Elena Velez is the working class designer raging against the system

Armed with a knack for subversive metal work, an affinity for sensual tactility, and a wicked sense of humour, Elena Velez is carving out a niche for herself on the New York fashion scene with love letters to her home, the American Midwest. 

Since graduating from Parsons in 2018 and Central Saint Martins in 2020, the 28-year-old designer has been shoehorning the kind of stories the industry hasn’t previously made room for onto the official NYFW schedule, and bringing its archetypes – like “the lot lizard, and the prairie wife” – to the runway. So far, it seems like it’s working. Last year, Velez took home the CFDA’s award for American Emerging Designer of the Year (which made an appearance with a model in this year’s show) and has racked up an impressive list of celebrity fans – among them, Julia Fox, Charli XCX, Rico Nasty, Solange Knowles, and Rosalia. She’s also just shown her third collection at the AW23 edition of New York Fashion Week.

Velez’s collections largely touch on her youth, which she spent growing up as the only daughter of a single mother who, to this day, works as a ship’s captain. Beyond that, inspiration comes from her friends and her friends’ moms, who work as welders, machinists, and fabricators – working class women who largely prioritise practicality over aesthetics. For her AW22 show, she sent a model down the runway carrying a baby, and her SS23 show saw a model impaled with daggers and slathered with dirt steal the show. Meanwhile, for AW23, close friend Eartheater bared plenty of skin, shuffling around the show space with a zombie-like gait, almost bursting the seams of a tightly constructed corset gown. Crafted from salvaged scraps of satin and leather, the look felt like it could have been swept off the cutting room floor and transformed into an artisanal luxury. 

While a clear evolution towards more wearable clothing emerged this season, Velez didn’t lose her edge. Evening gowns with skirts fashioned from fishermens’ knits rubbed up against slashed cotton dresses which felt like they’d been hastily draped on the body, imperfect canvas jumpsuits, and paint-splattered, heavy-soled leather boots. This “radical plainness”, as she calls it, is a common thread that runs through her collections, with her clothes and casting culminating in a message about authenticity in the face of coastal elitism and “a post-yassified society” – one where hyper-perfection, exorbitant wealth, and Kardashian aesthetics rein supreme.

The story being told isn’t just an homage to her home, but reveals a much larger theme that many in the industry bristle at: being working class in fashion. Velez relents that she’s struggling to untangle the financial red tape that comes with running her own label, but despite the difficulties that threaten to cut her career short, she wants better for others. Velez often holds discussions on Instagram about raising funds, what it takes to find investors, and even has plans to build her own factory in the Midwest to bring fashion somewhere besides the coast. 

For her, making room for people who can’t work in the fashion industry because they don’t have the money nor the financial literacy is a hill she’s willing to die on. If things don’t change, the industry stands to miss out on brilliant designers, artists, perspectives – the next Alexander McQueen, the next Velez. “​​I am probably just one of the few people who was able to jump through enough bureaucratic hoops to get to the part that I'm at and to have the platform and the opportunity to share the message.”

“I’m super vocal about being from the Midwest. It’s a part of my identity that I can't sanitise, which is something that I tried to do for a really long time. Breaking into a cosmopolitan city and the high fashion industry, I tried my best to hide that fact and conceal those references. But at the end of the day, it really just led to me telling inauthentic narratives about myself that people could see through” – Elena Velez

Hey Elena! How are you feeling off the back of your NYFW show?

Elena Velez: I feel really great. I feel like I have worked my entire life to see the articles and read the sorts of things that people are saying about me. I feel so seen, I feel so empowered and inspired to keep doing what I believe is important in the fashion industry. I think people have been looking for a narrative outside of New York and LA that speaks to the fashion perspective for a really long time. I am probably just one of the few people who was able to jump through enough bureaucratic hoops to get to the part that I'm at and to have the platform and the opportunity to share the message. 

It's also frustrating because honestly, the support [from the industry] just isn't there and I am really drowning in the entrepreneurship side of this. So if anything comes of my success, I hope that it can be funnelled into an initiative for the empowerment of smaller designers. 

You’re really quite honest about the financial aspect of creating a label and what comes along with that: stress, pain, praying to not get sued, bringing your kids to shows, and fundraising.

Elena Velez: It is impossibly difficult and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I'm happy to be here, but also I’m really, really struggling. 

It must be tough coming from a working class background, jumping into an industry like fashion and expecting to know what to do.  

Elena Velez: It’s also about expecting other people in the industry who come from money to understand the urgency for working capital. I think a lot of the people that I'm trying to request help from are funnelling me towards resources that are more introductory versus just a brass tacks “I need money” kind of thing. So it's a lot to figure out. You have to be a master of a lot of different skill sets to be able to exist in this kind of an industry. But every single season is just exponential growth in terms of my understanding of the industry, what I feel capable of as a designer, and my reach. So, you know, I’m hanging in there and really making the most of every opportunity in every day that I get to do what I love. 

