The night was weird. There was a special atmosphere. Fashion week had ended a couple of weeks ago but even so, we all seemed to want more and Juanvg was ready to give us a coup de grace. His show was announced by surprise and expectations were high. People crowded at the doors of a well-known Madrid club to gain access to the event. There was a lot of intrigue and confusion, but all doubts were dispelled when the first model began to walk the runway. The collection baptized as “Callejero” has offered garments and outfits capable of encapsulating the spirit of Juanvg to perfection. Versatility, festivity, awareness, and a great desire to break the rules. Juanvg and his new collection are a statement and an example of responsible and at the same time irreverent fashion. A round of applause for Juanvg, the future of fashion is already here.
Juan, I know you are a nervous person. Now that you presented your new collection, have you managed to relax just a little?
I feel more than nervous, I like to have everything under control, and in this world, many things are last minute until they come out; but yes, each time controlling everything more and managing it better.
Tell me, the previous collection was a complete success. What did you learn from all that experience?
The previous collection was to break into the world of Madrid. It gave me the opportunity to present my brand with total freedom. I didn’t really know what I was going for, my idea was to make the collection I wanted without pressure and see what would happen. It seems that the public liked it. In the end, I learned everything backstage. That is what has helped me to know how to organize and manage myself when making my own show.
After the fashion show at EGO during Madrid Fashion Week, you were still not sure where the next collection was going to materialize. How did the idea of doing it in Madrid and in such a festive atmosphere come about?
The truth is that after presenting myself again to walk in EGO and not being selected, I thought: well, this is a great opportunity to introduce my next collection, having control of everything, with an aesthetic and an environment that is representative of the brand highly influenced by the street and using music by Blondie, Nirvana or No Doubt among others. A non-gender brand, designed for people to wear to meet friends, walk down the street, go out for beers…, and enjoy it.
Beyond the always partying and carefree touch of your creations, I would like to know: what message is hidden behind this new collection?
The name of this collection is CALLEJERO. The collection arises, as its name indicates, from the street and this is noise, traffic, movement, neighborhoods, work, and people. With this collection, I intend to make it possible for everyone to be complicit in an environmental commitment, with their clothes moving them to all those places that make up the street. I think that, while immediacy surrounds us, I can make fashion face it by reusing, thinking, and giving new and quality life to old clothes, and clothes from the closet so that they serve you as long as possible. That is fashion. And sustainable fashion is for the street. A transgressive, groundbreaking, inclusive, timeless fashion, but, above all, one that can dress an intensive consumption system. These garments can dress the street.
Enjoying is the objective of your brand, but is it possible to maintain that joy when time passes, life gets complicated and responsibility increases?
In the end, the brand has one goal: to grow, to become more and more powerful and present. The clothes are casual, daring, and enjoyable but also the brand is focused on promoting sustainable fashion. Find a way to combine both. Redoing attractive second-hand garments by transforming them, and creating new and unique pieces, since none is the same. Today’s society is more interested in emerging and sustainable design. Upcycling and agender garments to wear on a day-to-day basis.
I know that all these clothes are like children for you, but is there any that you have a special affection for?
Yes. Each garment has something special, but I would tell you that “the wave jeans” are one of the first garments I made and I am quite proud of them.
Upcycling is a feature that has always characterized your firm and that this time is repeated again and that is why I want to know the opinion of someone who takes it seriously. Do you think that the industry is really becoming aware of the problems related to fast fashion?
Yes. All the clothes I make are from upcycling. I learned to sew and design from him. It’s the only way I feel creative. The truth is that I don’t have much of an idea, to be honest, since there are quite a few brands that are making a change; but if we focus only on the most commercial fast fashion, they do more greenwashing than real change, since slow fashion does not interest them, because that means slower productions and would lead them to obtain fewer benefits. No matter how much-emerging brands are proposing another consumption model, until fast fashion and the industry change their way of producing, a true environmental transformation will not be seen.
Your clothes, in a certain way, invite you to dance, to go crazy, to go out with friends until dawn. Should fun always be present in what we consider “fashion”?
Let’s see, that depends on the role, the aesthetics, and the personality that each one has or seeks. For me, fashion, where I want to focus and follow it, does go that way. In the end, fashion is something fun, with which we can play and experiment, it is not so serious.
Calm is a main factor in your work, as part of the “Slow Fashion” movement. Now that time is passing and your experience is increasing, has it been easy to maintain your own rhythms?
Yes. You have to dedicate time to upcycling, you have to do the garments calmly. The idea is not to produce like crazy since it is not the philosophy of the brand. I focus on margin, not volume. In offering a quality, sustainable product, as original as possible, within my world, and unique, since although it can repeat patterns, the material is always different, with which the shades and sometimes the cuts vary. The brand focuses on making small Drops of capsule collections and on request since we make only one model of each item and in one size. If someone likes X piece, I’ll make it to measure.
Since your clothes are so personalized, how would you like someone who wears a garment from your new collection to feel?
Good question. With this collection, within which are new designs, the attitude, and feeling are something that remains in the brand globally. With this collection, as with the previous ones, I want the people who wear my clothes to feel free to be themselves, to take risks, and to dare in life; when putting them on they generate that attitude that changes even the way they walk many times. I always have in my mind a phrase that my father says a lot to me: “you don’t already have it. You ask that, if it is a yes, then brutal. If it’s a no, then you already knew. You have to go all out. Be yourself, enjoy yourself, and have fun along the way.”
Spanish fashion seems to have the intention of taking more and more risks, thanks to young designers like you. that do not follow the established aesthetic rules. Do you really think there is an intention for change on the part of the fashion houses already established in the industry?
Currently, I think that there is a wave of emerging designers in Spain, who are raising their voices and showing the possibilities that exist here in the world of fashion. Each one with their own style, wanting to take risks and change things, promoting slow fashion, and ensuring that the public consumes local designers, quality, original products, instead of going for the usual. Above all, I think that part of it lies in the foundations and philosophy on which today’s emerging designers build brands. Regarding your question, I have three visions: one is that there can be real change, a new direction, and way of producing the brand to create a new change in it; another is: I am going to join the bandwagon of this trend or this movement, so that the brand continues to have relevance, regardless of whether I believe in it or not; and finally, it is the traditional house, which already has its loyal clientele, its way of producing and says: that’s how I stay. So in the end they do not attract new audiences or evolve.
Photos captured by the lens of Mark Yareham, in exclusive for Fucking Young!
