Hey TUC Family, I am Marie, a contributing writer at True Urban Culture. Welcome back to our Behind the Seams interview series, and let me introduce you today to our guest Snow Est, an ambitious designer of the Established Lux brand, a colorful brand that you should check out if you want to look stylish and trendy.
Marie: So how are you feeling today Snow?
Snow Est: Uh, I’m actually feeling great. I’m happy to be here.
Marie: Okay, nice to hear that. So, I’ve checked your Instagram and I saw that you make beautiful clothing pieces. How long have you been making garments?
Snow Est: So as it pertains to just the clothing industry, I think I’ve been doing that since like 2018, but I feel like I really started creating a lot in 2021, so last year.
Marie: Okay, great, and how did you develop this passion for clothing design?
Snow Est: So, this passion came from initially, because I always wanted different clothing. It’s this thing about me, where I just always wanted to be different. And, with me always wanting to be different, I always just want to have different stuff from everybody else. So, I just felt like, you know, in order for me to have different stuff, I need to create my own thing. And then sometimes I had like my own ideas that I would wish to see other people in. So I just decided to start, you know, creating and putting out my ideas.
Marie: In three words, how would you describe your style of design?
Snow Est: I would say it is colorful, complimenting, and different.
Marie: What were some challenges that you had to face as a fashion designer, and also, how did you succeed to put your name out there?
Snow Est: Well, some of the challenges that I faced as a fashion designer was the business aspect of it in its initial stage. I feel like it is different. It’s fresh being a creator and not just being a creator.
This is who I am and, you know, these people are something else. So that was one of the things that I face as a designer. I don’t, I feel like I never had an issue with the designing process itself because, like I said, it’s more so an expression. So for me it was more like a flow. But I used to have some problems with the marketing part. Like, you know, being small, it’s a little bit harder to create brand awareness.
Marie: I see, like for your brand to get recognizable and everything, for people to get aware of it and everything, it’s kind of hard when you begin.
Snow Est: Yes. So I had to do put a lot of footwork in getting certain people to get it. I could create that identity around it, so when people see it, they could be like, oh, I know who’s that, or I know where that’s from. That is very important.
Marie: Okay. Yeah. And speaking of marketing, how do you delegate your work?
Snow Est. So as it pertains to marketing, to be honest, I wear all the caps. I am the PR, I am the CEO, the graphic designer, the photographer, I’m everything. So, I just try to use my personal platform to reach out to as many people as possible and then try to network with them and get them into my brand. But yeah, I promote it myself. I post every day, I try my best to get it out there as much as I can, I just keep pushing it, and it just keeps growing.
Marie: Who are your fashion and lifestyle inspirations?
Snow Est: Inspiration-wise, I would say Nicki Minaj. I feel like she has been a muse for a lot of my creations. And just as you know, overall, she’s just like a staple as it pertains to that. But as it pertains to fashion and lifestyle, I am a very big fan of Giani Versace just for his storyline, like how he started creating, the reason why he creates, you know, what was his passion? What was the story that he was trying to tell? Just his entire storyline was just like very inspirational, cuz I have seen so much of myself in him and his story or so much of him in me and my story.
Marie: Okay. Nice. I saw that you made new pieces called “imperfect bodies”. I wanted to know the inspiration behind the name and behind the colors.
Snow Est: I’m at a place in my artistry where I’m always trying to create stuff that, compliments the body. I’m at that place now in my creative process. You know, there are a lot of people that do believe that they might not have the perfect body. I’ve teamed up with an artist from the UK and I made the artwork. So that is like actual art on the clothing, but the message behind the art was that, you know, your body don’t have to be perfect. It is fine. It is fine to be imperfect. Everything doesn’t look the way it’s supposed to be. And I said to my artist, I don’t want it to look normal. I want it to look like art. I want it to have imperfections. I want it to be looking like sketch lines. I want it to look – not say undone -, but I don’t want it to be perfect. I want it to be imperfect.
Marie: I really like the inspiration behind it, it’s really nice. Could you tell us a little bit more about the process of how did you make these pieces?
Snow Est: I’m always trying to get this stuff out of my head in real life. It’s literally like that. I can see it vividly in my head what it looks like, the material. Sometimes I don’t even know what material is that I’m seeing in my head, but I just know what it’s supposed to look like. I’ve seen this design in my head and I am just trying to figure out how can I get this to come to life?
And that’s how that process starts. In my head, I knew that I wanted it to be art. I didn’t want it to just be an illustration where it would just look like something printed. I wanted it to be different. About the artist, I was familiar with him before; this is the reason why I used him specifically, he would understand me perfectly, exactly how I want the body to look, the skin color, all of that. And that’s how that process started.
Marie: Yeah. It’s really important to have like the perfect partner that understands you totally to create the perfect piece.
Marie: And how do you want women to feel when they wear your piece of clothing?
Snow Est: To be honest, that is my goal, that’s kind of like my objective. I want them to feel confident and sexy. I want, whenever they put something on from my line, they are in something that really accentuates them. They’d be like, this stuff is really nice. I just want them to feel beautiful and powerful and just confident.
Marie: I like that. And is there a project in the past that you worked on that you are most proud of?
Snow Est: To be honest, the project in the past that I’m most proud of, I would say it would be the first dress that I put out because it was my first leap of faith.
I wanna say now that, outside of God, I feel like that dress saved me because it brought me to the actualization that your dream is possible. It’s so crazy, at that time, I never had a manufacturer or anything. I literally stayed in my apartment in my bedroom and I created those from scratch. I started with 12 pieces and, from that specific dress, it became an empire. Like everything just started moving up from that dress. I started creating more, I started sourcing manufacturers because I’m like, damn, this is doing so well, I cannot create everything on my own. So I feel like that was what really pushed me and made me feel like this is what I should really be doing. So I could say that this dress is the piece I’m most proud of to date.
