Jimmy Sommers: Hitmaker, Entrepreneur, Fashion Design & Luxury Lifestyle Aficionado

Jimmy Sommers was first smitten with the saxophone when he was still a grade school student in his native area of Chicago. "The sax just seemed so cool" says Sommers recollecting on those days. His affinity and aptitude for the sax progressed to a point where he has become one of the hottest names on the world's smooth jazz circuit. His new album "Sunset Collective" continues Sommers' path of bringing a little hipness and edge to the smooth jazz world. As with his previous albums (James Cafe, 360 Urban Groove, Lovelife) he collaborates with some of the most reknown artists around. "Sunset Collective" finds Jimmy playing with other artists such as Paul Oakenfold, Paul Brown, Rahsaan Patterson, Vikter Duplaix, Brian Culbertson, Angela Johnson and DJ Spinna. The album crosses into Jazz, soul and electronica arenas. It has already entered the top chart of Radio and Records Smooth Jazz Survey. In addition to his music Sommers is making quite a name for himself as a renaissance entreprenuer. He is one of the owners of the Hollywood hotspot Koi LA. He was one of the original foundational partners in the publicly traded company Baby Genius and has just started a clothing line called Wildfox Couture. He has appeared on television shows such as The Today Show, Access Hollywood, Smooth Jazz TV, Regis and Kelly and others. His electrifying performances have taken him to concert stages and festivals both in the States and abroad.

Learn more at:
https://twinteriors.com/podcast/

https://scottwoolley.com

Transcript

iDesign Lab Podcast 12

Hitmaker, Entrepreneur, Fashion Design & Luxury Lifestyle Aficionado – 

Guest: Jimmy Sommers

The following podcast, iDesignLab, is an SW Group production in association with the Scott Woolley Entertainment Company and TW Interiors. This is iDesignLab, a podcast where creativity and curiosity meet style and design. Curators of interiors, furnishings, and lifestyles.

Hosted by Tiffany Woolley, an interior designer and a style enthusiast, along with her serial entrepreneur husband, Scott. iDesignLab is your ultimate interior design podcast, where we explore the rich and vibrant world of design and its constant evolution in style and trends. iDesignLab provides industry insight, discussing the latest trends, styles, and everything in between to better help you style your life through advice from trendsetters, designers, influencers, fabricators, and manufacturers, as well as personal stories that inspire, motivate, and excite.

So whether you are listening to iDesignLab in your car or in a cozy nook in your home, grab a coffee or a chardonnay and join us on this elevated, informative, and lively journey into the world of all things design. Our guest today is Jimmy Summers, born in Chicago. Jimmy is the founder of the Los Angeles-based vintage-inspired women's apparel brand Wildfox, which launched in 2007.

In addition to launching a range of successful companies, Jimmy is most well-known as being a world-renowned jazz saxophonist. He's gained incredible recognition in the R&B jazz circuit, which has taken him on multiple international tours. He's played alongside legendary artists such as Tupac Shakur, Paul Oakenfold, and Ginuwine, to name just a few.

Jimmy has released six albums during the course of his music career, and he's made appearances on numerous television shows such as The Today Show, Access Hollywood, and Regis & Kelly. Jimmy's eye for new and exciting opportunities, combined with his business-savvy approach, has made him a master at any business he ventures into. He was one of the original owners of the Hollywood hotspot Koi LA, famously known for creating the crispy rice dish.

In 2016, Summers launched Perfecto Mundo, a premium tequila brand, and also has a luxury sunglass line named Summers. Jimmy currently lives in the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles. Welcome Jimmy Summers to the iDesignLab podcast.

Well, thank you for having me. The dynamic man behind the whimsical brand Wild Fox, from Sexiest Man Alive, and People Magazine. I think it was Bachelor, wasn't it? Yeah, Bachelor.

People's eligible bachelor, and that was a while ago, and I'm still single. But you're still eligible. It's for a different age group.

But you're also a musician. Yes, I've been a... Entrepreneur. Investor.

I've been a musician my whole life, playing the saxophone from third grade. Then went to school, graduated with a scholarship in music, and went to school. And us musicians are usually good at math, so I was an engineering major, which made... Really? I didn't know that.

