Los Angeles fashion designer Julia ‘Lady J’ Gerard recalls how she coped with the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001. Like many Americans, her first instinct was to want revenge; instead she created two giant peace wreaths and hung them in the windows of her flagship store on the legendary Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood.

“I needed to do something to stop the internal madness that was now taking over my inner thought process,” she said. “I was angry, devastated and crushed. I saw that part of the American dream had crumbled with the Twin Towers. I’m from communist Russia and recognised something disturbingly familiar. As a child of the 60s, I was suddenly back in the peace movement. The peace symbol should never have been abandoned. And so I feel that I, as well as an entire generation, have picked up where we so mistakenly left off. Peace is not negotiable!”

Gerard’s inner grief found its way into her designs, eventually leading her to expand her space at 8575 Melrose Avenue to house the first-ever Peace Gallery collection. It is a collection of more than 100 original copyrighted peace symbols adorning not only every piece of clothing but also wine glasses, candles, cards, a full line of jewellery, furniture, bags, shoes, and so on.

Her upscale design studio and Peace Gallery are a perfect synergy of ultra fashion crafted into a lifestyle brand that travels with a message of peace. She loves to see compassion and sweetness when she passes out her Peace Ribbon on frequent travels. She also donated more than 200 t-shirts with her sex gender peace symbol on them to the West Hollywood City Hall – the first gay city on Earth.

“I’ve been a fashion designer for years, and this peace line made me whole, if you will, as I have a natural need to serve humanity and to create and design,” she said.

The Peace Gallery Collection is especially popular with foreign tourists, many of whom fear violence and war on their doorsteps. You might think there is nothing controversial about promoting peace, but Gerard has taken her fair share of haters, particularly among those who support President Bush and the Iraq war. There are also cynics who accuse her of jumping on a trend.

“I have a bullet hole in the window of my Peace Gallery because someone didn’t like the idea of it. I’ve received threatening letters telling me to shut down or else. It’s quite controversial. I’ve had a poster of a model flipping the bird in my window for three years and it has Bush’s name in big military letters in the corner of the poster. I’ve gotten so much flack for that! I’m not going to give up my freedom of expression, no way no how! The Peace Gallery is an extension of everything I am because I live and breathe freedom.”

One thing she isn’t: political.

“I’m not politically active at all. I hate politics. Politicians play massive mind games to control the masses, to gain power and some form of slavery in the name of the government,” she said. “Now they have us so busy making ends meet that we forget that we are at their mercy. So many have quietly agreed that war is good for the economy and they continue to prosper from war. That has to be the ultimate heinous act of humanity.”

While others destroy, Gerard creates.

She has been designing “since I was a little girl, but it was because there were no clothes to buy where I grew up because it was one of the scarcest marketplaces on Earth! One could have money but still wouldn’t have anything to buy. We didn’t buy clothes -- we bought fabric when we could find it or wait months for it to clear customs. Every woman knew how to sew. Before the ‘Iron Curtain’ came down, my mum used to return to her native Russia with as many Levi 501s as she could carry, passing them out in customs and keeping the rest so that her family could get by for another year.”

In contrast, Americans need only see a photo in a magazine to choose whatever style they can afford. Gerard dresses such celebrities as Prince and his band, Tina Turner, Bob Dylan, Dave Matthews, Angelina Jolie and family, Elizabeth Taylor, Cheryl Ladd, Gloria Estefan, and Bette Midler, just to name a few. She recently dressed the iconic Cher for the 2008 Grammy Awards. Cher’s people used Gerard’s creation in publicity shots that landed Gerard’s work in InStyle Magazine, alongside pictures of celebs wearing Valentino and Dior Haute Couture. Cher has worn Gerard’s designs as far back as the Sonny and Cher Show when Gerard was just a 16-year-old student and Bob Mackie judged her work.

