Trickle up
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Montreal label Ethikal represents urban culture proudby
by SCOTT C
It's no secret that the trickle-up style from the underground is what keeps both corporate sportswear giants and high-end fashion houses alike in business. Most of these companies employ market researchers to run around and measure the weight of a given trend, with the hopes of translating it into revenues in the coming fiscal year.
Now, you and I both know that more often than not, we'll see something for sale at some high-end boutique for $500, when you could walk down to Urban Outfitters and buy the same thing for $60. It can be quite ridiculous. "They're all rip-offs," explains Somsay Sengvilay, a local designer responsible for the growing line of Ethikal urban-underground streetwear.
"This is our culture. Our culture is what sets the trends, but these big designer labels are banking on styles that we've been doing all along. I'm not some old dude sitting at a desk saying, 'What's cool?' I'm trying to represent urban culture as somebody who's a part of it." That's exactly what he's been doing for the last six years, first making small T-shirt runs geared towards his friends in hip hop and graf, and now, designing from his office on Paré where the future styles of skate, turntablism and club-wear take up Somsay's days.
"I used to sell T-shirts like weed. I'd put five in my backpack and go to the spot where everybody was and just sell them to my friends or whoever." The slightly italicized slant of the graffiti-written Ethikal logo is well known throughout Montreal, probably even to people who don't own any of the clothing. Somsay makes a point of supporting elements of the culture that in turn, allow him continue being creative on the whole. "I started drawing in Grade 1 and as I got older I just got better at it. I was originally going to pursue a career as a comic book artist, but I got into graphic design and computers and the rest is history."
In 2001, Ethikal Productions Incorporated now enjoys the support of a corporate investor, an arrangement that seems to be both a blessing and a challenge to the young designer. "Well, we're still not Ecko, but we have more of a marketing budget to work with than ever before. We've got a full line, with pants, shirts, hats, our own stretch denim and a girls' line as well. This is our first professional year so I want to do it right, and keep the investors happy too."
Contact Ethikal through www.ethikal.com
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