Which made school very easy for me. Graduated in three and a half years to move to LA. Because everyone wants to move to LA, especially if they're from Chicago.

So that's where I came out to play the saxophone, out here. And totally different. It's definitely not conservative like Chicago out here.

I moved right to Manhattan. I was just going to say, do you think your Midwestern roots have any contribution to your current life there, or no? Yeah. I'm always looking for... As we say, we have Midwestern values.

Everyone kind of fakes it out here. But you just get used to that. Well, you come from a really tight, great family also.

And I feel like you're one of the most authentic people I've met. Well, thank you. Which I always strive for that.

Sometimes I'm too authentic for this. That's okay. As we were just chatting before, I found interesting.

What made you decide to take the master class with Kelly Worsler? I was designing, being a musician. There's the starting things, being an entrepreneur. But also, style intrigues me.

And everyone's got their own style from architects that build in a house. And there's interiors. It's just a taste.

But you've got to put it all together. And there's... Collaborate. Collaborate.

There's a lot of different things. And Kelly Worsler was going to... Her name pops up in my head because this consultant that was helping me when I started Wild Fox was working for her, too. She was starting a clothing brand.

So she was doing all these designs. And he was helping her. So I wanted her to do my home at one time.

Because I was so interested in her design. It was very, very cool. So when her name popped up... Very cool.

When her name popped up with my friend learning about this, I watched it a little bit with her. And it was very good. Because it all comes down to shapes and color palettes.

Which comes down to... And texture. Like designing clothes. Kind of the same thing.

And texture, yes. So which brings me to one of my first questions. Which was, what was the creative process to curating the vibe or style for Wild Fox? I had two of my friends come up to me and said, let's start a t-shirt brand.

A lot of my friends had clothing companies. Instead of starting a jean company where there's such technical stuff, they had a cute idea with starting a whimsical brand. But a loose-fitting brand with A-frame t-shirts.

That fit everyone. That made everyone look flattering. And just cute sayings.

And obviously I was like, well, let's start something. When I first came out here, James Pierce had the best fabric. The softest butter fabric.

I was like, okay, well, if I'm only going to do something, I want to do it with the best fabrics. Which is the texture. And the softest fabrics.

Sayings on shirts. Girly colors. Pop culture stuff.

Right, you did kind of marry those two. I see it all the time, people doing it. But we were one of the first that really, really pushed it to another level.

And when we did a collection, we had some really great photo shoots. They were so whimsical and fun. A lot of beautiful homes, too.

Yeah, beautiful homes. There's a lot of different things out here. In L.A. that are so bizarre, different.

But once again, come up with a theme from either a movie or something. We come up with, well, what does everyone love? They love Malibu. They love Beverly Hills.

They love Bel Air. It's kind of like, it's definitely... I like when you did the, what was it? Keith Richards. All the first names of the guys in the Rolling Stones, you had a shirt, didn't you? That was one of the one-offs that the girls had.

Mick, Richard, Charlie, and Rob. I remember that shirt. Tiffany still has it, wears it all the time.

Yeah, that shirt cost me $100,000. Did you have to pay royalty? Okay, so that was one of my famous, not being in the business before, that was one of my, you know, the girls would come up with things, but didn't know all about copyrights, this and that. And we've had... How intricately involved were you in what they would come up with? Well, there would be so many, but I'd approve everything.

And Steve, you know, that got made. But, you know, it was all on a learning curve when we started. And then when we put that Keith, Mick, Charlie, and Ronnie, you know, that was, you know, my lawyer was like, whoa, that, you know, the Stones.

So we didn't have... I think I overpaid on that. But no, then I learned about trademarking, you know, trademarking and copywriting. And I was too close to, obviously, the Stones.

I should have put Ann Jimmy on there, and then I probably could have... Oh, and then it would have been okay. Isn't that amazing? Oh, I know. But, you know, so lesson learned.

It paid a piper. And then it was interesting that we had a shirt. They had a shirt.

I love the Hells Angels. No, my boyfriend's a Hells Angel. And, you know, cute.

