Established in 2007 out of the downtown Las Vegas Arts District, the first products of Billionaire Mafia was t-shirts were created in an abandoned liquor store converted into a design studio by Lana Fuchs. Growing up in the streets of Brooklyn, NY, Lana Fuchs created Billionaire Mafia to embrace her love for music, art and fashion while paying homage to her family history of self-made entrepreneurs.
Over the past 2 years, Billionaire Mafia has grown from a small t-shirt business to a rapidly expanding lifestyle collection with a product assortment of men's apparel, hats, leathers, jewelry and toys that appeal to young tastemakers who express their individuality through music, art and fashion.
What we hear, what we see and what we wear inspires who we are. Billionaire Mafia unites like-minded individuals who are driven to change the norm and create an artistic movement that transcends geographic borders, genders and generations. Our mission is to inspire with all mediums of self-expression and break the mold of conforming to one standard.
Las Vegas never ceases to amaze me. In our start up years we worked out of a
converted Liquor store in Downtown Las Vegas. Downtown Vegas is exactly what
you would expect from downtown anywhere. Lost souls wandering the streets
for scraps, Artists finding the next place to convert into their personal
bohemia. Corporations reviewing the area for revitalizing their pocketbooks.
Visitors strolling along the streets wandering when their last nights
liver-expansion test outweighed their wallet. And in the heart of it all -
Billionaire Mafia main headquarters. Our building tattooed with banners that
evoked Sex, money, power, family - our MAFIA lifestyle. One season we
designed WANTED posters and positioned them on our store front promoting our
new lines. We had no idea the ripple effect of our wanted posters would have
on the culture and characters of Las Vegas. Ex-Hitman and mob-esque shadows
would walk in and start conversations with our crew. Their stories would
paint such a checkered past of Vegas nostaligia a by-gone era we personally
thought was put to rest. The stories and experiences of the walk-ins would
make the Sopranos look like Sesame Street. They would make Tony Montana into
a Mister Rogers by their standards. Artists/Designers have portfolios of
work, Hitman bring in Catalogs of images and formatted documents of their
skills, can you believe the notion that some images were properly lit!...And
instead of running out the back door like most normal citizens, our team
would pull up chairs, camp out and enjoy the afternoon storytelling. We
loved it! We embraced it and we were shocked how entriqued all of us were
inspired by the stories as they were unfolded.
One member of our design team remembers a man drugged out on PCP that ran
into our building and hid among our sewing team afraid the cops were going
to bust him. He was not just a man, at 6' 10 and build like a brickhouse, no
shirt, torn jeans - we had to somehow get him out of our building.
After what seemed to be an eternity we corralled him (with help from one of
our Male Models who was a former bouncer and Mr America contestant!) out of
the building watch the poor soul fall and crash about twenty times as the
police tried to wrestle him into an arrest across the street. Watching the
whole scenario was blending Benny Hill with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
We felt sorry for the lost soul and although we wanted to give him safe
refuge, there is no safe place for drugs or addicts we simply will not
tolerate that lifestyle.
Imagine, we are a start up clothing company, in Las Vegas, the town Bugsy
built and the new Mob Museum ready to open its secrets - a first for Las Vegas.
Our name Billionaire Mafia creates a buzz and controversy everywhere we
place our mark. We embrace our acronym for M.A.F.I. A - Music Art Fashion
Inspiring All - the masses to be a part of our clothing culture and in the
midst of generating hype we attract the real deal. Can you imagine our
designers greeting the former ex-hitman?
Good Morning welcome to Billionaire Mafia, please leave your ax and gun at
the counter and browse around? Our team was on full alert mode for the next
month during that campaign...We could wait to see what would happen next!