Marie: And right now, are you working on any projects?
Snow Est: Yes. I’m always working as much as a lot of people be thinking that you don’t really gotta do nothing, but that’s a lie because I’ll be creating in my sleep. I will wake up with stuff on my mind, like the other day I was saying to a few of my friends that I don’t know when I’ll be able to put out all of this stuff?
Because it is so much on my mind, so I’m always creating, I have like a whole catalog. I’m trying my best to put out as much this summer, but it is a lot of collections.
I’m just waiting to hear that from this team, but I I’m supposed to have this very big collab with a very big artist. So I’m looking forward to that. And so just thinking about it, it makes me very excited because I feel like a lot of people is gonna like it actually. It’s not a collab, but it’s actually more so a tribute to the artist, so yeah. So, it’s going to be like a big surprise for us.
Yes. And, and I feel like everybody over the world world is gonna love this.
Marie: Okay, nice. So, your short-term goals for 2022 would be like to put out even more collections and do a tribute to an artist?
Snow Est: Yes, my goal for this year is definitely to do that to that specific artist I love. My goal is just to be more consistent and to create more, keep doing more. Like I wanna grow to a point where I feel like I have a lot of items all at once . You have to keep creating these stuff and you gotta create good items so that they’re all working as a collective.
Marie: I saw that you have like many different type of fabrics, like for instance, you made a dress in like a certain type of beautiful fabric and the next one in another. So I wanted to know, what do you look for in certain fabrics? How do you choose them?
Snow Est: To be honest, it’s always how I want it to look, how I see it in my head. And then I visualize my creative process in my head. That’s when I’ll begin to think of which fabric is best. Sometimes I don’t personally know what fabric it is, but I just know how I want it to look. And then, like I said, I have workers that’ll help me choose. And I will create a whole mood board and be like, this is how I want it to look.
And then they would advise me. Texture is also always important, you know, do I want it to be something that suck to the body, or something that has a flow?
Marie: Okay, nice. I also saw, upon my research, that many of your drops and pieces have like Spanish title names. If it’s true, what is the inspiration behind it?
The inspiration is everything that I do. It is always about being different. You know, English is my first language. I just always feel that it is different. So why not have some Spanish? Why not appeal to other demographics? I felt like it was cute. However, there’s this one particular item that has a Spanish name because the person who inspired it was Spanish, which is the Sueño Muñeca, which in English is translated as dream doll. That dress was inspired by her because she was one of the first big celebrities to put my dress on. And it did extremely well with her help.
So I felt like I was somewhat paying some type of respect and homage to her by naming the dress like that. But I also felt like a little Spanish twist to it seemed different. So you know, people take onto it just by the name and just by it being different.
I have an idea of what I want it to call or what I want the term that I’m gonna use to express. And then I would look for that in different languages, all in the name of being different. And the majority of the time, the Spanish names sounds better. But sometimes I use French, I use Dutch, I use any other language that I like.
Marie: Yes, the name sounds quite fancy. I feel like in Spanish it adds little spark. Also, do you have like a specific color pattern you’re following for each drop because on your website I’ve noticed that you are using a specific color palette, like blue, purple, red, orange, and white?
Snow Est: You know what? It’s so crazy. I do feel like that there’s that aesthetic, I feel like it’s just genuinely just how I I’ve been feeling. I like those colors, I don’t know what is it about it. I do that unconsciously, but I also realize it as well. And I do tell myself that, you know, variation is important because I’m trying to strive to appeal to different people.
So you have some people that might not like that. There is about to be some more blue and some more orange and white and stuff. But I’m going to go for more monotones black and white in the future – my next drop – and more minimalistic things for people that don’t really like the colorful things. I’m trying to create for people that are like minimalistic so it could appeal to more people.
Marie: Cool. Now, tough question, where do you see yourself five years from now?
Snow Est: Wow! So five years from now, I feel like I’ve kicked down barriers since I’ve been here, but for five years I feel like I wanna have an established name, an established fashion house. That people could say wow, we know what Established Lux is. I just want to be at a very happy place in business because I’m at a place in business right now where I’m hungry and I’m so expressive. And I’m trying my best to tell the world and pour out as much that I have in me.
So, five years from now, I feel like I would’ve put the artwork in and a lot of people would’ve felt where I’m coming from, and there would be such a better flow of business and more consistent. So that’s where I see myself, more consistent, in a better place in business, more network, and just completely growing my company.
Marie: Amazing! I hope it’s going to be successful, but I am certain it will because you have like so many good ideas. And, to conclude, what does True Urban Culture mean to you?
True Urban Culture is black. It means creative. It means different. It means innovative. Like this is where greatness is spread from.
It just seems awesome. Like it literally means greatness. That’s what I get from True Urban Culture. True urban Culture just means expressive, different, great, and just everything along that line.
Marie: Awesome. So, this basically concludes this interview, so thank you so much Snow Est for sharing with us a little of your time. I wanted to know if you had anything to add to this interview?
Snow Est: Um, yes, I always like to inspire, so I want anybody that just comes across this or know about this interview to understand that it is important to dream and that anything is possible once you believe, once you are consistent and persistent, and you stay praying and believing that you will get to where you need to go.
For all things Snow Est, follow him here and here on Instagram
To shop the Established Lux collection, click this link to the Est. Lux website.