Little did I know it was. We had a whole situation with them where they were... Although we had to have a mediation, and we came up with a solution. And I was the CEO of the Hells Angels.

It was funny because I went with my buddy. We flew up to Sacramento and met with them. The mediator couldn't believe that, you sell a shirt for this much? And, you know, it doesn't look... You know, they look like, you know, secondhand.

When my mother, when I sent her something, I said, Mom, I'm selling shirts. Oh, you're selling secondhand clothes? Is that what you're doing? No, no, no. These are new.

We pay more for the holes. We pay extra for those. Yes.

Once again, I had to come up... You know, we came up with a figure. That was that. It was way less than Rolling Stones, but it was still okay.

So you were collaborating with the Hells Angels, kind of. Was that a collaboration? Did they let you use it or no? And then we got rid of those. So I used them as chamois.

And I washed my car, because it's such good material. So that kind of brings me to another question about the collaborations that you had during Wild Fox, the swim shows that you did, and, you know, curating these vibes that would set the tone. One of our best collaborations we did was with Barbie.

And we went directly with Mattel, which is, you know, now we're learning the right way to do things. Yeah, right. You know, and we did a party at the store, and I bought a Corvette and painted it pink.

We had a lot of fun. That was a great collaboration, and people loved it. Seeing, like, collaborations are huge, crossing over brands.

Did you ever think about doing furniture? Did you ever get somebody asking you that? No, because it was a very young... It was kind of a young brand, and it would look like a Barbie house. I can't take it anymore. But there's other, you know, furnitures, brands, that they do collaborations with people.

Just like I was telling you, like, Lenny Kravitz did something. He's actually... Yeah. He's so interesting, because he's doing... He's very into design.

...in my house. Not only is he a great musician, and he's got such a cool vibe, and then he's got... He's getting into interior decorating. He's doing houses up there.

I've seen a couple of his houses. I have, too. I've actually followed that.

Yeah. So he's doing interior decorating? Yeah, he's doing interior decorating. And, you know, he's doing his own furniture.

He did his own little collab with CB2, which was very interesting. I mean, it was nice. It was, you know, not too crazy.

It was nice. It's not too crazy. It's functional.

You know, it's not over-the-top. Take me into, like, the meeting that you would have with your team when you decided to open your flagship store. Like, what does that process look like? So that was... You know, I didn't even think about opening a store until I... You know, I live right by Sunset Plaza, and this store is so cute.

It's terrible. I had someone that was really good at decorating and stuff. I ended up a lease, and this is the first time I started a store.

So we had a lot of cool gold and pink Mastercraft tables, decorated more like a house. I was just going to say, and that building itself looked more like... The store looked like a house. Yeah, I said, go copy the color pink from Beverly Hills Hotel, which is, like, a coral.

It's just a cool color. And then let's make the sign, like the parking lot sign of the Chateau Maman. Make it neon, cool sign.

Marry the two. And it's funny because it turned out so great. Their vibe, their vision.

Right. Whose idea was the unicorn on the roof? Oh, that was... Well, that was the joke, so... And, you know, we didn't know where a horn was, so we put that unicorn... There was a horse, huge horse. And then, you know, we made it a unicorn, which is cute.

Mystically fabulous. I was waiting to get in trouble for it, but no one fought, no one said anything. It was great.

No, you got away with it. Got away with it. So, as you're moving on from Wild Fox now, and, you know, dumping into some new things, we just spoke about investments.

How, as an entrepreneur, do you decide to align yourself with companies or brands, like Perfectamundo? And I know you had Baby Genius. Like, there's such a range. Well, Perfectamundo, which is a tequila company, when someone has guy things, it's like, now I did the girly thing with Wild Fox.

And, you know, now it's like, I have other interests. And alcohol's always been... A good idea. One.

And, you know, we had, my buddy's dad had a tequila factory. So it was an in there. And incredible tequila.

So let's put together our own company. And my neighbor, Paul Oakenfold, who's a DJ, electronic music. He was one of the first guys.

The originals. The originals. And, you know, that started in Vegas.

Madonna. Yeah, Madonna, you know, residency in Vegas. And now it's a big thing going.

