A CALIFORNIA ORIGINAL. A LITTLE ROCK & ROLL. SINCE 1952.
Da Vinci California® began in 1952, when California leisurewear had a style all its own.
The original shirts were relaxed, distinctive and full of character. Rayon gabardine, contrasting panels, specialty stitching, embroidery and details that were never meant to disappear into the background.
More than seventy years later, that still sounds about right.
Classic cuts. Rebel Spirit. California since 1952.
THE ORIGINALS
By the late 1950s and early 1960s, Da Vinci had developed the design language that still defines the brand today. Color blocking. Embroidery. Unusual trims. Pyjama collars. Bold prints. Shirts made to be noticed, but easy enough to wear every day.
Some Da Vinci styles have been made continuously since the 1950s.
Others have been brought back from original designs and archive details.
We do not have to invent vintage. It is where we started.
THEN ROCK & ROLL WALKED IN
Decades later, Da Vinci found itself in a very different California.
Christopher Wicks, the Manchester born designer behind English Laundry, built a world where Fashion, Music and Rock & Roll were rarely separated. His career would eventually include English Laundry by Christopher Wicks, Fender®, The Lyrics of Lennon & McCartney, The Art by John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix and other collaborations rooted in music and popular culture.
Da Vinci fit naturally into that world.
And sometimes, all it takes is the right shirt ending up in the right closet.
HOW CHARLIE FOUND DA VINCI
This is one of our favorite Da Vinci stories because nobody planned it.
Christopher had dropped off some new Da Vinci shirts with our friend Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols. One day, Charlie Sheen was at Jonesy’s house and needed something to wear. Steve told him there was some new stuff in his closet.
Charlie pulled on one of the Da Vinci shirts with the shorts he was already wearing, looked down at himself and, as we remember the story, said something along the lines of:
“This is the look for my new part.”
The part was Charlie Harper in Two and a Half Men.
And just like that, Da Vinci became part of one of television’s most recognizable wardrobes.
No placement deal.
No marketing meeting.
No carefully constructed campaign.
Just the right shirt, in the right closet, at exactly the right moment.
FROM THE CLOSET TO THE SCREEN
Da Vinci shirts appeared on Charlie Harper from the very beginning of Two and a Half Men in 2003.
The combination became unmistakable: Da Vinci shirt, shorts, loafers, Malibu attitude.
Years later, the relationship came full circle when Charlie formally collaborated with Da Vinci on his own signature collection. What had started organically in Steve Jones’s closet had become part of television culture.
THEN THERE WAS LENA
Lena Hermansson came to Los Angeles from Sweden in 1990 with a very specific objective:
to design clothes for rock bands.
That part worked out.
Over the years, Lena designed and styled artists across the music world, including designing clothing for Ozzy Osbourne for many years and styling artists such as Alanis Morissette. Her career naturally moved between fashion, music, film and entertainment, long before those worlds became as interconnected as they are today.
In 2003, Lena joined Christopher Wicks and became part of the creative team behind a growing portfolio of brands. She helped build the business while designing across Da Vinci California®, English Laundry, Fender®, Jimi Hendrix, Lennon & McCartney, Scott Weiland and the other in-house and licensed brands that became part of their world.
It was not simply one brand or one collection. Lena was involved in the design process across the company, from clothing and graphics to trims, prints, embroidery, product development and the visual direction surrounding the brands.
And through all of it, Da Vinci remained a constant.
Season after season, the archive became familiar territory. The proportions, embroidery, unusual trims, color combinations and small details that make a Da Vinci shirt immediately recognizable. After more than two decades of designing the brand, knowing what feels like Da Vinci is less a set of rules and more an instinct.
KEEPING DA VINCI ALIVE
When the previous chapter came to an end, Lena was not ready to let Da Vinci disappear.
In 2021, Da Vinci California® became part of Virgoan Wish LLC, her Los Angeles-based company, and a new chapter began.
Not a reinvention.
A continuation.
The goal was to protect what made Da Vinci special while allowing the brand to keep moving forward. Original designs came back. Archive details returned. New shirts were created using the same visual language. Some were familiar. Some were completely new.
They all had to feel like Da Vinci.
THE NEXT CHAPTER
Today, Da Vinci California® is still doing what it has done since 1952.
Making shirts with personality.
Some are built directly from authentic vintage designs. Others take the language of the archive and carry it somewhere new. There is more ahead too. New collections. New collaborations. New stories.
But whatever comes next has to pass a very simple test:
Does it feel like Da Vinci?
If the answer is yes, we keep going.
THE ORIGINAL SINCE 1952
Da Vinci California® has travelled from mid-century California to Rock & Roll, Hollywood, Television, Movies and back again. Somehow, the shirts still make sense.
Maybe because good design does not really belong to a decade.
And maybe because Da Vinci California® was never particularly interested in following one.
Da Vinci California®
The Original Since 1952.
Wear the Lifestyle.