VERYRARE c/o RAF REYES

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VERYRARE c/o Raf Reyes
Industry
  • Textile
  • Fashion
GenreArtwear
Founded2020; 4 years ago (2020)
FounderRaf Reyes
HeadquartersParis
ProductsOne-of-ones, cut-and-sew pieces, lifestyle collectible items
Websiteveryrare.co

VERYRARE (stylized in V®️R®® or VERYRARE ℅ RAF REYES™.[1]) is a Parisian brand of fashion clothing, lifestyle items and accessories[2]. Founded by Raf Reyes at the end of 2020 in London, it fits in the high-end ‘haute streetwear’ space, like Vetements or Balenciaga[3]. The brand is internationally present due to a strong online presence, and has 2 stores worldwide, as well as sales stands in Cera Apparel Los Angeles, Maison Simmons, Wolf and Badger and Le Bon Marché[4]. The brand's clothing is highly recognizable with the use of maximalist visuality, collage-style compositions, ‘jeux de matières’, wordplays, letters replacements and parentheses, narrative-heavy woven tags/patches, geometrical and typographical touches or mentions referring to the product's function on the product itself[5][6][4]. The label has gained influence through the use of guerrilla marketing, popup events, unofficial runways held in the street, and many partnerships with digital marketplaces third-parties’ partnerships (TrillMrkt, AVNTspace), collaborations festivals and tour merch brands’ like Access the Music. The brand was primarily heavily worn by founder Raf Reyes and his artists & photographers’ fellows plus crew from his block, VeryRare BoyZ. VERYRARE focuses on art wear one-of-ones i.e unique named and numbered cut-and-sew statement pieces, with heavy 1990s and pop culture, cinema, and games influences alongside VHS style clothing advertisements and graffiti plus skateboard videos of their guerrilla street artists plus skate teams[7][8]. Their merchandise can be found online or at their newly-opened standalone Paris-based ‘art-elier’ flagship shop, studio, showroom space. They release new products every first week of the month, and during the four seasonal periods: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. Since its creation in 2020, the brand has gained popularity within both the Streetwear and haute-couture communities[9]. Demand for VERYRARE items can often outweigh supply, resulting in items being resold for significant margins[6]

History

Founder Raf Reyes said in a Bello Mag interview with : “I use fabric as the blank canvas for my art; going straight to cut and sew, high-end manufacturing with premium techniques, I wanted to mix street and couture, with a museum twist. The aim was to make art wearable and democratize what’s otherwise unaffordable. I’m sourcing fabric from all over the world and collaborating with fellow textile associates in France, Portugal, Turkey and China (…) always on the chase for the best in terms of quality, durability and rarity/originality. I reference Design’s history and signal its existence within the colliding worlds of archive and 21st-century fashion"[2]. The brand was created in 2020, during the covid pandemic and while Reyes was still a postgraduate at the Royal College of Art[1]. Founded after he ended his ‘HYPEBEASTS Society’ bootleg tees and student society plus events merch label, which he had created four years earlier.[10]. Reyes wanted both a calligraphic and cathartic, visually-charged logo-system that would encapsulate his whole aesthetic and all themes that he ‘deems very rare’ for his newly created brand. The VERYRARE name hence references the artist’s fields of liking and choice he selects and curates for his final pieces, seeing and envisioning the brand like a ‘fourre-tout’ (melting pot), meant to be timeless, seasonless and ‘bringing back the OG connection that people had in the 90s when they were queuing for an item they really wanted hard’[11].

VERYRARE’s logo system was created by Raf, saying he was inspired by Google and IBM’s ones[12]. Reyes stated in an interview with Schön Magazine that he wanted "to devise a logo system that had connotations of the infinite, constant flux/movement, and emotional plus personal connection in the moment of making’[12]. Reyes uses a calligraphic handmade type with the letters ‘A’ and ‘E’ circled out, to represent containment-freedom dichotomy, anarchy, chaos, and sets of rules made to be broken sometimes. At the end of it, a butterfly with Raf Reyes’ signature double ®® is supposed to represent layerism in his pieces, his initials, and the irony of the copyright as ‘the collective intellectual and creative achievements of Humanity stand on the shoulders of giants’. The logo is referred to as the "butterfly" for it is constantly subject to metamorphosis[13]

