Clothes That Speak to You
It doesn’t take a philosopher to untangle one of urban life’s basic tenets: Clothes are code. If you choose, say, Ecko denims over Diesel, you’ve already telegraphed a paragraph.
Whether the message is in a silk-screened flirtation emblazoned across our chests or a designer’s signature stitched across a pocket, we often assume that it conveys some core stance.
But have we really communicated anything beyond the banal? asks Freddie Friedler co-founder of an L.A.-based neo-peace/love/dove garment and accessory line dedicated to digging deeper.
We’ve become accustomed to the notion that our clothes project an image, Friedler knew. But could they project one’s essence? An inspiration? Hope for the world?
Friedler figured they could--and he and some college friends set out to play with the possibilities. The result: Charizmatik, a freestyle adventure in style and, its founders hope, substance. They see it as part “fashion factory, part think tank, part global artistic colony,†a lofty goal for a clothing line that likes to think of itself as blending comfort clothing with comfort words.
Charizmatik got its start seven years ago in Friedler’s Loyola Marymount University dorm room, with the help of classmate Zen Nishimura, who’s now the line’s designer.
They started simple, with T-shirts and a fleece pullover inscribed with “Philosophy,†“Nobel Prize†or “Battle Drill†(based on Sun Tzu’s “The Art of Warâ€)--antidotes to provocative but pointless declarations such as, say, shirts proclaiming “I’m with stupid,†which simply render conversation moot.
“Creating conversation--real conversation--is our mission. We wanted to do something to combat all the negativity,†says Friedler, who earned both a bachelor’s degree in business and an MBA at Loyola. “I wanted to do something that elevated life, love and consciousness.... So one night, 4 a.m., we just said: Let’s do it.â€
Friedler’s dad and Nishimura’s basketball coach floated them start-up funds, and the duo enlisted the help of fellow LMU classmates Alex Ross, Ricardo Santos and Zen’s younger brother, Osamu.
To tease the collection to boutiques and buyers in late 1996, they sent out hand-wrapped copies of Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet,†along with a note about the new company.
Whether recipients knew it or not, the Charizmatiks were playing it straight with their choice of Gibran--no raised eyebrows or sly winks. “It was a book that had a real connection for me and Zen,†recalls Friedler. “When I needed a lesson or a reminder ... or I get caught in old patterns, I would pull it out. It has universal truths. Good reminders--’Work is love made visible.’ ‘Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.’ So it was very indicative of what we are trying to do ...†They followed up at the beginning of ’97 with the garments themselves, some juxtaposing the symbols of warfare with messages of peace--â€Listen to your heart,†printed on camouflage.
Immediately, the line got the attention of two key outlets--Fred Segal here on the West Coast, and Union in New York’s SoHo. “It was just pure luck,†says Santos, who handles sales and marketing. “And suddenly we’re filling $10,000 orders.â€
Visibility there helped move the line into boutiques around the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Japan and beyond.
Zen Nishimura conjured up designs such as the clever Universal Metaphysical League baseball raglan series (featuring teams like the “New York Non-judgementalists†and the “LA-Lotus mindedâ€) and dreamy button-front shirts dusted with cumulus clouds.
And then there were the stories--from the beginning, each garment has come with one. Literally. An original haiku, short fiction, a mantra or a declaration is attached to each garment as a drop tag. Pieces are written by Ross or, as each season turns, by guest writers who want to try the form on for size. The tags have a life of their own, winding up on refrigerators, in wallets, on mirrors and tucked into journals.
On some garments, hidden messages might be sewn onto the hem--â€The only obstacle is your mindâ€--or deep inside a pocket--â€The capacity to love is vast: simply open your heart.†You might be doing your laundry, fretting over a decision or question, and like a whisper in the ear, “pow,†says Friedler, “there’s the answer.â€
The Charizmatik crew--ranging in age from 23 to 32--can claim Buddhist, Jewish, Catholic backgrounds among them. But the members’ spirituality and philosophy, they say, is less classroom-inspired than life-earned, a mishmash of their own deeper journeys; readings, music, movies, conversations with self and nature. It’s “an interesting stew,†says Ross, and what winds up on the shirts and tags is fueled as much by whimsy as by riffs on philosophy--for all of their earnestness, they try to not take themselves too seriously.
“We try to keep it in check. Make fun of ourselves,†says Santos, reading from a tag: “You’ll find no turgid rhetoric. No weighty prose; no compact poetry ... no shaman-like shouts from the mountaintop; no voluminous works of belief and faith crammed into six short lines on a cardboard piece of paper within a minuscule booklet.... Nothing of the sort....â€
They opened a store on the eastern end of Melrose Avenue last year to help them connect more directly with customers, a fanciful sun-drenched space, hand-hewn with raw wood and knobby tree-branch fixtures that give the place the feel of a cozy treehouse retreat. They’re philosophical about the date they picked last year for a grand opening: Sept. 9. It made for more of a struggle than they’d planned. But in the spirit of resilience, this September they are throwing a party, launching a tricked-out interactive Web site--with more stories, poems, photos and video--and will announce a spinoff line--the Truth Seeker--â€at a friendlier price point,†says Santos, than their $134 button-front shirts or $55 long-sleeved T.
Passionate word-of-mouth has carried them this far. Robin Williams is a Charizmatik addict. Ben Harper is also a fan. And though it gives the Charizmatik crew a rush to open People magazine and see Ben Affleck sporting one of its T-shirts, greater satisfaction lies elsewhere.
“We get really jazzed when people tell us that they were wearing one of our shirts when they met their girlfriend,†says Zen. “Or that they we’re able to make a connection because someone was curious about what they had on.... It’s really about those moments.â€
