Vans x Sterling Ruby Return with New Collection

I appreciate you taking the time. I know it's a crazy day for you guys. How are you feeling?

Yamil – Good, good. Yeah. Thank you for coming.

Where did your design journeys start?

Yamil – We started in 2014. Angelo was doing a Hypebeast contest and I was designing my own t-shirts.

Angelo – He already had in his notebook full of designs.

Yamil – And then my sister was friends with Angelo and she told me, "Hey, I want you to connect with my friend", and she just put him on the phone and we started speaking. He was in D.R. at 13 years old and he just mentioned, “Oh, I like Raf Simons.” And then in D.R., nobody knew who he was, so I was surprised. And we met, I think the next day or that same day.

Angelo – No, the same day.

Yamil – The same day, because he lived across from my building, across the street.

Angelo – Because he told me, “Come to my house. Let's start designing." And we started right there, taking pictures, doing graphic design.

Yamil – Then from there we went to a fabric store and we bought some fabrics.

Angelo – We started making t-shirts.

Yamil – We bought some fabrics, and then we went to the tailor. We did the first pants. It didn't work out. The seams were bad, the quality was bad, and we started learning, learning and learning. And then after school, I used to start going to big factories from D.R. just to learn and  sometimes pushing the owner to give me a tour and explain to me how it works. And I think that's where we start to understand quality, what we need to do.

Who would you guys say you're designing for? Do you have an audience in mind when you're making clothes?

Angelo – Of course, we're designing for the Latin Americans, for the Caribbeans.

Yamil – Yeah. I also think we want to celebrate people that are unique and diverse and they can look different, but at the same time, beautiful. I think our definition of what is beautiful is very particular and unique, and we want to reflect that in our clothes. And we always think of how you can identify the Latin American people, the Caribbean people, and how they can become global with clothes, how you can redefine it.

Angelo – Also how you can take that identity and put it out in the world.

How do you translate that Caribbean influence and make it international but make it digestible?

Angelo – With the dyeing techniques that we use for clothes, with the specific colors, with the graphics. Graphics comes from the archives, from traditional materials and feminist movements.

Yamil – I think something that helps a lot is looking at Latin American films because they're from the seventies or sixties, they have a very strong identity that is very unique. It's like when you see a British suit, you know it's British, and when you see Americana, you know it's Americana, cowboy. So I think the filmmakers were really clear about this, so we take a lot of inspiration and help from it. It has Latin American colors, particular colors. It has a nostalgic feeling, and I think that helps to inform us.

How much do you allow the international factor to influence the brand in terms of making it accesible for people outside of the Caribbean, but also making it sellable.

Angelo – It's a symbiotic relationship. It's a conversation between those two things. Because we come from a very small country.

Yamil – We get influenced somehow, of course.

Angelo – Yeah, of course. But at the same time, it's like it's an opportunity for us to be unique in this space because we're always thinking, 'Okay, everybody's doing clothes, everybody has a brand, but how can we make our brand unique?' And it's always going back to our roots and exploring what we are in the country and how we can bring this vision globally.

You guys mentioned making clothes for a diverse range of people and also for Caribbean islands, but Caribbean islands tend to still have these very traditional views of masculinity and femininity.

Yamil – We always try to redefine those traditional values and to break them.

That's not easy coming from an island like that.

Yamil – It's harder.

Do those traditional views ever cross your mind when you're designing?

Angelo – Yeah, of course- they're always there.

Yamil –  At the beginning we had that pressure. It's a small country, like, family, friends saying, “What are you doing?”

Angelo – Everybody said that we were crazy. We're not traditional in that sense.

What does it mean to be debuting at New York Fashion Week to you guys?

Angelo – It feels amazing.

Yamil – No, it feels great.

Angelo – It's a lot of pressure too.

What's the balance of pressure versus excitement right now?

Yamil – I think it's more excitement.

Angelo – More excitement.

Yamil – More excitement than pressure. Things are running smoothly because we have a good team helping us and people that believe in us and people that we also believe in them. So we are growing together. We are young production companies, young lighting designers…

Angelo – We're all on the same level.

Is there something you want to say with this collection, something you want people to take away from it?

Angelo – Yes. 'Other People's Money' is the name of the collection, and it is a reflection of our current state, and how power structures and dynamics are playing in the field. So we're investigating banking systems, technology and how they affect society and how they affect clothes because social classes are divided with clothes too. So that's what we're exploring.

Yamil – We were also thinking about how a farmer, a factory worker, an aristocrat or even a CEO, visually and materially, how it will look in 10 years from now, and getting inspired by that.

Angelo – We're using salt as a central material for our runway because it comes from the word ‘salary’ and we're tying that to a concept. So the model is going to be walking over the salaries of the people. 

Yamil – Also, the collection is influenced and inspired by workwear motifs, but also medieval elements. So it's a mix of both things. What are the elements of workwear that we need? Functionality, thinking about all that.

Angelo – You see people wearing Carhartt and lounge pants with suits, and we're exploring those ideas too.

I know that collaboration's a big part of the brand. What do you guys look for in collaborators?

Yamil – I think we look for people that are open and that enjoy the process. I think having a good process, it's the best when we are collaborating with someone.

Angelo – They trust us and trust our brand.

Yamil – And having them from the beginning or maybe a little bit earlier in the collection. We also look for someone that has a unique vision in what they do. We have collaborated with an illustrator from Angola in Africa, with Dominican artists. We try to also collaborate with people that are aligned with the vision, I guess.

What do you think will be important for LeBlanc to maintain its longevity in the industry?

Yamil – So we are always thinking long term.

Angelo – Being consistent with our message.

Yamil – Having a good product.

Angelo – Having quality products.

Yamil – Quality products, good products. That's a conversation we have every day. How can we be timeless? And we ask ourselves, ‘If you were an investor, would you invest in these brands? Would you invest in LeBlanc Studios or no?’ If not, why not? And we always put The Row as an example. Yeah, it's simple, but it's a brand you will invest in because they have their customers so narrowed down that it's like Uniqlo, but more expensive. So we're always thinking, what can we do to be like that and have that specific customer that will never go away.

Yeah, I feel like being timeless in this day and age is such a hard thing. We’re so caught up in the moment and what's trendy and influencers and people telling us what we should be wearing.

Angelo – People are always following the trends and if you realize real designers always say they don't follow trends, they make their own taste and they always follow that.

Yamil – And I think it's good for us. For example, we always use a diverse cast, and some models in this collection are also non-traditional models, and some people in the team don't like them, but I was yesterday like we need to have them because that's been part of our story and DNA and past collections. So even if it doesn't look good, we need to work it out because if we don't, then our message gets lost. So I think keeping consistency with the message is key for longevity.

Is there anything you've learned about yourselves throughout the process of this show?

Angelo – [Laughs] A lot.

Yamil – I mean a lot, but design-wise, for a collection, time and money is always a problem, even if you're big or small. So we learned that. So it's like how do we get more prepared? We need to get more clothes to then eliminate, to be able to edit better. And also to work with people, I guess, you learn always.

Cool. Finally, what are your hopes? Where do you see the brand going in the years to come?

Angelo – Expanding first here in the United States, because we're here right now and then we want to move the brand to Europe and maybe distribute in some stores in Asia.

Yamil – Also doing in D.R., A key part of the brand is doing physical events, music events, dinners, whatever we can do to maintain the brand. And that's something we enjoy a lot. So I want to keep doing that in New York as well. And creating dinners, creating experiences not only like a pop-up shop, but having the brand involved with the community.