“As a teenager, I was part of the legendary Laurel Canyon scene and dressed Mickey Dolenz, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, and the endless string of gorgeous, trend-setting women with them. We all just hung out, and anything I was wearing ended up being made for someone the next day. Music and colour were in the air that we inhaled. It was a fabric we wove with spirit,” she said.

More recently, Gerard branded Prince’s 3121 Tour and put her stylistic touch on a 35,000 square foot mansion in LA, designing everything his staff of 50+ people wore while entertaining A-list guests into the wee hours, not to mention the 650 silk handkerchiefs and 450 turtlenecks for his Purple Highness.

“Prince is the closest to Elvis’ lifestyle that we will ever see,” she said. “The unfortunate part is that it has become all-important for celebrities to endorse, wear, and be photographed in designer creations. The first thing people ask now is ‘Whom do you dress?’ Back in the 60s, you could open a shop on LaCienega or Sunset Boulevard and make it; you didn’t have to dress celebrities. The fashion was the celebrity. They used to pay us [designers] to dress them!”

Gerard said her attitude is always “unique classics that rock and roll. I don’t do ‘throw away fashion’. I make things that people collect.”

Her Peace merchandise includes artwork by her rock and roll soul mate, Sirius Trixon. He is a legendary vocalist, musician, songwriter, record producer, and rocker who fronted Sirius Trixon & The Motor City Bad Boys.

“Trixon saw me wearing peace signs on all my own clothes, and in two nights, about two weeks after we met, he channeled over 100 peace signs that no one had ever seen before.

“He’d never drawn anything before that,” Gerard said. “I took that artwork, copyrighted it and have made Peace Gallery art from it. I want everyone in the world to own something that has the peace symbol on it. Anything to create and reflect peace.”

The most controversial peace signs incorporate swastikas.

“I’m the child of a Holocaust survivor, so those pieces was the most difficult for me to put together. But if you can’t breathe air freely, what’s the point? The swastika was my boogeyman! But the symbol itself was created 5,000 years ago, representing laughter, life and love. It was all about harmony and the extension of good living. That artwork is about removing the stigma attached to that ancient, beautiful symbol.”

Gerard earns good karma by employing those who stitch together her clothing right on the premises rather than farming the work out to a third-world country.

“Yes, we want to make money, but we shouldn’t be about pleasing stockholders, ripping people off and going into countries where the workers making the clothes don’t get to take bathroom breaks. One of the reasons I’m a well-kept secret is because until now, I would never do business in China or India. I got turned off a few years ago when I was buying fabric that was made by prisoners in China. Slave labour. I like to sleep at night like a baby. I understand that people can’t get rich from sewing, but I want to know that they feel rich from working and have enough food and rest,” she said.

Gerard has faith about the world’s future.

“I promote non-negotiable peace,” she said. “Whether you can create just a little bit or it or a community of it, that’s a step forward. It’s not a measure. It’s a state of being.”

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Many trends have come and gone since Lady J started designing, but technology is making it easier for copycats to steal designs and quickly exploit trends.

“You can go on a website and see every show and every trend in the world right now. You don’t even have enough hours in the day to look at it all. There are designers like, say, Versace, where you can see as well as sense that they created this, and then there are other companies on that same financial level that you can see put together the best of Chanel, the best of Versace, the best of Dior. It’s criminal. Do they even think about how many sleepless nights these companies endured and deadlines just to manifest that one garment? I was ripped off so hard by some Japanese company that put my two logos together, one of my best selling blouses and made a huge ad for peace perfume. Everyone congratulated me on the ad. That’s insane!

“Originality, a lot of the time, comes from seclusion, but today, outside stimulation through media and Internet make everyone believe they created their stolen ideas. Inspiration, my ass! It’s saturation. Getting ripped off is (more) prevalent in the USA than (in Europe). There’s national pride in the creation of fashion.”

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On the Web:

http://www.jgerarddesignstudio.com/peaceGalleryIndex/index.htm