Early in the development of the brand, clothing and lifestyle items such as candles and incense chambers were sold in local skate shops and boutiques in the London and Paris areas[14]. As VERYRARE business grew they began to sell goods in third-party stockists’ stores in Los Angeles and Toronto, as well as online marketplaces like TrillMrkt and AVNTspace[15]. After achieving some recognition, the brand went on to collaborate with Access (The Festival) in 2021[16]. Alongside these collaborations, VERYRARE depends on the Bon Marché, End Clothing, and occasional pop-up shops around the United States, England, and France to distribute their merchandise[1]. Reyes is also increasingly presenting his collections at Fashion Week parades[2]. VERYRARE products are sold in retail stores in Los Angeles, Toronto, Milan, Paris, London and New York. His clothes have since been worn by many celebrities such as Jaylen Brown, Famous Dex, Bas, Folamour, Djibril Cissé and more[17]. In 2020, the year of the brand’s foundation, VERYRARE announced that they had opened their first showroom store in Paris.

Manifesto

As VERYRARE's roots in art and story-telling branch out in the open, Reyes created the brand with a supporting manifesto.[12], that contains 'interpretations to be regarded as lifestyle benchmarks for the youth in the current and next generations. What each piece encapsulates plus how we will stay true to who we are and what we represent in 21 points'[8]

1. Worn winning

2. YOU in mind

3. Antagonisms

4. Openness to what’s new out there

5. Feels like Christmas (already?!)

6. ART

7. ARTWEAR

8. HUMAN SCALE+SIZE

9. Rarity/exclusivity

10. Collaboration

11. A portal to another world

12. No Haters

13. Family

14. Pricing

15. Seeking higher paths

16. Sustainability

17. Timelessness & seasonlessness

18. Purpose moves us

19. VERYRARE™ branded themes/imagery, and visuals

20. The VR take on ‘colors for Life’

21. Rules

Collaborations and goodies

VERYRARE is mainly known for tour merch and musical-related design jobs plus collaborations including Access The Festival, For Heaven Use Only (FHUO Records by Folamour), TCHEBA (by Djibril Cissé).[16][8]. A part of the ordering process also includes the VERYRARE ‘goodie galore’ bag, thanks to which the brand offers many complimentary goodies aiming at recreating a christmassy experience[11], wherein the customer is treated like a family member and the unboxing experience in itself feels like ‘one comparable to when the Fashion Week(s) glitterati is offered care packages and invitations for the famed parades — but for everybody’[12]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "VERYRARE IS REDEFINING AUTHENTICITY". today was so yesterday | tmrw. 2021-03-17. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "VERYRARE…A Brand You Won't Want To Miss – BELLO Mag". Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  3. ↑ "11 Questions With VERYRARE | TRILL Marketplace". trillmrkt.com. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Leigh, Elizah (2021-04-08). "Raf Reyes: The Golden He(ART)ed Ethos of VERYRARE Artwear". Beautiful Bizarre Magazine. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  5. ↑ mars 2021, Leila Ghedaifi·Mode·24 (2021-03-24). "VERYRARE, la nouvelle marque française qui mise sur l'authenticité". Views (in français). Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 ""I want to change how people view a piece of cloth." A talk with Raf Reyes". C-Heads Magazine. 2021-03-13. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  7. ↑ "Aesthetica Magazine - Redefining Fashion". Aesthetica Magazine. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "VERYRARE c/o Raf Reyes — High End Artwear". VERYRARE™ c/o Raf Reyes — High End Artwear. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  9. ↑ "VERYRARE Serves a Dose of Nostalgia For Debut Collection". HYPEBEAST. 2021-04-21. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  10. ↑ "We asked French students how to nail being French at Warwick". University of Warwick. 2017-03-06. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "The Vision Behind VeryRare: Interview with Raf Reyes". Strike Magazine. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 "welcome to artwear | meet VERYRARE + designer raf reyes". Schön! Magazine. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  13. ↑ "Multidisciplinary artist Raf Reyes talks to us about his creative process, influences and shares his favourite new creative trends — Capsules Book". Capsules Book. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  14. ↑ "Interview with Raf Reyes". Contemporary Art Curator Magazine. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  15. ↑ "16 Brands Redefining Sustainable Streetwear | TRILL Marketplace". trillmrkt.com. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 "ACCESS THE MUSIC". accessthemusic. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  17. ↑ "Hall of Fame". VERYRARE™ c/o Raf Reyes — High End Artwear. Retrieved 2021-07-09.

External links

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