I wanted to ask about the relationship with football and 424. Is the name a reference to the formation, or is it just a coincidence?
GA— Well, I mean, it depends if you believe in coincidences. The truth is, it's the physical address to my first place of business. We were there for about 10 years, so I always had a particular relationship with buildings that are named after the address. Here in The States, every time you go to a building that's named after the address, it's a government building or something kind of intense, something kind of powerful, you know, usually it means that you're in trouble. And I had a really bad affiliation to any physical spaces named after the address. So I wanted to kind of flip that a little bit. And internally it wasn't even a public thing, or it was just not some angle. It just naturally came to me. I think I also really loved how permanent it feels, you know, to have the name of your work be the address of it. It's a physical space. It exists in the real world outside of the internet. And it's actually very definitive, you know, it's like, it's here, and I just wanted to kind of, put my foot down and say, I'm not going anywhere. You can't deport me. You can't send me back. You can't hate a number. It is kind of like a new start.
It’s cool that's the mentality, because in football, that's obviously quite an attacking formation.
GA— Yeah. It's aggressive, you know.
Aggressive, yeah. So I assumed it was a football thing. That's funny. And the red armbands, is that a reference to the captain's armband, or is that something separate as well?
GA— Again, the armband is the attitude of the best player on the team, right? Usually the leader. And they might not always be the fastest, or the guy who scores the most goals, but he's the guy on the team that you look to when you wanna feel you're a part of something. So, in the same spirit, but in a totally different way, armbands in general have always been a symbol that you belong to something bigger than yourself. And I really like that as a canvas for my first statement as a brand to have that energy. If you feel left out, I see you, I respect you, you know, if you don't have money, I'll give you a fucking armband, put it over your own H&M jacket, it didn't matter because it's not about the money. I grew up loving a bunch of shit that I could never get my hands on for whatever reasons. So an armband really sends the message; “I'm with this group, and I like the camaraderie”, you know, there's a connection between football and the work itself. It's not really football but the spirit of it is. It's not like I'm taking a football kit and putting a ‘424’ on it, and selling it for five, six hundred.
Antonio, can you tell me about Liberal Youth Ministry, how that started, the inspiration behind it, and what it means to you?
AZ— So, I started the brand in 2016. I don't know, it is kind of a cliche, but it was just a way of expressing myself and just doing clothes that I couldn't find anywhere. We are based in Mexico and everything we, or at least 90% of the products we produce are made in Mexico. For the name, my background was really into music. So I think for me, music and punk and grunge were things that kind of helped me going through dark times. And when I was looking for the name of the brand I just wanted something that sounded political, dangerous, like a new way of thinking, or a new way of expressing yourself.I just started to play with something that also sounds a little bit religious but in a little bit of a twisted way.
For the brand, for the past three years, I've been really close to Comme des Garçons and Dover Street Market. They've been capital for the growth of the brand, and I am part of their showroom in Paris. And that's where I think most of the brand operates, like, we produce everything in Mexico and we sell it in Paris. But for the brand, I think it's always changing. It's not like a space without movement. I think in the past, in the first collections, I was really into exploring different subcultures, but at the end it felt a little bit tiring. Like, punk already made its revolution decades ago. So I'm just trying to find new ways to express myself. And right now for me, it's really important to create a mix of what I see in Mexico and, and what I see in the streets and incorporate it into the brand and to the collections.
For example, I think this connects with the football jerseys that I've been doing over the past years. But in 2020, when I went to the first showroom in Paris during Fashion Week, I was like, ‘oh, okay, so now we have this big stage, how can I bring Mexico into it?’ And I didn't want to bring it with a folklore vibe. I wanted to bring Mexico to my collections and that's where I started to find this connection to football. I was really into the aesthetic of Campos and different football players, so I started to design these football jerseys with Mexican slogans because that's something that I felt like can fit into the concept of the brand, but also bring Mexico in a creative way. So from there, these were my most known products. And whenever I do a collection, this is always a top seller. So, I think it's something that is just always changing for me. The brand is always chaotic and colorful, and it's something that I think also represents Mexico.
You cannot escape color. Like when you're in Mexico, you see the clashes of different things together. The clashes of reference when you go to a flea market, you see anime, but then you see cowboy boots, but then you see tropicalized Nike. So I think all of these concepts and things go into my brand, and also the rock scene is super powerful. When The Cure or big, big bands come to Mexico it is always sold out. So I think it's just a mixture of all these things that create a brand. And it's… it's Mexico.
Yeah. How did the two of you begin working together? Did you have an existing relationship beforehand?
GA— No, I was just a fan, man. I mean, we're in the scene and there's so few other names that sound like mine or that ring familiar. So you start to recognize each other in the room, you know, or even just by name. I always kept up with his work and found ways to include it in stuff that I was a part of. And when I got this job he was my first call. And we haven't looked back since.
So Antonio was someone you always wanted to work with, but you were just waiting for that right project?
GA— Yeah, of course. Well actually if I'm honest, I was a little intimidated (laughs), you know, so I was like, ‘well, I better come correct. I gotta bring something good, or else what the fuck's the point?’ So then I was like, ‘yo, you're gonna want to hear this.'
AZ— I think from my side, I’ve known Guillermo's work for a long time so we always tend to gravitate closer to each other as friends, but we never found, like he said, a project to work with. And to be honest, from the first call that he's talking about, it was like a couple months ago, it was like instant chemistry. And then I finally had the chance to meet him in Los Angeles three weeks ago. And it felt like he was a brother from the beginning, it wasn't this weird corporation chemistry like you are trying to just have fun from the beginning. It's been a dream come true to be working with him. And it's just super fun because we know each other's languages, like the other day he was wearing this super cool 424 grunge shirt, made out of silk. You know, he's Latin American, and likes football. So it just makes a lot of sense to be working on this project together.
I wanted to talk about the first Leagues Cup tournament and the importance of a competition that brings the whole of North America together.
GA— I think just the fact that it's happening is already quite a big deal. I mean, three countries taking their league and then playing a World Cup style tournament against each other is kind of unheard of. And then the MLS are doing their bit to make sure that the Premier League isn't the only league that's watched in the world. And they're creating a full blown community that's going to be watched all over the world. I mean, you look at what happened the other day in Miami, you know, Messi's first game was a Leagues Cup in a sort of inaugural game. And I would argue that probably the whole world watched that game.
And of course he scored too, he just had to.
GA— It was written, bro. I think that the Leagues Cup is an announcement that soccer's here, soccer's here in The States and it's not going anywhere.
It's super exciting for me moving here. Western Australia, where I grew up and Bermuda, where I'm originally from both have strong footballing cultures. So to see it growing here, now that I live here, is just super exciting.
GA— Right. I know, it's nuts. An, the two most important leagues in Central and North America coming together, dude, and doing this, if I was a kid, I would've been all over it. It's like a World Cup every July. So as the teams progress and the games get better and there's more support for the game here, the tournament will only grow and grow. So this is a great new step. You know when they did the Super League and they just cherry picked all the teams, you know, it feels a little bit more inclusive. It feels a little bit more thought out. Yeah, and from my experience so far, it's still about the game. It's still about promoting the game and growing the game, and that feels good.
