Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif., and ended up at Cal State Fullerton at age 24. His early college years were devoted to football and a long-term plan to study architecture. But an injury forced him off the first string, onto the bench and onto a new career path.

Darwin says the appeal of near-immediate gratification of sewing a garment is strong, especially compared to architectural projects.

“I could throw it on paper, sketch it and a couple of hours later, there it was,� he says.

After taking some nuts-and-bolts design courses at Cal State Fullerton in 1982, Darwin was ready to set the world on fire.

He set his sights on positions with designers James Galanos and Bob Mackie, among others. After about “50-something� rejections, Darwin says, he decided to build a private clientele, relying on word-of-mouth while working odd jobs as a waiter and a limousine driver. Driving show biz types to the Academy Awards ceremonies in the early ‘80s gave him entree to such entertainment moguls as composer Marvin Hamlisch, adding a number of valuable names to his Rolodex.

He spent the next decade working odd jobs and building a private clientele. Now, his clients include Beverly Hills socialite Mavash Amid and television executive Eloise Dover of Fox’s “Roc Live.� His couture designs, made to order by a cottage industry supervised by Darwin in Beverly Hills, start at $2,500 for a simple cocktail dress to up to $10,000 for a wedding gown.

With partner Shanon Needham, Mychael Darwin Inc. is among 15 firms licensed to design Negro Baseball League apparel and accessories. Darwin relies on a select number of L.A. factories for his sportswear manufacturing.

Unlike many sports jackets with loud color combinations, glitzy trim and larger-than-life logos, Darwin’s are more understated. The jackets echo classic, historically accurate vintage styles and color combinations. For the Chicago American Giants, Darwin did a black on black wool jacket with black lamb skin sleeves and burgundy cream letters identical to the original 1920 design.

Numbers and letters are made of leather.

Wool--the fabric of the originals--is used, but Darwin recently added cooler, less expensive cotton garments to the merchandise mix. Jerseys and caps are made to coordinate with the jackets. Prices range from $150 to $275. Jerseys are $75, and caps sell for $20.

Darwin says his involvement in the Negro Baseball League venture is about more than just making money.

“It’s a part of our history, as a whole race of people,� Darwin says of the league that was formed in 1920 and folded in 1950 when black players were drafted into the major leagues. “The most important thing is that we are able to introduce this to a whole generation who never knew what it was. It’s also a chance for us to instill a sense of unity and awareness of black pride, and of the dignity connected with playing in the leagues,� he says.

Proud as he is of his affiliation with the league designs and the history they reflect, couture is his real passion, and his goals are high. He hopes to build the largest African-American apparel company in the world, encompassing sportswear, ready-to-wear and related fragrance ventures.

“I don’t really care how long it takes,� Darwin says. “As long as I grow slowly and commit myself to controlled growth and quality products, I know in my heart, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I will make it.