Speaking of what you love, can you tell me about the collection you just showed at New York Fashion Week?

Elena Velez: I'm super vocal about being from the Midwest. I think that’s a part of my identity that I can't sanitise, which is something that I tried to do for a really long time. Breaking into a cosmopolitan city and the high fashion industry, I tried my best to hide that fact and conceal those references. But at the end of the day, it really just led to me telling inauthentic narratives about myself that people could see through. And I honestly just think that a lot of people identify with some of these universal narratives about hometown, homegrown, small cities and what it looks like to find legacy in a place of impermanence or inconsequence. A lot of my collections deal with breaking down the sociology and the archetypes of what some of the people back home mean to me. 

Can you elaborate on what you mean by that? 

Elena Velez: A lot of it is really about trying to find a glamorous way to reinterpret the caricatures of middle America as seen by the coasts. And there's kind of an irony to that because of the fact that we're able to really reappropriate and re-envision this disdain and this geographical condescension into something that is super luxurious, super desirable, and then sell it back to the person who is overlooking us in the first place. So for me, that's really where I find a little bit of enjoyment. For this [AW23] collection specifically, I was trying to lean into that library of references for our archetypal woman and just visiting all of these different wasteland heroines as I like to call them who are complicated and paradoxical. They're imperfect, just like the sinner and the saint. She's the lot lizard and the prairie wife and all of these different complex, complicated motifs of the Midwest. Like all of these different vestiges of agrarian spiritualism, puritanical cults and disorderly anabaptist youths. We looked at things like Rumspringa and all of these different amazing Amish subcultures just tried to really build a new language around some of these really disdainful tropes. 

I definitely saw this through the models who walked the show, who seem to make as big a statement as the clothes. Can you tell me a bit about the people you cast?

Elena Velez: For me it's about radical plainness, which I think is what comes after this post-yassified society. Right now we're just surrounded by so much synthetic, acidic, frenetic superficiality that I just don't resonate with. I live on that spectrum of extremity but in the opposite direction. My collections are radically plain, they're radically homemade and it just feels like reverting back to something that's organic and minimalist in a really, really extreme way. I create garments that you have to put yourself in a theatrical mindset for. 

“There's kind of an irony [being a working class designer] because we're able to really reappropriate and re-envision this disdain and this geographical condescension into something that is super luxurious, super desirable, and then sell it back to the person who is overlooking us in the first place” – Elena Velez

Your take on femininity is really fun to witness. Can you tell me how you define femininity?

Elena Velez: I have so much to say about this. One of my main frustrations with the press [following the show] has been statements like “oh her women are so angry, she's so mad. But it isn't so much that she's mad, she just lacks self-awareness in a really liberating way. Oh my god, if I could separate myself from my own aesthetic awareness, it would really empower me and liberate me in this really interesting way. For me, fashion is something that supports that state of mind. The type of woman who raised me in the Midwest – you know, my mom's a ship captain, a lot of my friend's moms and friends were machinists, welders, fabricators, worked in factories – did a lot of hands-on work. And these are people who were just assertive, who were sometimes misunderstood because they were so focused on the task at hand. They didn't necessarily have time for superficiality or self decoration and I think that's actually really sexy in a way. When I came to New York I wasn't able to locate that same feeling. So I'm trying to commodify this feeling that I have when I think of those women back home. 

Your shows always have a theatrical flair, but what got everyone talking this season was when you sent one of your models angrily stomping onto the runway wielding your CFDA statue like a deadly weapon. Can you tell me the story behind that?

Elena Velez: Honestly, I think everyone's looking for some sort of narrative, but at the end of the day, we were just fitting and the model picked it up and we thought it would be just really funny to send it down the runway and kind of abstract the connotation of it. Like really trying to abstract something super iconic and bring it back into my world. Also it's just the accessory of the season and I get [the title] for one year only, so I'm gonna milk it for all it's worth. 

You’ve become renowned for your metal work, like your metal corsets. But this year, your collection was also noticeably more practical than previous years. What caused that shift?

Elena Velez: A lot of the critique that I got last season was how do you turn this raw art into something that can exist in a fashion economy. And there’s a reason I chose to be a designer and not an artist. I think to be an artist you get to create a product free from the constraints of context. You can create what you wanna see out in the world in a very precious space free from a lot of different ramifications. Whereas in design you have to create a product that addresses a certain need. And for a long time that need for me was conceptual fulfilment and self-expression. But now as I start to build the business, I see that there is an additional need to turn exciting creations into something that can be worn, that can be seen out on the street, that can be purchased by the people that really want to help and support the brand and who also identify with the universe that we're building. Just trying to distil some of this super high concept work into smaller details is actually a really difficult thing and I think will be like my mark of creative maturity moving forward. 

