Brenda Equihua’s Garments are Cultural Artifacts of Today

The moment I walk into Brenda Equihua’s studio downtown, I am immersed in a world of color, texture, and vibrant imagery. On one wall, racks of floor-length coats feature the depiction of the Virgin Mary. On another wall hangs cropped autumn jackets pieced together with Aztec patterns. Afternoon sunlight casts a soft glow across the room, busy with camera crew setting up our final televised interview.

I am coming from CalArts, where I sat down with Bobby Soto and Marissa Chibás to discuss how their production of “Cloud Tectonics” re-imagines a classic Hispanic narrative on stage. From theatre to fashion, Storytellers, a new LATV doc-series, explores how artists across mediums tell stories through their craft. Brenda Equihua—who crosses her legs in an oversized red velvet chair—is next to tell me her story.

As the owner and designer of her eponymous label, Equihua creates garments to serve as artifacts of culture today. She sources inspiration from daily observations, childhood memories, and a grander Latino narrative in the making for centuries.

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Andrew Tamarkin: Did you always want to use your name for the brand?

Brenda Equihua: My last name has always been closely tied to my identity. It’s been such a challenge for people to pronounce it throughout my whole life, so I decided it would be cool to embrace it. I like the way it sounds. It really is me, so it felt like the most natural thing to call the brand. It’s easy to commit to something that’s already a part of you.

AT: When did you discover you wanted to work in fashion?

BE: My mom is a very important source of inspiration for me. She has always been very fashionable and very unapologetic about how she dresses. She was a laborer—a housekeeper—and she always had to wear a uniform, but as soon as she left work, she was, like, decked out. She created these important, magical moments for herself. Through witnessing that, I understood the transformational power of fashion.

AT: She found her power through what she wore, and it seems to have been passed down to you. 

BE: Totally. It was such an unapologetic way of expressing herself. One of my earlier memories is during one of our birthday parties. We were having a party outside and people were coming to it after work and wearing their regular work clothes and I was outside playing. I see my mom come out of our apartment complex and she’s wearing a strapless black sequined evening gown … having her Beyoncé moment. I just saw my mom so differently that day. The fact that she had given herself permission to have that moment—I think was really special. Some people will never go to a ball, you know? She was like, ‘I’m going to create this moment for myself and it just so happens to be today, and I don’t need a specific reason to wear this other than this is how I want to feel.’

AT: She made her situation her ball.

BE: Exactly.

AT: I love that. What was the moment you were like, “I want to actually design things now”?

BE: The moment that I decided that I wanted to be a fashion designer was when I learned that you could be one. [I have been] into art ever since I was a little kid. I entered into this art academy, and we learned all the different design positions you could have if you had an interest in art. Fashion design was the one that stood out to me the most. I had already been collecting tear sheets, witnessing the influence of my mom wearing these beautiful clothes, and going to yard sales and discovering the coolest things there. It just all came together for me when I was 13.

AT: Fashion is such a direct way to express yourself every day. To be adding to that story for other people must be empowering. How do you feel your story, your brand, fits into a bigger story?

BE: The way we tie our stories to other people is by first starting with: what do we want to tell, and what do we think is important? So much of that is already being informed by our observations of the world, and how we’re connecting with our own community. We’re very lucky to be speaking directly to them. Those frequencies are always at play. When we tell a story, we hope for it to be a mirror, a reflection, that whatever story we tell is now something a part of them—not only in the way they dress, but in the conversations they [inspire].

BE: Someone can come up to them and be like, ‘wow I love your jacket,’ and now it’s a story about the San Marcos blankets. Or ‘I love your shirt,’ and the shirt is based on Exvotos — and now you’re connecting with someone about storytelling. We’re looking at ways we can expand on people’s experiences beyond just the clothes.

AT: What story are you telling? 

BE: To be honest with you, I don’t have to think about storytelling too much; it’s just something that exists inside of me. I grew up with a mom who was an amazing storyteller—the best storyteller I’ve ever met in my life. We spent a lot of time with her. She would tell us stories about her childhood, about every subject you can imagine: her love life, how she first learned to speak English, how she lived in East LA with the cholas. All of her life experiences were always told through storytelling and it was something she was really well-known for. When I was in high school, all my girlfriends would come to my house and we’d sit around my mom’s bed and just listen to her speak.

AT: Tell us a little bit about your creative process, and how your Hispanic identity and certain customs show up there.

BE: Hispanic heritage ties [in through] use of color, textiles, and storytelling. And artistry, too. Actually, so many different things, right? I think there’s a lot of artistry in the culture. If you go to México, especially, a lot of the most beautiful things that you see are made by hand, and we do a lot of that here. And color is very important to us and, specifically in Latino culture, I think a lot of folks are not afraid of color.

Storytelling is very natural. We came from a culture where stories are passed down by any means necessary. That means there’s acting involved. If you remember the stories we grew up listening to when we were kids, every story always had some sort of lesson, something you needed to remember, and that’s how it made its way through generations. I feel like the preservation of concepts and idea came from what is called folklore, so when we create clothes and we tell these stories, it’s a way to move our concepts and ideas into the future.

AT: So well said. They’re almost like artifacts. In 200 years, they’re going to find one of your jackets.

BE: And it’s going to [tell] a story! It’s so crazy you’re saying this because that’s exactly what we [hope to do]. We’re are creating heirlooms. When you think about what an heirloom, there’s always something very emotional about it. You can have a sweater from your grandma, and it has holes all over it, and maybe it’s not the most beautiful looking thing, but there’s a story tied to it, and now you want to keep it forever. When you’re not in a position to keep it anymore, you make sure to hand it off to somebody who’s going to care for it as much as you did. That’s what we are doing here. So much of that is not only in the way we make things, the way that they look, but in the stories that we tell with them.

AT: When you arrive at an idea, is it the emotion first? Is it the color first? The pattern? What’s the step-by-step that happens in your mind?

BE: My design process is not very linear or step-by-step. It happens naturally. Sometimes, it’ll be something I’m looking at, even things I’m noticing culturally, or a visit to the public library: whatever captures my interest the most.

AT: What impact do you hope to have? How do you want people to feel with a new Equihua product?

BE: “[I want] people to feel seen and understood. Feeling seen and feeling understood feels like peace, it feels like comfort, like a mother’s love, you feel empowered.

AT: Has feeling seen been a journey for you? Is it something you always felt?

BE: Feeling seen is something that’s very important to me in what we do. I worked in the industry for many years before starting my brand, and I felt like there was a missing piece. I just didn’t feel a lot of the designs and intentions were things that I could resonate with, so that was a large part of why our focus was that specifically.

AT: So, in a sense, the stories you’re telling are stories you want other people to wear.

BE: Exactly. We want people to wear these pieces and to feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves.

AT: You embody the artistry of a storyteller and it shows up in your clothes. Finally, tell us: why do you love color?

BE: I think color, to me, is all about confidence. You can wear any color. Anyone can wear any color. There’s nothing stopping you. There’s no reason why one person can wear yellow and another person can’t. It’s how you wear it and how you feel in it. If you woke up today and you’re like “I really want to wear yellow,” wear yellow! Because it’s going to make you feel better. I think we’re our own worst critics. It’s all about owning it.

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Check out Brenda Equihua’s feature on Storytellers — and get yourself an Equihua for the closet here.