Designer Profile 2023: Eddy Rose & Sebastian Martinez
How’d you both get involved with MODA?
Eddy Rose Well, I've been a model for Arjun Kilaru for the last three years, and I think he was always joking about the model to designer pipeline. But I think like [Sebastian], I do a lot of different mixed media. So, trying something new wasn't necessarily that big of a risk because we like doing new stuff.
I was personally interested in making clothes because I had never done it in the past, aside from helping my mother and my sister, but I never fully embarked on it. I knew I kind of had the drive to get it done, but I didn't have as much of the brains or the vision. And so I had someone who I thought would be a great partner, because I think we complement each other really well that way.
In what way?
Sebastian Martinez I think he has a lot of this sort of momentum and drive to get it done. And I've been helping to figure things out. We work a lot faster and better when we're working together. Since we're both new to it, it helps to be working in a pair, splitting up the time and the labor and the cost. We have a creative process that's been working so far, bouncing ideas off each other.
Since you didn’t go through the design boot camp, how did you both handle the logistical and technical aspects of putting together a collection?
Eddy My mom gave us a little tutorial. She's nice enough to help us out there. But then after that, it's been pretty much just looking things up or trying it and then seeing kind of how it feels. [After] you mess up a couple times, things start to become more intuitive. Me always questioning what Seb has to say makes him rethink it, like three times, and then usually after he's done that, it's pretty good.
Sebastian And vice versa. From the jump, Eddie assured me that his mom could help teach us right away and we would have the resources we needed to get it done. That sort of made me feel confident stepping into it. From there we've just picked it up really fast.
What’s been the timeline for your collection?
Eddy We've been thinking about it pretty consistently since November.
Sebastian Yeah, we honestly only decided to do it probably a week before the original designs were due. We pulled all that together really quickly. Then or a while after that, we were just thinking and brainstorming, and since around December we've been actually working on the pieces and learning how to sew.
How would you describe the collection?
Sebastian Because we're both new to it, there's definitely sort of a handmade and crafty aspect to it, but we both are influenced by industrial and sort of modern and futuristic fashion combined with some streetwear–just the whole current zeitgeist of rave and music and art and streetwear, all of it kind of coming together. But, we're both process oriented, so the aesthetic is coming together as we go.
With past show venues being set in warehouses, how has the idea of the venue played a role in the collection?
Eddy I don't think that's like a coincidence, as people are repurposing a lot of that kind of stuff now because you don't want to waste the space—repurposing industrial stuff has been really popular. There's a lot of rave scenes and party scenes that have taken over old industrial landscapes within urban spaces. The arts have moved into those spaces because they were neglected. Styles have formed around it.
Can you describe how repurposing has gone into your fabric choices?
Eddy We’ve tried a lot of different things, mainly recycling fabric. You buy a piece in the store and take it apart, and sometimes that's helpful because you can kind of see how they made it. We tried to bleach it or even try to dye it, [but] it wasn't so productive.
I also like picking fabrics that are not too flattering, but staying with a consistent, color palette yet having some moments where we kind of left space to be a little more flattering.
Sebastian When we initially were drafting our ideas, there was a lot of synthetics and things going on with the fabric that we knew we weren't going to be able to source just from a fabric store in Chicago. The idea was to try to source them from recycled clothes and what not. That hasn't all been as big of a part in our process as we thought it would be, because it's really hard to work with recycled synthetics and actually modify them. But we're hoping to sort of incorporate some DIY components through different media tools around campus like embroidery, 3-D printing, painting, and stuff like that.
What’s been the process of getting your fabrics?
Eddy We've bounced to pretty much every fabric store in Chicago (besides for Fishman since it is pretty high-end, and we’ve stuck to the clearance sections). We looked for a lot of conventional fabrics. However, we strayed away from cottons since a lot of our collection is based around it not supposed to be flattering, but also we want people to see the clothes and be like, “Oh, I could see myself wearing that.” We're not doing it fully just for art, for show.
Sebastian There's also something interesting about us being amateurs and going in search of fabrics in that context because we have no idea what we're doing or exactly what some people might like. So when we walked into a fabric store, we wouldn't be like, okay, let's go get X, Y and Z. We were just looking around and figuring it out–going with our gut. I think that resulted in us picking out some pretty cool and unconventional fabrics and designs off the shelf that sort of play into our aesthetic that maybe other people would avoid because they're hard to work with. They're not typical, and we just didn’t know that.
From where are you both pulling your vision for this collection?
Sebastian We both have an aesthetic vision that is similar and different in various ways. But we can go into a fabric store, see a print that's cool, feel it and go with it, run with it. And it's been a couple of really nice sort of materials that we've gotten that way to mix in with our basic stuff.
Eddy Sourcing fabric is probably a strong start for us. We balanced it pretty well for not knowing what we're doing—having some fabrics that were easy to work with and then having some that were like, “Wow, if I'd known what this was before I bought it, I wouldn't have bought it.” [laugh] But that's been really nice because it's we've started to play into their pros and cons. That all has been a nice learning experience for us where we can visualize all that more, and it's starting to make a lot more sense.
In terms of picking models, how have their bodies played a role in your collection’s vision?
