Carl Jan Cruz

Designer

Carl Jan Cruz

Category

Men’s & Women’s / Ready To Wear and Accessories

Brand information / About the designer

―What inspired you to become a fashion designer? Describe developments leading up to the brand launch.

Life experiences have inspired me to be a designer. I have always liked the idea of creating clothes and being able to have a sentimental relationship with it. I pursued it fully in university at London College of Fashion and realized the vision of “Carl Jan Cruz” (the brand) in my final year.

―What is the brand’s concept? What do you want to communicate through fashion designing? What are the images of men and women you want to project?

The concept of Carl Jan Cruz is that it is a visual autobiography. It is a dialogue between my ongoing present life back to the early years of life. An overarching consciousness to be able to create clothes that are honest, discreet, and intimate is what Carl Jan Cruz continuously communicates. The brand only desires to be able to create garments that are only absolute to our vision and hopefully it will identify with the person who’ll feel part of the #carljancrewz.

―What is your source of inspiration in creating fashion? What is your process of developing a design concept?

The main inspiration are the life experiences I have lived from the past and present and propels me to develop design in different mediums (2D or 3D) to create a future within a form of an article of clothing.

―Who are your current stockists (areas, retail formats, etc.)? Describe the typical followers of your brand.

We independently distribute our clothes through our Carl Jan Cruz website. Car Jan Cruz has been followed by people who understands and desire things that are familiar but new in life. It is constantly changing and growing and also declining. It’s always moving but being honest with our process is what we will always be doing from our early stages now till whatever the future unfolds.

―Which brands, designers, styles and cultures have had the most impact on your fashion designing, and why?

Azzedine Alaia, Rei Kawakubo, and Andre Walker have thrived in this industry and kept an indepent spirit and it’s very inspirational. Living an unconventional life being in an all-boys Catholic school in Manila created a deep rooted craving for me to be more “creative” as I was away from it and realizing that every summer spent in London in my early childhood and growing years before moving there fully for university.

About 2017 S/S collection

―Why have you chosen Tokyo(Amazon Fashion Week TOKYO) as the venue for presenting your collection?

I have always felt that Tokyo is also a strongly independent city. A place where there is a great point of view and proven that stands out authentically. It is exciting to be able to take part and showcase my collection and hopefully create a dialogue with Tokyo as much as I feel I can identify with it.

―What is the concept / image for your brand’s 2017 S/S season?

Carl Jan Cruz only creates series of looks every “season” as we do focus more on the wardrobing idea and building and establishing the identity through out the series we do (bi – annually). This show season however is a very exciting platform for us to remix our series and reproduce these wardrobe pieces with a vision of it for Tokyo specifically. A strong development of pieces from series “31-55 “will be seen and references from “1-30” with a rigorous edit and additional “Tokyo” pieces will be unveiled this 2017 S/S season in Amazon Fashion Week TOKYO.

―What is your vision for your show / installation?

The vision is that it will be very diverse through age, race, size. I envision to bring the Carl Jan Cruz aesthetic to life on the show and be able to curate the movement and music with the director hopefully.

Future

―What are your brand’s future outlook and goal?

To grow organically and be able to have a relationship with our audience. To be present in places we believe we identify with who has an independent spirit like Dover Street Market, Openning Ceremony, etc to museums and galleries like ShowStudio. Most importantly is to be able to grow internally, our team. To be able to extend our work ethics and be educated by the challenges of an indepent design brand creatively and technically.

About TOKYO

―What does Tokyo represent for you?

It represents independce, resilience, and unprecedence.

―Which parts / sites of Tokyo do you like most? Why?

I truly like every part of it. It has been well planned as it is a perfect balance of new and heritage.

―What are your favorite / recommended shops (of any genres, e.g. fashion stores, homeware stores, food services), facilities and sites?

Wataru Museum, Tsurotontan, DSM, Meiji Shrine, Harajuku, Nippori textile shops.