Russel Villafuerte challenged himself to create an entire collection from scratch, with no sketches allowed
Russell Villafuerte, in his 15 years in the industry, established that his brand, Strongvillage, is three things: culture, streetwear, and sustainability. At BYS Fashion Week 2024, those three things are present—plus something else: instinct. On the runway, Russell Villafuerte explores the forms in which fashion allows us freedom and expression. His massive pile-ons of fabric created a merging of streetwear and wearable art that toes the line between innovation and craft. It’s chaotic and yet looks precise and defined, and made purely out of impulse, conviction, and intuition.
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A designer’s process is often with direction and thoroughly conceptualized. Villafuerte forgoes that and instead looks to the discarded pieces, materials, and various things he collected over the years: “I’m sort of a hoarder. I collect junk—computer motherboards, broken jewelry, and garment pieces that interest me. I’ve also collected animal-printed denim pants over the years, and I upcycled them and used them in this collection,” the designer tells MEGA. “There’s a lot of paneling techniques because it’s the only way to incorporate and use the upcycled pieces such as leather and denim to make whole new ones. This was about playing and exploring new materials.”
Creativity is nonlinear. It can also be non-narrative—a roiling pot of emotion, intuition, and heart. Few designers make such a compelling case for unbridled creativity as Russell Villafuerte, who showcased an experimental and intensive collection through pieces that truly do not look like anything else. Villafuerte blends his collected materials together in a spectacular, occasionally confounding, alchemy. It’s reflective of how he sees fashion in particular: free, limitless, recreate the created. It’s clothing that you can live in because they have been lived-in.
Villafuerte is a designer that respects the process and the stories that come with the history of the materials he collected—it’s all the hands that touch all these pieces (sewer, manufacturer, farmer, wearer) and the essence in them that formed his assemblage of pieces. The history of the materials added an extra motivation for Villafuerte to rework them and make his own. “It’s true that I consider this collection honest and my most personal—made purely out of instinct,” he says. “I did not make a single sketch during the whole process. I just made clothes that I wanted to make—I just had a bunch of collected junk and I let those materials speak to me. And why go in this direction? Why not?” he laughs. “It’s something of a challenge to myself. A sort of an experiment.”
Villafuerte demonstrates that it’s possible to create the new from the old, and that it can be desirable for something to look used, distressed, or worn-in. In this collection, his intuitive design process was his most powerful tool.
Photographed by EXCEL PANLAQUE