We brought him involved. Did you assist in the bottle? Yeah, because you also have a beautiful design bottle. Yeah, beautiful bottle.

That was one of the great things about it. The bottle, we started with the bottle. And then we went and got the right juice.

And now, once again, it takes an army to launch something. Get everyone to taste it. And available for everyone.

Have you ever gotten involved in the movie business? Yeah, a couple movies. And even a Broadway play, a musical, called Finding Neverland. Oh, yeah.

It was out. It made it to Broadway. That was good.

You have to have at least five or six to get one good one. Right. You know, so I was like, OK.

Well, I checked that off the list with the Broadway musical. It's another creative thing. You don't have to have big budgets.

You don't have big budgets. You just have to have a good story. And especially now.

Exactly now. People are making them on their phones. Yeah.

It's crazy. Good writers and creative people. But music.

Your first baby. Yeah. And I have a country singer, Olivia Faye, who's an incredible writer and singer.

I'm trying to get her started. But everything you've been in, all of it has a very strong design aspect to it. From the music that you've done, the albums that you're designing, and the covers and so forth.

From Wild Fox to restaurants that you've been involved in. The design of those restaurants and the look of them have been pretty amazing. They all have a strong design influence.

Even our Koi is the same thing. From the design to the movement. When you have a restaurant, obviously it starts with food.

And we had Katsuya, the chef, which is his powerhouse now. Incredible food. But then the design of the restaurant, which is amazing, still going, comes to taste when you know it's right.

It's not too crazy, too far. But commercially, you still have to have the taste where you're like, wow. That's the trick.

Some people have that, and some people can't do it. They can't do it. They need to have other people do it.

And so the experts come in like you. Bring in the professionals. Yeah, the professionals.

And a lot of times also, people don't have time. They're doing their own craft. Either trading stocks, or starting companies.

Bring in someone that can just nail it. And then the problem that I've had is there's too many ideas. It sounds like me.

Scott suffers from that same situation. There's too many ideas. And you see, I can't decide what to do.

And then it's like, oh man. And now, before it was like magazines you look through, and you just rip up a magazine, what you like. But now, if you go to Pinterest, you're sitting there, and you're going, oh my gosh.

I like this, I like this, I like this. I want to do this, and this, and this. Down the rabbit hole.

Yeah, you're stuck. There's too many ideas. People working next door to me.

Okay, keep on telling me this, and then that's a change of mind. Well, I always say, you can like a lot of things, but they're not all going to work in one project. Right.

So save some of those great ideas for the next project. That's true. And when you're doing your research to decorate something, either it's landscaping, or pool design, or backyard design, or rooms, save them.

Save what you've done. You've got to pick a couple for a certain project. If you only have 12 rooms that you like so much, well, keep them on ice.

Exactly. We just went through a little situation going through this whole pandemic, COVID at home, cleaning out Tiffany's phone, because that's all she does, is collect ideas. I think it was like 67,000.

She has them all organized, and all categorized, but it's like, when are you ever going to go and look at 67,000 images in 200 different folders? It's time to purge. It is true. But she wouldn't let go of them, because she has them organized.

Every one of them, there was a meaning. So you kind of just answered, actually, one of my next questions, which was about, how has social media changed and involved the businesses that you're involved in? You kind of touched on Pinterest. It's so interesting, because while Fox would have started, there was no social media.

I think Wild Fox might have been one of the very first things I followed. On social media. Believe me, I wanted to buy it.

Let's just buy some. No, we got to do it right. I was like, oh, come on.

We didn't have real followers, like a million, a million, two. That's huge. That's impressive.

It was very hard to do. I know that a logarithm came around. It's very hard to get a million followers these days.

Really? Companies, it is, for some reason. Because there's a logarithm that came out. It's just making it harder.

Really? I don't know what he was up to, but it's also very expensive to promote. With Google AdWords, there's another rabbit hole, where you can spend too much to get things going. You don't have a balance of things when you're selling something online.

I know that you're a lover of travel, and I was wondering, how has travel influenced your design? Travel? Obviously, the south of France is just so beautiful. I go to Cannes Film Festival all the time. It helps me and my other businesses like my sunglass business.