With your clothes, shows, the models you cast, and your wickedly dark sense of humour, you’re railing against the elitism and status quo of the fashion industry. It feels like you’re urging change, almost screaming for it. Where does this passion within you come from? 

Elena Velez: I think because of the fact that it doesn't end with me. This is a change that I feel I need to see in the industry and I'm really heartbroken by the fact that I don't think that there's a future for this craft in this country if there isn't more support for younger designers. At the end of the day, to be able to participate in this cultural conversation, you have to come with a predetermined package of resources that only fit a very, very small demographic of people and those people are not necessarily telling all of our stories. So there is a component of just wanting to see more true diversity, not just diversity of nationality, of gender, of location, but also of message and of cultural perspective. 

There's a greater mission to the privilege that I have of being able to stick it out as long as I can. But honestly, I don't see myself here for much longer and that has nothing to do with my own desires. I'd love to continue to do this for as long as possible, but I am pretty sure that I'm on my way out the door because I cannot support myself financially. So if that's inevitable, I'm going to go out with a bang. I'm gonna make sure that the message is heard and that people start to pay attention to, you know, makers from non-traditional creative coasts. 

The fashion industry also had a tendency to exemplify diversity in very superficial ways. 

Elena Velez: That’s so true. What has always frustrated me in the industry is when people philosophise about how to be successful in the industry versus just breaking it down into bite size chunks of knowledge that people can incorporate into scaling their own enterprise. So I feel very passionately about democratising even that language. Like if anyone asked me, I'm gonna respond with specific information and action items – here's what it costs, here's what it feels like. Because I feel like an insider now, it's my job to extend my hand back to the creative culture that I come from. 

I’d love to see that conversation happening more widely across the board. 

Elena Velez: Yeah, but there are so many political nuances. You can't bite the hand that feeds you just enough to keep you alive. I'm trying to incorporate that into the way that I think about the future. I have plans to build my own factory that can start to create American fashion in a more sustainable place. Like it's impossible to create clothing in New York City because you're paying garment district rent prices first and foremost. The overhead here is impossible to compete with. I want to open it up to a new geography where I can have a closer connection with my collaborators, where I can start to reroute the production of my peers here in New York City and then at some point scale it into a venture capital accelerator program for artists and creatives. 

That was another issue that I’ve encountered in the industry: how am I gonna find an investor who recognises the success metrics in fashion? There's no numerical conversion. Investors ask, “What are your sales?” But Alexander McQueen didn't make sales for years. No fashion company is profitable for at least a decade. So you have to find people who can support you in the beginning, who are sympathetic to the nuances of the industry. 

“I have so many ideas, but I realise that a lot of what I need to be successful is out of my control. So I hope for the best, but realistically expect the worst. The future of the brand is really multidimensional. The fashion is what draws you into this universe, but I also have so many ideas in terms of what I want to build systemically” – Elena Velez

Speaking of the nuances of the industry, it is interesting to see how the press has covered your work. Since what you’re doing comments on coastal elitism, it’s interesting to see how this seeps into the way your work is spoken about. You held your show close to your studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, which I saw someone describe as the “rarely-visited neighbourhood” which is categorically untrue.

Elena Velez: They prove my case in point constantly. There was another thing written about my work that annoyed me. And it had to do with the fact that I think it was being suggested that the root of the brand comes from a sort of working class appropriation. And that really bothers me because I do a lot of work back home to empower the people that I draw inspiration from. The bottom line is that you can't create authentic fashion without fostering some sort of authentic subculture. And that just can't exist in any meaningful way for me here in New York. 

When I see you challenge the constructs of fashion and coastal elitism it makes me excited about the future of American fashion. What does the future look like for you and your brand?

Elena Velez: I have so many ideas, but I realise that a lot of what I need to be successful is out of my control. So I hope for the best, but realistically expect the worst. The future of the brand is really multidimensional. The fashion is what draws you into this universe, but I also have so many ideas in terms of what I want to build systemically. I think it would be very, very exciting to create my factory in Milwaukee and scale that and be able to interface between the creatives and the resource holders and at some point really build out the universe in terms of adjacent creative industries. 

I'd love to experiment with furniture or sound performance, smells, food. The passion behind all of this is really world-building and there are so many different things that could live in that universe. For it to just exist as fashion feels so reductive to me. I feel like this is one of the only things in the world that could make me feel so fulfilled in so many different ways. There are so many skill sets that you get to cut your teeth on that really make me feel challenged in a lot of really cool ways. Even the entrepreneurship side. And if the stakes weren't so high then it probably wouldn't be as fun and exciting.