Claire Harlin is one of Southern Arizona’s hidden gems.
Through her Bisbee-based Classic Rock Couture designs and vintage clothing, the former California newspaper editor has piqued the interest of musicians Elle King, Margo Price and Miley Cyrus, among others.
Tucson will soon be privy to her ways. Harlin will celebrate the opening of her second store, 168 W. Kennedy Street, Tucson, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 1. Her 3,500-square-foot flagship location is in Bisbee, where she resides.
“I’m a small-town person, and I like living in my own little bubble,” Harlin said. “It’s a weird juxtaposition. My business is definitely in this early, pivotal spot, and it’s growing. Really exciting things are happening.”
Boasting 111,000 Instagram followers, Classic Rock Couture carries the tagline “rock ‘n’ roll charm meets the desert southwest.” As the brand’s website says, she prefers her “colors bright, pants flared and albums on vinyl.”
“The best example is Anita Pallenberg, who dated members of The Rolling Stones,” she said. “I think she had the coolest style. If she would wear it, that would probably be something I would want to design, but with a western twist.”
In the Classic Rock Couture Tucson store, Harlin is taking the music theme a step further. She will feature a spot for Lysergic Sound Distributors, which specializes in rare vintage rock and psychedelic vinyl. Customers can stop by and listen to vinyl before they purchase it.
“I want to create a listening lounge, where you can go come in and put a record on and hang out,” she said. "It’ll be an intimate space.”
Harlin founded her company in 2014 as a one-woman Etsy shop, with vintage clothing and rock T-shirts that she sourced.
“I started sourcing rock ‘n’ roll T-shirts back when they were easier to find,” she said with a smile. “It was at the beginning of this big trend.”
While she loved selling vintage, she soon began dreaming up her own designs. And it was a trade show in Las Vegas that changed everything.
“I barely could afford to fly out there,” she said. “I went and I had my designs that I had sketched out. I was going up to manufacturers and saying, ‘Here’s my idea. Could you make a few of these?’ They would tell me no, because the minimum was 300 pieces. They wouldn’t do just 50. But I found this one manufacturer, who I still work with today, who believed in me and agreed to make a very small batch. They’re a smaller family business and really sweet.”
Inspired by vintage clothing from the 1960s to 1980s, the Classic Rock Couture brand was born. Her first piece, a Stevie Nicks-style dress, hit the internet in 2017. A few years later, she held a presale for her modern bomber jacket dubbed “Rising Sun.” She thought if she could sell 40, that would pay for production. The presale went very well, and one of the buyers was Miley Cyrus.
“It was kind of an overnight success,” she said. “It blew up. I woke up one day to around 10,000 followers on Instagram and all these messages asking if I saw Miley Cyrus was wearing my jacket.
“It was on an advertisement for ‘Miley Week’ on the Jimmy Fallon show. It’s been a whirlwind ever since. I didn’t know how to run a business very well, so I had to learn quickly.”
Classic Rock Couture started here in Tucson, but ended up in Bisbee when Harlin had an opportunity to lease her first brick-and-mortar space there.
Her partner, Justin Luria, owns The Shady Dell vintage trailer court in Bisbee, too.
“I really miss Tucson and living here, so the new shop was really meant to be,” she said. “The Barrio is my favorite neighborhood.”
Elle King, who sings “Ex’s and Oh’s,” is a longtime customer of the brand.
“I lived in that jacket,” she said via text. “Wore it every day. Then my mom stole it, and now it’s gone from my niece to her little sister. It’s one of those jackets. Everybody and their sister has a life of their own in it. Timeless. Cool. Staple.”
Harlin said her mission is to make clothing accessible.
“When I do photo shoots, I don’t look for models,” she said. “I’m looking for people who would actually wear it to represent the brand. I’ve never once gone to a modeling agency and said, ‘Give me a model who knows how to look at a camera.’ A lot of musicians have represented CRC, or just real people — not people who are just getting paid to wear it.”
Harlin said that’s what makes Classic Rock Couture different than other brands.
“I’m not an LA person. I’m not absorbed into the fashion industry; I’m on the fringe of it, really,” she said. “I just do my own thing, tucked away in this little town.”
Classic Rock Couture
168 W. Kennedy Street, Tucson
38 Main Street, Bisbee
www.classicrockcouture.com
Instagram: @classicrockcouture
