Back in black

MANILA, Philippines - The boys over at The Artisan aren’t too eager about the big, clichéd comebacks. After being under the radar for over a year, there are no flashing neon signs, no fancy announcements. Instead, a poised declaration — in the form of a condensed, all-black collection composed of reworked staples like bomber jackets and baseball jerseys that are hardly interrupted by prints. And if it’s not suggested by their lookbook enough — a dashing contrast of flora against bare bones menswear — the darkness is, of course, a statement in itself. In a retail landscape saturated with patterns and pop culture appropriations, The Artisan — composed of Kix Suarez, EJ Reyes and Nikko Martinez — is just fine with being a reliable resource for straightforward, thoughtfully crafted menswear. No exclamation points. Just clothes. Young STAR spoke to The Artisan on why it took so long for them to come back, those floral headpieces, and their upcoming pop-up shop.

YOUNG STAR: Welcome back, The Artisan. Why the long hiatus?

KIX SUAREZ: Thanks, we’re glad to be back! A lot of things happened after the fifth collection. We set up a brand over in Denmark called Pleasant (Pleasant.dk) and it took a while for us to learn how the system works. Now that that’s doing pretty well, we decided to pick up from where we left off locally. We refined the business side of The Artisan since it was too punk rock before. We had to put some order to our DIY or die.

How did the concept of the look book come about?

To be honest, it just happened. We knew we were doing floral headpieces but we didn’t really know how it was going to be shot or where. We were planning a standard studio look book with a model sporting the headpieces and the clothes, but it felt boring. We decided to all go up to Baguio for a few days and since we were there already, we just shot the look book. And we were happy with how it came out, so that’s that.

Take us a bit through the design process. Why come out with an all-black collection?

First, I draw up some pieces and present it to my partners Ej and Nikko. From there, we discuss if it’ll fly or not. If it’s good, we run samples and from there if there are no more things that we want changed or improved, we produce the pieces.

We decided on black because there was just too much noise going on in retail and we didn’t want any part of it. Everyone in our niche was drowning in patterns. It was as if everyone was screaming to be noticed. Black is simple and quiet but it has its way of drawing you in. And right now, that’s sort of where we are, I guess — in the quiet, but thankful that there are people who still remember/notice us.

I think the kimono’s an interesting addition, too. Can you tell us more about how you’ve chosen the kinds of pieces and prints (Russian tattoos, Last Supper) that the The Artisan released?

Thank you! It’s just really clothes we’d wear and have the resource to produce well. There are stories behind each piece but at the end of the day they’re just clothes we try to make to the best of our abilities. I’d rather not bore you with stories.

What’s next for The Artisan? Do we see color in its near future?

A pop-up shop soon! We are working on distributing our clothes in different shops in the Philippines so look out for that. Before the year ends, we want to come out with one more collection, maybe this time with a bit of color. Let’s see. We haven’t gotten that far yet. All we know is that we’re back and this time for good.

* * *

Shop The Artisan’s latest collection at www.theartisanclothing.com.