If you’ve been lucky enough to go backstage at a fashion show, you know the crew usually wears the same “staff” T-shirt.
These T-shirts, hoodies, and sometimes jackets have become mementos over the years, but it’s not very often they are sold to the public. But Rhuigi Villaseñor, the designer behind Rhude, is changing that with this capsule, which he’s releasing exclusively on Complex SHOP.
These T-shirts and hoodies feature a script Rhude logo on the chest and a larger logo on the back, in addition to an American flag graphic text that reads, “The Audacity to Dream,” which is the name of Villaseñor's Spring/Summer 2021 collection and a reference to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, a U.S. immigration policy that’s supposed to help children who came to the United States illegally (known as Dreamers) defer deportation. Villaseñor, who moved to the U.S. from the Philippines when he was younger, has a connection to this policy. He recently became a U.S. citizen after 20 years.
“Me getting my citizenship sparked the idea of the collection,” says Villaseñor. “It’s about defining what the modern American man looks like through the perspective of an immigrant.”
Instead of presenting at Paris Fashion Week, which has gone virtual due to COVID-19, Villaseñor filmed this collection in a midcentury house in Los Angeles.
This exclusive capsule is a celebration of the short film Villaseñor produced and a symbol of that collection you can purchase now. The T-shirt retails for $150 and the hoodie retails for $280.