It's called SOMMERS, my last name. S-O-M-M-E-R-S. I did all these beautiful designs.

Now, I'm putting inspiration just to get it. When I launch it, it sets the vibe of what you're getting into, which is first travel, first class, the best of the best. Everything is top-notch.

This is a total new aesthetic, versus the bohemian of Wild Fox. This is totally different. Exactly.

Wild Fox has it. They had the sunglasses as well. Great sunglasses as well.

SOMMERS is more a men's line, am I correct? Yes. It's unisex. It's gender neutral.

That's for sure. For the sunglasses, they're both definitely unisex. Most sunglasses are.

SOMMERS is more like collaborations, where I'm going to collaborate with people and just get great stuff. You and I could design three different chairs or something. How about three different swings? Swings? Chair swings.

Wait, what kind of swings? Like a chair swing. They've become popular again. I know you were one of the first people we knew who had one in the house, which my daughter does as well.

I have a client who wants one in his closet, and the coolest one I found is Louis Vuitton, and it's $65,000. We need to come up with something besides the bubble chair and Louis Vuitton. Exactly.

That's exactly right. You come up with something that you look and see what's out there. I love that.

And that's something SOMMERS. It's the best of the best. Something SOMMERS.

I like that. So SOMMERS becomes synonymous. It's the best.

It's the way to do collaborations with people. I love that. And as you know, collaborations are what's up.

Totally happening. 100%. I agree.

And then you're not stuck with just one person. Yeah, you get to keep moving and changing and evolving and elevating it. Tiffany has three different clients.

Well, three different clients that Tiffany has right now. She's putting swings in their houses, but all really funky. I know that one, she's trying to design herself right now.

It's a two-story closet with a glass floor. And the glass floor looks down into the master bathroom and this swing is going to be above the glass floor. So when you're swinging you're looking down into the bathtub.

Amazing. Wow. Yeah, pretty wild.

And that's how you get, that's how you build something that someone's got a crazy idea. And then just like I had that when I was building this house, Javier Barba, and I said, I saw it was an apartment but it was a slide going from someone's bedroom all the way down two flights of stairs and I was like, wow, I gotta have that. Gotta have.

So if you figure out a way to manufacture a slide then you're known for it because not many people do that. Right, and you can make it where it's affordable and then you can put it in someone's backyard. And then it's something something.

So when you're doing your own home like you just mentioned Javier Barba, he has a really strong aesthetic. Yes, so I've done this, yes. He's from Spain and the home I'm having him build when he, it was too strong for me where a lot of Europeans love a built-in couch and stuff like that.

That was mainly the one thing that drove me nuts. But the couch in my house I just change it up all the time. It's a whole fresh new vibe.

So anyways, I changed that with him and then things were coming together and once again it's very difficult building on a hill over here compared to rules over there. That's a whole different world building in the hills in California and the Hollywood Hills. So while you've lived in LA all these years, I'm sure you've seen a lot of amazing homes and pretty special masterpieces.

Is there anything that you remember that sticks in your mind that was so fabulous besides the slide? There was one, actually Joel Silver's house, they sent me to his house. Producers do lethal weapons, all these 80s movies that were great. His big thing was The Matrix.

That was a big deal because there was three of them. He built this unbelievable home that was, but you have to have a lot of space. He had a lot of space to build something really incredible.

Very, very incredible. But what about some of the older homes that have some Hollywood history to them? Actually, there's a lot of Frank Lloyd Wright houses around here too. I just heard my friend Travis who started Uber bought a $43 million house.

I still didn't know who used to live there. There's a story behind that one. So where are you going music wise these days? It's been a while since you've put out an album.

And you've put out quite a few. Yeah, over the years I've put out 8 CDs and now I'm getting into it's funny that I've been into country, I was into R&B and jazz That is interesting. So now I've started getting a little more laid back and simple with country music and I have this artist and I think the sax could a lot of people use the saxophone and just like Bruce Springsteen does, you know has some sax in there but I think that I could sprinkle my sax into some of these country things.

