Jeff Hamilton

Jeff Hamilton
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Born	(1955-09-17) September 17, 1955
Nationality	Morocco
Occupation	Celebrity Fashion Designer

Jeff Hamilton (born Jeff Bohbot) is a Moroccan-born celebrity fashion designer who is best known for his signature style of patchwork leather jackets. His work has garnered recognition and popularity among celebrities, athletes, and fashion enthusiasts worldwide.

Early Life

Hamilton was born in Morocco on September 17th, 1955. At the age of 10, Hamilton moved with his family to France. There, he continued his education, focusing primarily on math and physics. As an immigrant to France who was born to Jewish parents, Hamilton felt pressure to make his parents proud. Though he enjoyed painting when he was young, Hamilton does not report ever having had aspirations of working in a creative field. In an interview with the podcaster Adam22, Hamilton stated, “I never thought I was going to be an artist or a painter or a designer. At that time, I thought I was going to be the Jewish doctor in the family…Then a pilot, or maybe an accountant.”

When Hamilton was 19 years old, he married the daughter of a local businessman. Under the guidance of his new father-in-law, Hamilton opened a small denim shop in Paris. While working in his shop, Hamilton would often draw pictures of clothing items by tracing images he would find in fashion magazines. He soon began to wonder what life as a fashion designer might be like as opposed to that of a merchant.

Hamilton has described feeling constrained by the societal expectations of his life in Paris. Even when he was young, making his way to “America was always the goal.” He was a lover of Rock and Roll and American basketball. He idolized Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain in his youth. Eventually Hamilton, drawn partly by his love of the Los Angeles Lakers, emigrated with his family to California.

Career

Following his emigration to California, Hamilton spent a few months prospecting for work before eventually finding a job with a fashion wholesale company. While working in LA’s garment district, Hamilton would frequently ride the elevator with Georges Marciano, the founder of Guess? Jeans. Over time, Hamilton and Marciano became friends. Hamilton eventually approached Marciano and asked if he could have the licensing rights to the Guess name so that he could create and market a line of men’s clothing. At the time, Guess only produced clothing for women, so Marciano agreed. Within three years, Hamilton’s business had 400 employees and $75 million in sales.

By all accounts, Hamilton’s relationship with the Marciano family ended contentiously. Following the dissolution of his business relationship with the Marciano brothers, Hamilton trademarked his name, established his own design group, and began building his own lifestyle brand.

By 1986, Hamilton had become associated through his business ventures with a number of Hollywood powerbrokers and celebrities. Unable to find jackets that he deemed cool enough to wear in such company, Hamilton had the idea to make his own. To do this, he would hand-stitch together multicolored layers of leather into highly graphic designs. Hamilton went on to produce one-off pieces for such celebrities as Michael Jackson, Madonna, Vanilla Ice, LL Cool J, George Michael, Mike Tyson, Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela.

Cultural Impact

1. NBA

In the early nineties, Hamilton jackets were worn by several NBA players, most notably - to that point - Michael Jordan, and Magic Johnson, who had asked Hamilton to make jackets for a few of his LA Lakers teammates. By 1992, Hamilton had commissions to make jackets for all twelve members of the Dream Team who represented the United States that year at the Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

The NBA eventually approached Hamilton about formally entering into a partnership to produce jackets for some of its players. In 1997, the NBA named the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History and asked Hamilton to design jackets for each of them. Hamilton also designed jackets for the Chicago Bulls during their string of wins in the early nineties. Then in 2001, when The LA Lakers won their third consecutive championship title, Hamilton presented the team with what is perhaps his most memorable design: a colorful leather jacket depicting the LA Lakers logo over a baby blue sky the Los Angeles Skyline in the background with a border of palm trees and beige sand.

2. NFL

In 2022, the NFL announced their partnership with Jeff Hamilton to produce an outerwear collection. The collection featured high-end vegan leather patchwork jackets themed after various NFL clubs.

3. Hip Hop

Hamilton’s designs have permeated pop culture outside of the NBA. This is especially of true of hip-hop culture, where his name has become a symbol of status and success. Following the death of Kobe Bryant, hip hop artist, Drake commissioned a “Farewell Mamba” jacket from Hamilton to wear court-side at the all star game in his hometown of Toronto. And in 2021 hip-hop record label, Deathrow Records, commissioned Hamilton to design a limited edition jacket to commemorate the label’s thirtieth anniversary. Other hip-hop artists to have worn Hamilton’s creations include LL Cool J, Snoop Dog, P Diddy, and A$AP Rocky. Notably, Hamilton’s name is sometimes used in hip-hop tracks to communicate status. Both Jay-Z (in “King Kong Riddam”) and Cam’ron (in “Get ‘Em Girls”) have referenced Hamilton’s designs to this effect.

4. Licensing

Hamilton has held some 40 licenses to produce jackets featuring copyrighted iconography from such brand names as Disney, Warner Bros., Betty Boop, Coca-Cola, Nascar, the NHL, and Mattel.

Present Day

In the late 2000s, Hamilton entered a semi-retirement, as flashy and expensive clothing saw a significant decline in popular demand following the financial crisis of 2008.

However, in 2018, the streetwear label Supreme unofficially referenced his NBA logo leathers. Then, in 2020, when basketball star Kobe Bryant died, Hamilton received several requests to recreate the “Black Mamba” jacket he had made for Kobe Bryant. Following this uptick in demand, Hamilton restarted his label. Since then, a number of new capsule collections have shown up in the marketplace, including an official partnership with Supreme to produce 43 jackets rumored to retail up to $145,000 as well as new partnerships with Converse, Aston Martin, OVO, and Tyler the Creator’s Golf Wang label.

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