Emerging Designers Implore the Industry for Support and Backing

Help!

That was the message from three American designers who have created buzzy brands but need financing and other behind-the-scenes support to get to the next level.

In a panel discussion on Day Two of the WWD Apparel & Retail CEO Summit, Willy Chavarria joined Elena Velez and Raul Lopez of Luar in a lively discussion with WWD style editor Alex Badia about the state of American fashion and what’s needed to survive and prosper today.

Velez, a Milwaukee native who attended Central Saint Martins in London, won the CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund award as well as the CFDA Emerging Designer of the Year award in 2022, but the road she has traveled has not been easy.

“I’m a very vocal advocate of thinking about fashion outside of the really established creative codes,” she said. “I am the daughter of a ship captain on the Great Lakes and I had a nontraditional childhood growing up in these very industrial heavy metal spaces. I look at the fashion industry from an outsider perspective, and I love to work with my friends who are in very blue-collar trades. All of my friends in high school were welders, machinists and fabricators so to get to apply a little bit of a fashion perspective to what they do and really recontextualize American craftsmanship gives me a little bit of an edge.”

Lopez, a native New Yorker, came to fashion without formal training, although he did co-create Hood by Air before launching Luar a decade ago. The label has carved out a niche in fashion by creating a community, one that has embraced his breakout product, the Ana bag, that has developed a cult following with celebrities and fashionistas alike.

“Luar is a brand for people who feel comfortable in their own skin,” he said. “I wanted to create a space where social class didn’t exist. I was born and raised in New York in a family that was not really well off. My dad was a super, my mom worked in factories in the garment district. I wasn’t accepted in my neighborhood. I was a gay boy wanting to dress up, and I didn’t fit the mold.” So he set out to create what he described as “the YMCA of fashion where everyone is welcome as long as you respect each other — it’s fine, you can come in, it’s open to all.”

He then made a bag that fit into that lane that was affordable to anyone and “brings people from all classes together.”

That echoes the ethos of Chavarria. Although the California-born designer has had a longer career in fashion, attending the Academy of Art in San Francisco and working for Nick Graham, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, among others, it’s his eponymous brand that launched in 2015 that has become a social platform for underrepresented communities.

“It’s a brand that is built to empower people,” he said. “I’ve brought in people to work with me who have seen oppression or are struggling. They’re queer, they’re brown, they’re chubby — it’s a space to make people feel better about themselves and to feel as empowered and beautiful as we really are.”

His collection ranges from $40 T-shirts that he sells “to be democratic,” to a more luxury offering that is being highlighted at Bergdorf Goodman and helps him pay the bills.

Because he’s been around the block a few times, Chavarria knows it takes more than creativity to be successful in fashion. “A lot of designers build these amazing brands, and they get to a point where they need infrastructure to handle the wave of attraction,” he said. “They get to a point where they’re taking off, and doing so well, but it takes a lot of money to get to continue. That’s my biggest struggle right now.”

Lopez agreed. Although his shows have closed New York Fashion Week twice, his brand is also in need of some outside investment.

“Not to toot my own horn, but when you go to my shows, it’s like a Black Friday sale at Walmart. We’re kind of shaping New York now, but it costs a lot of money. I want to be global but I need financial help and accountants to help with the logistics of the whole thing. In the European markets, they get supported by their cities. I love the position that I have, but I also want to grow to a position where I can sit with people we all look up to.”

Velez added: “Success in this industry is a moving target. There are so many different metrics that we’re constantly working with to achieve. To be great in this industry is simply my destiny. I’ve wanted to do this since I was a child. But for somebody who’s very vocal about not coming from private wealth, to be able to self-actualize in that way requires us to be experts at so many different things that we just simply cannot be experts in. There’s just no way to be the creative director and the accountant and the human resource manager. So I’m desperate for funding, I will need collaborative sponsorship opportunities, I need perspective and mentorship. I need people to take an interest in me and my story and see value in what I bring to the cultural landscape and want to foster me to be also a great business owner.”

She said that she recognizes the “commercial context” of the products she creates, but she needs to “find people who can really help us to hone that vision and turn it into a commercial reality. We need help and to be seen and uplifted.”

Lopez continued that thought. “Everyone’s kind of on the same boat. We are all sailing but we need the wind to push us a little faster. I won Accessory Designer of the Year from the CFDA and that puts us in a place where there are more eyes on us, but we need backing. And that’s not always only monetary. It’s mentorship and logistics and other resources. I could sell water to a whale, but I’m not a business person.”

Chavarria said he believes that it’s tougher for emerging designers in the U.S. than Europe to succeed and that has led to the demise of a lot of talented people. “I’ve seen it before, when designers get to this point and they’re doing great with all these stores, and then they’re gone.”

One possible solution would be to decamp to Paris, which several high-profile American designers have already done. But that’s not going to be the path that Velez takes.

“It feels like Paris is the path of least resistance. We could probably go there and live a little bit of a healthier lifestyle and have access to the resources we need. But there’s a reason we stay in New York — we believe in fostering the creative landscape in the city and want to be at the forefront of pushing American fashion forward.”

Lopez bemoaned the fact that America seems to have lost a lot of momentum, but believes it’s not too late.

“I want to go back to a time where every buyer comes here. Why do I have to go across the pond to do sales? We are the new American luxury, we are the catalysts for new designers in America. We want to bring people to New York to see our shows and have people to yearn to be here. Why is it that Americans now are like looking to Asia and Europe to find fashion? We have it here. Why can’t we get that same support so we can continue to put on the shows and share our stories. I’ve been offered four times to show in Paris, London, Asia, and — not that I have anything against them, I love them — but it’s not New York. I want American fashion to come back to where it was when people were thirsty to come to the tents to buy American brands.”

So while they may be facing an uphill battle, the designers still plan to stay the course and continue to wave the flag in the U.S.

“We’re here for the long run,” Velez said. “I think that we all have something to say that’s valuable to the landscape here. Our battle is not existential, so much is internal. The only thing that’s going to stop us is burnout from lack of resources. So please stalk us, collaborate with us, invest in us.”

Chavarria said his goal is to “be a legacy brand. I want to be able to reach people with a message of positivity through fashion. And I think a New York comeback is one way of doing that.”

Lopez said he hopes to grow Luar into a more global brand while continuing to “cultivate communities and bridge gaps between social classes.”

And Velez said she has “pretty lofty dreams of becoming vertical and circular” while also investing in building out a “manufacturing initiative that really supplements the philosophy of the brand.” At the same time, she also wants to help identify other creatives who bring something to the American fashion arena that is distinct.

“I really have a lot of ideas about how to make American manufacturing sexy,” she said. “I really want to make a system that works for other small-scale designers — and I want to do in the States. There are a lot of skill sets and information that we lack. Of course, it would be an easier investment to comprehend when you donate that skill set to Chanel or another big brand that has a multigenerational history of success. But we need people to invest in us.

“We’re at a moment in New York fashion that is so exciting. But we’re going to miss our window if we can’t find a way to empower this young cohort of American fashion designers with the tools they need to succeed.”