Meet CT Ucol and Czarah Castro | Art Directors & Founders of Mixed Uniform

We had the good fortune of connecting with CT Ucol and Czarah Castro and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi CT Ucol and Czarah Castro, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
CT: I was born and raised on Oahu, Hawaii. Which is a melting pot of all cultures. You got Native Hawaiian, Filipino, Samoan, Tongan, Chinese, Japanese, Micronesian, Black,White etc. Growing up in Hawaii, no one really cared what color you were because we were all POC. It was a very rare upbringing where the “minority” in most places were actually the majority. Pretty cliché to say, but as long as everyone respected one another, spread aloha, and what we say, “ Mālama ‘Āina” (take care of the land) that’s all that really mattered. Aside from the Hawaii lifestyle, at home, acknowledging your culture was also very important. As a proud Filipina, I was fortunate enough to have parents who loved educating me about our background—what it was like in the Philippines, how my family migrated to the states, our family traditions, beliefs and so on. My upbringing has transpired in my lifestyle today in the same way. Spreading aloha as much as I could, doing my part in taking care of Earth, educating others and having pride in my heritage.

Czarah: I was born and raised in LA with an upbringing rooted in my Filipino culture. If there’s one thing that my parents and grandparents have taught me, it’s how to be thrifty—from clothing, to food, to even experiences. Being thrifty has transpired the way that I live my life today because I am constantly trying to make the most out of everything. When given an opportunity of any kind, I had to maximize every minute of it and then also think, “How can I take my experiences/learnings here and bring it back to my family and friends so that they can reap the benefits as well?” Being thrifty in that way has fostered a mindset that’s about figuring out how to create and maximize success not only as a individual but also as a community. It’s about pinching pennies to make sure that everyone eats at our table.

What should our readers know about your business?
Mixed Uniform is a curated vintage shop specializing in clothing dating anywhere between 1930s-1990s.

During the pandemic and being able to work from home allowed us a lot more time to be able to explore other interests in our lives. For us, it was vintage clothes. Growing up with immigrant parents, we’ve learned to appreciate the value of secondhand goods and that really translated into the types of clothing we wear. A lot of our past times lead us to going to thrift stores to shop for ourselves. We started coming across items that were really fascinating and ended up purchasing them even if it didn’t fit us.bWe accumulated so many pieces the idea of selling secondhand vintage clothing was just that — an idea. Eventually, we gave it a shot and started selling them online.

It was definitely not a smooth road. The easiest part about this journey is actually finding quality pieces we liked. Everything else has been a learning curve for us. Keeping track of inventory, getting a permit, establishing a name, establishing a look, working as a unit between 2 POC women who are partners, factoring expenses, accounting, managing everything in our apartment while still working our 9-5 jobs, and so much more.

We’ve learned that life happens and sometimes we need to take a hiatus to recharge. And like life, running a small business isn’t always going to be easy. It’s always going to be a rollercoaster ride no matter how successful we are, and that’s ok because with the dips, that goes to show that there is always room for improvement both personally and as a business.

We want the the readers to know that if there’s anything you want to do, to just go for it. Even if it’s just an idea — just like how Mixed Uniform was. As for Mixed Uniform, we’ve always said, “quality over quantity”. We always make sure to be intentional with the clothing we pick for the shop and hope ya’ll enjoy what we find.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
First stop out of that LAX traffic, In-n-Out and straight home to settle in and freshen up. Dinner at Bull BBQ in Gardena because we don’t want to wait in Koreatown lines. Get pretty drunk off of soju (thankfully Czarah doesn’t drink so she’s our DD). If we’re feeling spontaneous but don’t want to do the most, go to a dive bar like The Mandrake and get more trashed. If we do feel like doing the most, oddly enough our friends like to go to Lock & Key.

For the rest of the week, I’ll give them a list of things we can do:

Food/Drinks:
Gardena Bowl (Gardena)
Pann’s (Inglewood)
Kettle (Manhattan Beach)
Sip and Sonder for Coffee (Inglewood)
Boy and the Bear (Westchester)
Sunday Gravy (Inglewood)
Coffee Code (Norwalk)
Cafe Dulce
Dan Sung Sa
Loaders
Board and Brew (La Habra)
85 degrees
Taste Tea (Boba)
Ekkamai (Venice)
Lasita (Chinatown)
Steep (Chinatown)
Teofilo (Los Alamitos)
Kato (DTLA)
Yamashiro’s (Hollywood)
Becker’s Bakery (Manhattan Beach)
Cafe/5
Jus Poke (Redondo Beach)
Shin Sen Gumi
Otafuku (Gardena)
Bellybombz (Norwalk)
Momo’s Paradise (Torrance)
Aburi (Long Beach)
Tatsu (Weho)
Wurstkuche
Spoon & Pork (Filipinotown)
Mirom
S’morgasburg (DTLA

Bars:
Apt 503
Beetle House Bar
Dirty Laundry
No Vaccancy
Bar 82
Angel City Brewery
Mama Shelter
Line Hotel
Ace Hotel
Lock & Key
Black
The Mandrake
Blind Barber
Girl and the White Horse

To Do:
The Row
Rosebowl Flea
Long Beach Flea
Silverlake Flea
LACMA
Hammer Museum
Natural History Museum
Huntington Library
Picnic at Kenneth Hahi
Shatto 39

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Shoutout to our community (friends and family). We are so fortunate to have so much people in our corner and allowing us to be who we want to be and encouraging us to do whatever we want to. All of our accomplishments wouldn’t happen with out them. Without such a strong support system, we honestly wouldn’t be who we are today.

Website: Mixeduniform.com

Instagram: @mixeduniform