ELENA VELEZ - ‘YR002 - IN GLASS’: AN ORGANIC POV

Founder & Creative Director, Elena Velez (she/her) is a vivification of the modern woman & a mother to two under-two along partner, Andreas Emenius. Her work is known for its non-traditional metalwork synthesis rooted in her upbringing; resulting in a new wave of post-apocalyptic wear. *Operated between Milwaukee, Wisconsin & New York City.

SS23 is a manifestation of a woman’s bloodletting hysteria in her most insufferable & divine glory. In a Post-Roe landscape, deconstructed silhouettes defy judicial hypocrisies. A paradoxical expression of ‘beautiful & terrible’ experiences that are worth having a conversation around…

ELENA VELEZ - ‘YR002 - IN GLASS’: AN ORGANIC POV

Founder & Creative Director, Elena Velez (she/her) is a vivification of the modern woman & a mother to two under-two along partner, Andreas Emenius. Her work is known for its non-traditional metalwork synthesis rooted in her upbringing; resulting in a new wave of post-apocalyptic wear. *Operated between Milwaukee, Wisconsin & New York City.

SS23 is a manifestation of a woman’s bloodletting hysteria in her most insufferable & divine glory. In a Post-Roe landscape, deconstructed silhouettes defy judicial hypocrisies. A paradoxical expression of ‘beautiful & terrible’ experiences that are worth having a conversation around…

Describe the modern woman in 2023 

The modern woman in 2023 is a little bit more of the archetype of womanhood that I appreciate from my background. So, she’s a little bit more indelicate and ornery and willful. She’s very assertive and honest about her desires which is reflected through her fashion. 

 

What does ‘female hysteria’ in 2023 mean to you 

Female hysteria is  a manifestation of chaos. The way we channel female hysteria through our work is this accumulation of anxiety and pressure, and just energy to break away from contemporary narratives around what womanhood is and isn’t. 

 

What inspired SS23 ‘YR002: IN GLASS’

So IN GLASS is kind of a manifestation of a lot of the frustrations that I was feeling  in contemporary culture, in politics. I never want to make too many overt statements about politics in fashion. I think there are other people that are able to articulate those sentiments a little bit more directly. What I really wanted to do is capitalize on the energy and the feeling of being a woman at that time, and feeling pressure from all these  different directions to conform to different narratives. It was a little bit more of a description on my experiences in childbirth. So IN GLASS is the anglicization of in-vitro which means to remove something from an organic body and put it into an environment  of artifice, which really resonated with me in some of the experiences I was having as a woman. 

 

Which is your favorite look from your SS23 show

I love a bunch of different ones for different reasons. When we are thinking about a collection we really cast a range of archetypes and different caricatures. So different personalities appealed to me in different ways, like we usually have the coven witch. We always have the agrarian spiritualist, and a bunch of other midwestern meme archetypes like the “forklift certified” girl, the tractor queen… all these different characters that build up my world; characters endearing to me in different ways. 

"...a manifestation of a lot of the frustrations that I was feeling in contemporary culture, in politics"

What are your favorite spots to visit when you’re in LA

We thought we discovered Pappy and Harriet’s in Death Valley haha! So that was really cool. I feel a real connection with that area. I love horseback riding. I grew up competing on horses and it just feels like the surface of Mars, a post apocalyptic landscape that really resonates with me. 

 

What kind of imprint would you like to leave on the fashion world 

I want to have more nuanced conversations around culture today. I want to be able to provide diversity of perspective and really bring back conviction and opinion and just fearless selfhood. 

 

What’s in the cards for Elena Velez

I have a ton of ideas of how I want to expand. There are immediate things I am excited about, but the long term plan is to really start to build out the manufacturing component of the brand in an interesting way. So, in the next couple of seasons we’re going to really try to develop an atelier and a factory space in Milwaukee where I can do some serious quality control, and I can offer opportunities and professional exposure to some of my collaborators back in the Midwest. 

 

How did you hear about/what is your experience with H Lorenzo

H Lorenzo globally has this narrative for working with all the cool trendy youth culture come-ups before they make it into the established cultural space. So I was super excited to get to work with a lot of the stylists and the clientele base here, and I think that we share a girl in a lot of ways which feels really nice. A lot of the conversations I’ve been having with the team here are just so collaborative and feel like such a great extension of the brand.