Eddy Fashion was created as an art for an idealized body type. It was never meant to necessarily fit others besides the ideal. Of course that standard changes with culture and with time, as people's tastes differ. Nowadays people are starting to incorporate a lot of different body types, and we’re at a point where you're both trying to perform it for an art “idealized body type” that may not include more people. So when we approached it, we thought of making the clothes for the models we would choose. The models we chose—it's not like we were picking for diversity. I don't think that was the idea, but I still think we were picking models that would accentuate our clothes, whether that's how they walked or the expression they had on their face. Honestly, it could also be someone we would see at a place where people would be wearing our clothes.
Sebastian It's the same thing as with the fabric. When we were watching people walk, you just get a feeling and you go for it. We're adapting the outfits, the makeup, and the hair retroactively to make it flattering and suited to their sort of aesthetic.
What aesthetics are you specifically drawing inspiration from?
Sebastian There's so much stuff going on because for me my idea of a fashion aesthetic is just like everything that I like combined. Music plays into the different eras and styles forms, but we're just trying to really make things that look cool and that's always in the context of the time period that we’re doing it in. I know early on, I was picking inspiration photos from like Matthew Williams. I was bringing up some of the recent Heaven Collection. But like I said, we're so process oriented that what we're doing isn’t a super specific homage to anything in particular. It's more just like we're making something, and it's representative of our process of making it.
Eddy Rose If you had to pin it somewhere, I'd say we're pretty within an urban landscape and what that means for how you carry yourself within it. Are more on the outskirts of it and going to like the underground raves and things like that, or are you maybe more of a showy fit? Nonetheless, we’re definitely within an urban landscape because both of us have been heavily influenced by where we grew up?
Matthew M Williams's Givenchy Spring 2022 collection via
Where are you both from?
Eddy I'm from the suburbs of Chicago, but I went to school down the street [here in Hyde Park]
Sebastian I'm from Denver.
Do you feel like the city of Chicago itself has inspired some of the collection?
Sebastian There's something unique about [the fashion in Chicago] where it's almost like normcore–business, clean cut, which plays into the industrial thing a little bit. It's had an effect in so far being around more city people, more people from New York and these diverse interests. The techno trend that's been going on was brought to me by these people.
It's not categorical, but I think the East Coast Springs is very clean cut, clean cut, sort of like dark colors, neutral vibe. And where I'm from, it's very hippie DIY, mountain folk. And they're both music scenes–they're both very different–but it's the same sort of idea and intentions there. Both those elements come into play with our collection as we have things that are clean, our colors are blocked, but we're also playful about it and it is very handmade and sort of DIY.
So how are you considering color in your collection?
Eddy Kind of darker colors, you know? Your grays, your blacks.
Sebastian I like black and green.
Eddy Yeah–your earthy colors. We really don't want to be too flattering. So then when we do want to be, we can be sure that people are watching and they're seeing a moment.
What audience has been in your mind as you’ve been designing?
Sebastian A big thing we talked about when we started was that we wanted to make clothes that people want to wear and that are “cool.” In that sense, we want everyone who has that sort of instinct or inclination to see it and see themselves wearing it or maybe even wish they could wear it.
Eddy We want them to be functional. There's [been] great designers before that make phenomenal clothes, but they're more avant garde. But we're not very avant garde. We're not going to be.
Sebastian Yeah, we want to have that balance of being sort of being aspirational but approachable.
Even if you never end up making clothes again, what have you gotten out of this process?
Eddy You should shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.
Looking back on it, I was really glad we were pretty aspirational in the beginning. Being pretty process oriented and sticking with the same process for each piece definitely is starting to show towards the end where we kind of have a better idea of how to go about everything. So we're not taking apart things, we're not doing that or redoing something.
Sebastian Also it's hard to do a project like this, going to [UChicago] and being busy with all the other stuff going on in our lives. It has been humbling that we can't do everything that maybe we wanted to do or would want to do. But at the same time, we got a lot done and are continuing to get a lot done, which makes it feel more accessible if we later on wanted to do something similar again.
Eddy Even if we don't continue making clothes, the fact that Seb and I were able to come together and make it into MODA and start making these clothes and flesh out some of our ideas, I think shows a lot about him and I working together.
What has the collaborative process meant for you?
Sebastian I'm someone who dreads group projects in class but [this] has been really good. It's taught me a lot about working with somebody and what that involves in terms of compromising, but also what there is to gain from that. It's been really good.
Eddy In a partnership versus a team, it's a little different because it's not just about finding your one role and one job because you're going to be doing more than just one thing. For me, I’ve been pretty deadline driven and keeping the momentum of it going every day. And for Seb, he’s been pretty crafty and like thinking through things critically, and that just ends up working really well because we both can do something that maybe the other person can't do as well and we can push in the same direction eventually.
Sebastian Also accepting the other person's strengths and shortcomings relative to yourself and learning how to be comfortable. I've grown much closer to Eddy in the past month or two.
With all of this in mind, what are you most looking forward to with the show?
Sebastian I'm excited to see what people think, to get some reactions and some feedback on it, given that it's a first time project. It'll be cool to see it all come together.
Eddy Yeah, when the lights come on, I'm just hoping our clothes shine.