I think that sounds so sexy. But it's like you said earlier about the summers and the collaborations and the other albums that you've done in the past you've done a lot of collaborations with a lot of pretty intriguing great artists. I've always had 2 or 3 artists from Genuine to Macy Gray to Eric Benet and back in the day I used to record with Tupac which was funny and I would be playing with these guys but I didn't even realize in that whole gangsta rap straight out of Compton they were all in my house and I'd be coming over and say hey guys how you doing? and they were nice to me because it was my house but they were definitely thugs.

So they were using your recording studio? Yeah they were using my recording studio so when I came out here I didn't get involved in music well I'm engineers I put up some engineers I rented rooms for them so one of the engineers was Dr. Dre's engineer and the other was Tupac's engineer it was funny it was Dr. Dre's engineer and he'd do beats for me and then play some stuff for him I was involved with all these guys I was kind of like the house saxophone player but my roommate Tommy D he came home and I go he was a white guy really white that day and he was like what happened to you? and he was like someone told Shug that I was cheating on he was cheating on my time clock he was getting like $25 an hour working in the studio put down a gun which if you'd see straight out of Compton he was the guy that they were torturing in the studio I was like oh my god oh my gosh that was a very crazy, that was an interesting time how long was that time? no it was 96 that's when Roxbury was right down the street the riots were at the North Ridge so is there a new album in the horizon? there's a new album I'm starting to write tracks now and what's great about having a studio next door to me is that everyone comes through well everyone used to come through LA now it's a little hard to go Nashville's huge right now so everyone's coming through here, being around here I know everyone get anyone in there and start recording collaborations and you never know what you're going to come up with so when do you foresee that being released? I'd say well now we don't have to do full 12 records once you have a good tune put it out everything has changed and that's where live artists are forming and now this year's going to be a real rough one but we're going to get through it we're going to start doing some virtual jams at my house here with some great musicians starting soon that's great where will you release those? it's such a different kind of place right now you never know a lot of people have time off sometimes it's time to think about things that you always wanted to do yeah, think outside the box yeah, totally outside the box as we kind of wrap up here what is your favorite restaurant? from a design standpoint from a design standpoint there's all these new there's all these new restaurants that are that are out there but from a design there is one that's a beautiful design at the edition hotel here in LA for design wise they're cheating on it because of flowers I'm biased because I designed that with the guys there but I think Koi has a good timeless it does have a timeless it really does have a timeless design it does I'm still doing things with that type of vibe we like asking that question because it's one thing going out and having a great meal but it's also going out and having a great meal and the place that you're sitting in is an experience in itself well, Mr. Chow's obviously is an experience in it's Koi meal it's very Chanel type you know, a little colder right, that's a good analysis it's not comfy I guess but you know it's stuffy what's funny is I like I like I like old bars that I grew up in like in Chicago and there's not many places because they take things that are been around for a while and then they tear them down make them into something hot and posh and they're not as cool once in a while when I find a good spot in the valley in LA with paneling on the walls and track ceiling and a dart board that sounds like Craig's I mean, I feel like I'm at home you feel like you're home my old basement you know not a care in the world what about a favorite hotel obviously a design aspect but also your favorite destination I guess my favorite hotel is definitely the Chiltern Firehouse it's got it's got the Chateau there's these new hotels but I like the classic and then there's classic still the Polaroom all these other ones are ok what about Miami where's one of your favorites so Miami the tie obviously is very zen and cool but the one hotel does a great job the best rooms is still at the Soho the Soho got great rooms yeah I agree and I love how they have such a great I don't know if it's a collaboration but they definitely in each of the areas they align amazing yeah they do they have great shampoo too I mean they got more shampoo than you can imagine the good finishing touches well we look forward to Jimmy your new album coming out it's going to be wonderful I guarantee you there's a lot of collaborations it's going to be called something summers I agree with that I'm going to make sure I'm one of them alright Jimmy I want to thank you for being a dear friend and also supportive but also taking this time today to join us on the iDesignLab podcast thank you and if anyone is listening and would like to throw us a question please email them to contact at twstyle.com that is contact at twinteriors.com.