Meet Rene Camarillo | Textile and Garment Creative

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

Hi Rene, why did you pursue a creative career?
My name is Rene Camarillo; I am an East Los Angeles born and raised creator who produces textile art, but primarily focuses on hand crafted apparel with themes of immigration, labor, cholo silhouettes, and other personal East Los Angeles mementos. In an industry where commerce overtakes creativity, I continue to cross examine and critique social engagement of fashion industry practices, juxtapose privileged lives, and disassemble immigrant powered complexes through the development of abstract garments, art structures, and cultural wearable art. My artwork and craft aims to investigate the prescribed narrative of the Latinx existence, while implementing motifs of my unnoticed culture into my art and designs, strategically. I pursue my artistic career and ask for respect because I have learned that the art world is extremely exclusive and mostly caters to Eurocentric privilege, nepotism, and a grand network of money circles. My mission is to shed light on the less privileged lives of East Los Angeles such as our immigrants and working class brown folk ignored by our government and undergoing forceful erasure. By producing textile art and garments that magnify our existence, whether it is a garment which features brown glass collected from local allies then sewn into the back yoke, or a vest which displays “dry blood” made with Japanese kakishibu intended to provide commentary on neighborhood gun violence; My obligations are to produce compelling garments which hold truth and reliability to Chicano identity. This work is what I am now calling my lifelong “investigative grassroots project”.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My design label, destacarse. is a cultural brand which investigates East Los Angeles Chicano culture, focusing on immigration, street lifestyle, and labor In an attempt to export honest identity of historical importance and conflict into its artistic apparel with every stitch.

Growing up in East Los Angeles, we get our nutrients from the corners. East Los Angeles is where my unnamed neighbors sit next to me on the public buses and crowded mercados. It’s where artisan hand painted eyebrows become a fad and rosaries dangle from our throats. Where frightening gunshots get mistaken for fluorescent firecrackers, and add warmth to our atmosphere. Where we spill our teeth over our subhuman occupations during the heat of the summer. The concrete is meticulously tattooed with graffiti, so pure, however its expression is often misunderstood. Our blood; it gets misplaced with a type of sticky tar. Our skin sizzles in the summer as we congregate under the sun in fields or in manufacturing factories scattered across this country. Our sweat drips and pools around our ankles, as our labor becomes someone else’s commodity. The community I was raised in, it places me under its tongue, and I’m absorbed into its gums. It’s dangerous.

With immense curiosity, I hand pattern, construct, and produce each abstract garment and artwork with both integrity and curiosity. Through my theoretical work, my designs and art making is where I am able to show my practices and provide my social commentary through my design label, destacarse.

I am most proud of my work because of the realism and integrity my themes draw inspiration from. I demand attention because my work is born from identity and struggle. Currently I have been witnessing how my Chicano identity and brown community faces calculated “cultural erosion” from government policies and wealthier racist entities. America continues to erode cultural identities and reinforce sterile capitalism and Western ideologies. East Los Angeles faces racist developers implementing change and contributing to gentrification. But, we all seem to know this already, right? Well the same cultural smudging tactics that one may find in gentrification can be found in other aspects. As I continue to create and grow, I am witnessing how this “erosion model” is used to destroy many forms of cultural existence. For example indigenous weaving techniques won’t be taught to me while in graduate school, instead some modern practices. Native American basketry methods soon won’t be remembered. Ethnic studies and other cultural classes are being removed from grade school and universities throughout this country. My neighbors are being displaced in my communities. And I am being taught that Marcel Duchamp is a genius. It amazes me how cultural traditions are being ignored and forcefully forgotten so that Western society is capable of “reinventing” a method or technique that has long been practiced before – and they profit from this. I see it all the time. Ted Talk presenters discussing how weaving traditions are diminishing, but they completely ignore geographical areas such as Mexico or Peru who are still practicing the same weaving abilities their descendants have passed down for generations. The algorithms are against people of color. Influencers being advertised on our search bars cannot relate to us culturally anymore. In too many ways, America continues to disembody and erode cultural identities in a very ethnocentric approach. The fast fashion and apparel industry is even worse. It is an industry that commodifies immigrants and an industry that chases and utilizes poverty. Sewing is not a domestic pastime. It is a craft, and a practice that requires skill. I hate how the fast fashion industry commodifies and takes advantage of immigrants and the less privileged in third world countries. In a way, sewing is now a second class occupation. Back then, each family had at least one seamstress; a wonderful mother or grandmother that produced garments for the family. Now fast fashion has stripped this asset and allows the world to purchase cheap disposable garments for less than ten bucks. Clothing was never intended to be temporary and cheap. We need creatives to continue to push conversation and produce meaningful craft and meaningful artwork.

I like to believe my work is entirely in its own lane, and it is constantly getting more potent. After receiving two full ride offers for graduate school, I am fortunate enough to accept the Society of Presidential Fellowship Award granted by Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) to continue my studies this Fall and earn an MFA in Textiles.

My apparel is all hand made. I draft all the paper patterns, and construct each garment myself. I am eager to attend RISD to earn how to weave textiles and produce even more developed garments in which I weave the fabrics used to produce the garments. I currently have so many ideas and still working on my latest collection titled “Dolores”. My artwork is not really commercial maybe. I like to produce wearable abstract garments, and again, I believe my cultural lens and perspective are what makes my artwork special. I still use two machines. It is just me in my apartment whenever I produce new apparel products. It’s me currently working part time as an Alterations Specialist at Uniqlo, while also working as a freelance product developer for Grammy award singer, Miguel and his company S1C. I focus on patterns and sample making as well as product problem solving for the team. I am proud to be returning to school so that I can finally be removed from working six days a week, and finally focus all my time, energy and research on my artwork. I have lots to make and I am so excited to prove to others that I and my craft is valuable.

I am growing older, but I still have that young blood. I still want to dedicate my life to the production of garments and textile craft. Craft; I have realized is such a beautiful aspect of human existence. I have also realized I don’t want much. I don’t care about cars, or a house of my own, or a pretentious label. I just want to make things you would deem, strange or interesting.

Thank you for listening.

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.
We would obviously visit Los Tres Cochinitos, a tiny family restaurant in Lincoln Heights for breakfast. Then we would get lost on the local Metro only to end up in Kinokuniya, a book store in Little Tokyo where we would spend hours shuffling through Japanese art and fashion magazines. Maybe try to steal a fountain pen or two. Later we would delicately explore the elephant hills in El Sereno, people watch in Boyle Heights, and lastly grab tacos from Carnitas Michoacan in Lincoln Heights. Keep it simple. Keep it close to home, and keep it away from gentrified fingertips.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to credit Corey Pemberton and the non profit organization Crafting the future, Fernanda Sanchez, Mo Kelman, My mother and father, and lastly these crumbly East Los Angeles Streets.

Website: https://destacarse.shop/

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

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

Image Credits
Casey Orozco, Rene Camarillo