 

How do you want people to feel when they see your work 

I want people to feel something strong, one way or the other. I want them to love it, I want them to hate it. I don’t want them to pass it up on the rack and not feel anything at all. So, what I think I  love to do with clothing is give people the opportunity to project their own fantasy into whatever I create. I have a vision for the garments, but I make no claim to have any prescribed narrative after they leave my hand. So at the end of the day it really is a conversation between the wearer and the garment, and I think that’s really special.   

"I try to work with as much site specific sourced salvage materiality, we do a lot with ship sails, and repurposed canvas in the collections"

You’ve mentioned you like working with Milwaukee steel, ship-sails, & parachutes, whats your creative process like 

 

Milwaukee is historically iconic in the states for its steel output, and I grew up as an only child to a mother who is a ship captain on the Great Lakes. So a lot of themes that I work with are around this investigation around femininity. What I wanted from it as a child who enjoyed fashion, but who was not able to see it in my world  with what I experience it to be now, as a mother myself looking back at a lot of the aesthetic references that my mom presented me with when I was growing up… so I try to work with as much site specific sourced salvage materiality, we do a lot with ship sails, and repurposed canvas in the collections. A lot of the metal that you see in the garments is a collaboration with a lot of my friends back home who are welders and blacksmiths, and it’s a really unique collaboration on what can be considered American artisanal  luxury in 2023. What is luxury, where can it come from? Whose hands can make it? Im just really trying to diversify the American fashion narrative in a way that isn’t so focused on just the creative posts.         

 

There is an evolving consistency in your collections. What is your favorite fabric or material to incorporate & why 

 

I try and work with fabrics that feel very digestible, really edible, nothing synthetic, nothing acidic, nothing too kinetic. I really like stuff that feels radically plain almost burlap or cotton canvasy. We do a lot with variations in weights of very plain materials like cotton gauzes, canvases, and I think that it really lets the architecture of the garment speak for itself in a nice way.   

 

Describe the Elena Velez aura - What’s the energy of the person wearing it

It’s hard because it is such a personal export, so I can only tell you how I feel making it. Im somebody who feels a lot of feelings. I am anxious, I passionate, I’m irritable and dedicated. I have so many paradoxical conflicting beautiful and terrible things about myself that I put into my work and I think that dichotomy is worth celebrating and worth being patient to have a conversation around. That’s what I want to instill in my garments.  

 

Whats your sign 

VIRGO! You knowww! 

SHOP YR002 - IN GLASS

CREDITS

Director -  Katy Shayne

Director of Photography -  Ale Washington

Words by - Adan Cisneros 

Sound Mixing - Felix Havstad Ziska

PR - Ariana Daniella

External Video Visuals Courtesy of (credited in order)

Elena Velez /  Showstudios / The Cobra Snake   

 

FEATURING: ELENA VELEZ

Describe the modern woman in 2023 

The modern woman in 2023 is a little bit more of the archetype of womanhood that I appreciate from my background. So, she’s a little bit more indelicate and ornery and willful. She’s very assertive and honest about her desires which is reflected through her fashion. 

 

What does ‘female hysteria’ in 2023 mean to you 

Female hysteria is  a manifestation of chaos. The way we channel female hysteria through our work is this accumulation of anxiety and pressure, and just energy to break away from contemporary narratives around what womanhood is and isn’t. 

 

What inspired SS23 ‘YR002: IN GLASS’

So IN GLASS is kind of a manifestation of a lot of the frustrations that I was feeling  in contemporary culture, in politics. I never want to make too many overt statements about politics in fashion. I think there are other people that are able to articulate those sentiments a little bit more directly. What I really wanted to do is capitalize on the energy and the feeling of being a woman at that time, and feeling pressure from all these  different directions to conform to different narratives. It was a little bit more of a description on my experiences in childbirth. So IN GLASS is the anglicization of in-vitro which means to remove something from an organic body and put it into an environment  of artifice, which really resonated with me in some of the experiences I was having as a woman. 

 

Which is your favorite look from your SS23 show

I love a bunch of different ones for different reasons. When we are thinking about a collection we really cast a range of archetypes and different caricatures. So different personalities appealed to me in different ways, like we usually have the coven witch. We always have the agrarian spiritualist, and a bunch of other midwestern meme archetypes like the “forklift certified” girl, the tractor queen… all these different characters that build up my world; characters endearing to me in different ways. 

