Meet Rene Camarillo | Apparel Investigator and Creator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Rene Camarillo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rene, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?

Growing up in East LA, we get our nutrients from the corners. East Los Angeles is where our unnamed neighbors sit next to us on the public buses and crowded mercados. Where artisan hand painted eyebrows became a fad and rosaries dangle from our throats. Where frightening gunshots get mistaken for fluorescent firecrackers. Where we spill our teeth over lovers during the heat of the summer where we love. The concrete with graffiti, so pure, however its expression is often misunderstood. Our blood, it gets misplaced with that sticky tar. Our skin sizzles in the summer as we hustle under the sun. Our sweat drips and pools around our ankles. The community, It places me under its tongue, and I’m absorbed into its gums. It’s dangerous. Being Born and raised in East Los Angeles, I have come to realize how my Chicano identity and Latino background has become the originating genes to my body of work that is my small developing label, destacarse. I produce hand crafted apparel with themes of immigration, labor, cholo silhouettes, and other personal mementos. My apparel investigates new forms as I combine motifs of Latino lifestyle concepts and other honest expressions I feel through the communities and people of East Los Angeles. 

My background also is from a simple working class community. I was the first to graduate with a college degree and discipline myself in my artistic projects. Today I have been called by many people an artist, entrepreneur, storyteller, and designer. 

The struggling family and community I was born into, aided in my drive for innovation and lust for “honest art” which to me, is realistic, relatable commentary on underprivileged lives. The people you never see featured in popular magazines, or media. Our narratives are valuable too, and this is the significance and integrity I wish to provide through destacarse. and through my apparel. I was raised to hustle and find a way. 

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?

In a world and industry where commerce overtakes creativity, my abstract work aims to be visually engaging as my main focus is driven towards constructing unusual artistic apparel which is my way of producing significant commentary on Chicano lives and struggle. I don’t care about sales and profit. In the very beginning, I was a troubled latchkey kid, who desperately needed a creative outlet. All I did was try to consume art and fashion magazines – I remember in high school I had every monthly issue of Vogue for two years. In high school, I remember choosing not to eat lunch and save my forty cents lunch cost so by the end of the week, I would have two dollars, which was enough for two yards of fabric in the El Sereno Fabrics store. For me writing and sewing were the only solutions to distract me from my own destruction. I started sewing my own clothes in high school (really poorly I must add), and by sophomore year I organized my first ever public runway event in a local recreational center known as, Barrio Action Youth and Family Center. It was a humble beginning, a fashion show held in an unpolished basketball gym with around thirty attendees. But all of this effort escalated into full fledged handmade collections being shown in private spaces in Downtown Los Angeles such as

the Civic Center Studios and the creative habitat, “The Reef” with guest count charting close to two hundred. I was the kid who brought his domestic sewing machine to school often, to sew during lunch periods. I was the kid who dreamt big and was fearless, realizing he had no money for producing big shows so I called major department stores to ask for donations and funding to feed my guests. I was constantly both equally desperate and hopeful. I remember taking the Metro subway rails and finding random business cards and even reaching out through email to see if I can score an investor, and if not, then at least another set of eyes to witness my next collections and bodies of work. I like to believe I have integrity and real talent, and working for a few fashion companies in the industry has taught me my value. Because I never had money growing up and as a young adult, I was forced to constantly be a full-time worker and part time student if I wanted to keep producing my own products and new creative projects. I worked for a handful of designers, artists and manufacturing companies, getting my hands on any position available. For me, I wanted to learn absolutely everything this industry had to offer. One of my earlier jobs was working in a local “sweatshop” in Lincoln Heights. I remember specifically being paid by piece. I was making five cents for every spaghetti strap I sewn, and three cents for every tag and label I sewn into garments. Quickly after, I became a freelance pattern maker, grader, and designer working on other artists’ work, because I had difficulty funding my own projects. I was always in survival mode, trying to pay for rent and materials for my own projects. I remember one time I also met with a local designer who wanted me to pattern jeans and have a sewn sample done within three hours. I accomplished the job, and you better believe the fit was nice too. Another time while graduating from the Los Angeles Trade Technical College Fashion Design Program and winning both an award and a scholarship, upon announcing my name the first thought that came through my mind was that I finally had rent money, meaning the scholarship sum. 

More about my career. My collections and pieces are usually organic and come from significant spaces in my community and personal life. At the age of 19 I participated in a Los Angeles Fashion week event showcasing my work with other designers. In 2015 my collection “The Boy Who Dreamt Of Losing Teeth” was showcased during Los Angeles Fashion week at The Reef. The collection was inspired by my discharge from a psychiatric hospital. Some of the pieces in this collection had real moths sewn into the garments behind clear plastic, a symbol of seeking light just as other phototaxis organisms do. In 2017 I organized another private runway show held at The Reef and showcased my collection “Sinner Man”, a somewhat sexual collection based off of sexual identities, binary oppositions, and gender constructs. The was a menswear collection, but with very feminine details such as hand pleated chiffon ruffles, dress like silhouettes, and lace. Proceeding forward in 2019 my strongest collection was revealed at the Civic Center Studios. This collection was titled “Travieso” and was inspired by the narrative of the modern Mexican American, misconstrued in America. The show featured a hand made chain link fence that separated the audience in two, forcing them to gaze at each other through the fence and providing commentary on the border crisis at the time. With garments constructed and looks resembling 1940’s zoot suit eara this collection balanced elements of cholo aesthetic as well as notorious bracero program influences. I am currently working slowly on a collection titled “Dolores” and it is nearly ready to showcase. The plan is to have a runway show with a collection this year.

