SkinGraft Designs is an emerging Los Angeles-based design house specializing in leather clothing and accessories. The label, which promoted it's early designs as "post-apocalyptic couture," has grown to become a popular fashion house with an impressive celebrity following and frequent accolades from the press.

Skingraft was founded in 2005 by Jonny Cota and Cassidy Haley, two friends who worked as circus performers and shared a love of fashion and costume design. In 2007 the founders were joined by designer Katie Kay, who also had a circus and costuming background, and the trio launched their first ready-to-wear clothing collection. Their debut collection included fanciful and eclectic leather couture garments, distressed leather skirts with utility metal hardware detail, and a popular line of leather holster purses and garter wallets. Signature designs frequently used distressed leathers (often layered and ruffled) that were adorned with antiqued stud and grommet detail.

The SkinGraft design team currently produces a fresh collection each year of clothing and accessories they describe as "fusing alternative techniques and materials with a tasteful vision of classic imagery and modern style." 2009 was a busy year for SkinGraft Designs, as they debuted at LA Fashion Week, launched an online store, and opened a retail boutique in downtown Los Angeles that features clothing and accessories for men and women.

Celebrities who have been recently spotted wearing SkinGraft attire include Adam Lambert, Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance, Beyonce, Juliette Lewis, Amanda Palmer, Fergie and Black Eyed Peas, Margaret Cho, and Kat Von D.http://www.facebook.com/skingraft?v=infohttp://www.postwartrade.com/products/skin-graft-skirthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhSgozp3k04http://store.skingraftdesigns.com

In a 2007 interview with Label Networks, Cassidy described their debut collection as "recreating our dream world with our characters ... inspired by story books and fairy tales and dreams of the future," to which Jonny Cota added, "It started with us taking small pieces of leather and sewing them together, then creating thrashed, painted pieces and refining them and making them beautiful." Label Networks host AJ Jackson described their debut collection as "pieces that look post-apocalyptic with Blade Runner-esque vision, even Tank Girl aesthetics, and combined with other elements such as Victorian, pirate, Aeon Flux, nature, and outlaw cowboy, resulting in an incredibly romantic high-end streetwear collection." http://www.labelnetworks.com/fashion/skin_graft_07.html

Current work by the design team was inspired by Amelia Earhart, vintage aviation, and birds in flight. While less heavy on fur, feathers, and heavy ornamentation than their early work, the new line is still unmistakably SkinGraft. Perhaps the core aesthetic is best explained by Jonny Cota, who recently said in an interview with Haute Macabre magazine: "Skingraft is obsessed with dead things. However, the obsession doesn’t lie in the 'death' of the things but moreso in the challenge to bring them back to life. Whether we are sculpting a taxidermied bird into a new hat or spending hours embellishing fox faces with little bits of metal and jewels, our inspiration is driven by making these dead animals into something that lives forever; a totem of life before and after death. We relish in all sorts of dark imagery and approach such darkness respectfully and humbly. I think this is exactly what makes Skingraft haute macabre, the intrinsic honor of death and darkness. With honor comes care and precision, and these are precisely the attributes we strive for in our designs." http://hautemacabre.com/2009/02/speak-up-jonny-cota-of-skingraft-designs

Jonny Cota, Cassidy Haley, and Katie Kay came together in the world of fashion via their shared love of the performing arts and costume design. All have a Vaudeville circus background, having performed and designed costumes for such popular West Coast attractions as Lucent Dossier Vaudeville Cirque and El Circo.

Jonny Cota and Katie Kay are the current design team at SkinGraft, as Cassidy Haley left in 2009 to focus on his career as a performing artist. Jonny and Katie Kay currently live and work in Los Angeles, and have a retail store at 125 West 4th Street. http://www.facebook.com/skingraft