"...a manifestation of a lot of the frustrations that I was feeling in contemporary culture, in politics"

What are your favorite spots to visit when you’re in LA

We thought we discovered Pappy and Harriet’s in Death Valley haha! So that was really cool. I feel a real connection with that area. I love horseback riding. I grew up competing on horses and it just feels like the surface of Mars, a post apocalyptic landscape that really resonates with me. 

 

What kind of imprint would you like to leave on the fashion world 

I want to have more nuanced conversations around culture today. I want to be able to provide diversity of perspective and really bring back conviction and opinion and just fearless selfhood. 

 

What’s in the cards for Elena Velez

I have a ton of ideas of how I want to expand. There are immediate things I am excited about, but the long term plan is to really start to build out the manufacturing component of the brand in an interesting way. So, in the next couple of seasons we’re going to really try to develop an atelier and a factory space in Milwaukee where I can do some serious quality control, and I can offer opportunities and professional exposure to some of my collaborators back in the Midwest. 

 

How did you hear about/what is your experience with H Lorenzo

H Lorenzo globally has this narrative for working with all the cool trendy youth culture come-ups before they make it into the established cultural space. So I was super excited to get to work with a lot of the stylists and the clientele base here, and I think that we share a girl in a lot of ways which feels really nice. A lot of the conversations I’ve been having with the team here are just so collaborative and feel like such a great extension of the brand.

 

How do you want people to feel when they see your work 

I want people to feel something strong, one way or the other. I want them to love it, I want them to hate it. I don’t want them to pass it up on the rack and not feel anything at all. So, what I think I  love to do with clothing is give people the opportunity to project their own fantasy into whatever I create. I have a vision for the garments, but I make no claim to have any prescribed narrative after they leave my hand. So at the end of the day it really is a conversation between the wearer and the garment, and I think that’s really special.   

"I try to work with as much site specific sourced salvage materiality, we do a lot with ship sails, and repurposed canvas in the collections"

You’ve mentioned you like working with Milwaukee steel, ship-sails, & parachutes, whats your creative process like 

 

Milwaukee is historically iconic in the states for its steel output, and I grew up as an only child to a mother who is a ship captain on the Great Lakes. So a lot of themes that I work with are around this investigation around femininity. What I wanted from it as a child who enjoyed fashion, but who was not able to see it in my world  with what I experience it to be now, as a mother myself looking back at a lot of the aesthetic references that my mom presented me with when I was growing up… so I try to work with as much site specific sourced salvage materiality, we do a lot with ship sails, and repurposed canvas in the collections. A lot of the metal that you see in the garments is a collaboration with a lot of my friends back home who are welders and blacksmiths, and it’s a really unique collaboration on what can be considered American artisanal  luxury in 2023. What is luxury, where can it come from? Whose hands can make it? Im just really trying to diversify the American fashion narrative in a way that isn’t so focused on just the creative posts.         

 

There is an evolving consistency in your collections. What is your favorite fabric or material to incorporate & why 

 

I try and work with fabrics that feel very digestible, really edible, nothing synthetic, nothing acidic, nothing too kinetic. I really like stuff that feels radically plain almost burlap or cotton canvasy. We do a lot with variations in weights of very plain materials like cotton gauzes, canvases, and I think that it really lets the architecture of the garment speak for itself in a nice way.   

 

Describe the Elena Velez aura - What’s the energy of the person wearing it

It’s hard because it is such a personal export, so I can only tell you how I feel making it. Im somebody who feels a lot of feelings. I am anxious, I passionate, I’m irritable and dedicated. I have so many paradoxical conflicting beautiful and terrible things about myself that I put into my work and I think that dichotomy is worth celebrating and worth being patient to have a conversation around. That’s what I want to instill in my garments.  

 

Whats your sign 

VIRGO! You knowww! 

SHOP YR002 - IN GLASS

CREDITS

CREDITS

Director -  Katy Shayne

Director of Photography -  Ale Washington

Words by - Adan Cisneros 

Sound Mixing - Felix Havstad Ziska

PR - Ariana Daniella

External Video Visuals Courtesy of (credited in order)

Elena Velez /  Showstudios / The Cobra Snake