Throughout each collection, I have sold almost every piece. My next step is to successfully mass produce and sell online and be able to eventually operate an “art house”. A studio where guests can shop current collections, view community art, and collaborate. I want my brand, destacarse. to always stay humble and have integrity towards the community that inspires me. I’d like to be able to hire a small team in the near future and work with every one of them to make sure I have my hands on all stages of the design and product development process. I would hate to call myself a designer but not have touched each product that ships to customers. I have seen the wrongfulness in the fashion industry, and it is independent creators like me that can bring change and prove that new systems matter. 

One recurring factor that I have realized working with privileged individuals or other “designers” and “artists” is that they are not capable of developing products on their own. This recurring pattern is somewhat prevalent within the fashion industry it seemed. I worked for a company where the “company designer” didn’t know how to draft a single pattern or sew a single stitch. She probably wasn’t even able to turn on a sewing machine. She would hire others to sketch designs, draft patterns, and sew samples. I never understood how someone so untalented could make so much money and be labeled as the “company designer”. To be honest, I am really tired of working with others who rely on the poor, underprivileged, and immigrants to craft their dreams, while all of ours get left behind or put on hold. The reality is, the artisans crafting the goods are more qualified to be the designers, even more than those who give the orders and get paid double. The fashion industry is extremely toxic. The last company I worked for, I was the senior designer, but I was forced to quit because of how the garment sewers were mistreated, and how I was mistreated. In reflection, I am proud that I am an individual creator that can do so much, from pattern drafting, to garment construction, to grading, and even mass producing. This is really uncommon in the fashion industry. Trust me. The reality is, those who have money need to use other less privileged people to commodify and profit from their talent to build a business; while people like me who have skills and talent need foundation money in order to be successful. I am tired of waiting for investors. I want my own future and capabilities in my own hand, and not in anyone else’s hand. I want this American dream. Where is my piece of American hotdog? 

I also believe that my focus on the East LA communities is necessary. Before the pandemic for four years I would volunteer three months every year to different East Los Angeles Parks and Recreations in order to work with the youth groups and together I showed them how to operate sewing machines, draft patterns, organize a runway show, and at the end of the three months we invite the community to witness a runway show the youth prepared. The The thing that makes me proud, is that I was this lost East Los Angeles brown kid who fell in love with the craft of sewing, and I wanted to dive into the industry and work on a small creative label that focussed on people of color. I want my label, destacarse., to focus on Latino culture, issues, lifestyles, and provide a real perspective from someone who was born and raised in this Chicano energy. It has never been easy, the lack of finances is crippling, the forced method of me working on other rich peoples dreams before my own is frightening, and what I want Los Angeles to know is that I am never giving up.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
As someone who has an incredibly microscopic circle of friends, I really do not go out often. A common fun day out for me would most likely take the shape of me buying lunch and sweets from Little Tokyo village, specifically らっかん (Rakkan Ramen) The quartz ramen is superb. I am also slowly but surely learning Japanese, so Little Tokyo is always a nice time. Also, the store, Jungle, needs to stock more Pokemon plushies and figures. They keep me waiting. Most importantly, I also find myself sticking with the Elephant hills in El Sereno often. It’s where I grew up living and playing as a child. My family calls these hills “The Heavens”. I tend to stay away from overly gentrified areas. 

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
This shoutout piece is for my mother Patricia Camarillo and father who passed away last year, Jimmy Camarillo. Thank you, mom and dad for teaching me to thrive in the most challenging of times, and for teaching me that my sweat meant something. They taught me that the mundane was admirable and that it is a bad thing to not have to struggle for one’s living. Thank you mom and dad.

Website: https://destacarseportfolio.wordpress.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/destacarse.designs/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rene-camarillo-481b09224/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaLjxE8T_Og

Other: Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/0h.w0w/?hl=en

Image Credits
Photographers: Casey Orozco, Maelani Garcia, Pete Galindo, Jen Martin, Zeynep Yeldan, Steve Lucero. Models: Jesus Barajas, Dillan Donaire, Rafael Quijano, Kevin Cobrere, Alejandro Navarrete, Ben Nevarez, Sesus Suatan, Brandon Ruiz. Special Thanks: Dolores Camarillo, Fernanda Sanchez, Rosa Limon, Pete Galindo, Ozzy Alvarez