Meet Ivan Wang of Ivantaged and Rêveuse Los Angeles in West Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ivan Wang.

Ivan, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My story starts during two separate parts of my life. First was my first year in college while I was playing basketball where I met a fourth-year named Don who owned his own clothing brand. I didn’t even know it was possible to own your brand at this point so as soon as he told me, I went home that night to my dorm and researched the rest of the night. I ended up asking my roommate, college friends and anyone else I knew to become my partners. I ended up partnering with my long time friend Andrew and college friend Stephen. We invested in a super cheap screen printing machine and started printing t-shirts every weekend out of my garage. We were selling tees to local high schoolers. I had friends from high school making commissions or getting free t-shirts by selling to their friends. We did anything and everything it took to get started. Over time, Andrew & Stephen pursued their own careers but we’re still good friends. Fast forward seven years later & I’m running Reveuse Los Angeles by myself w/ the help of my girlfriend, Micah.

During this time frame, I was using friends with any type of DSLR camera to take photos of the clothes. I realized it was difficult for them to capture the style I wanted so I went to Best Buy and bought a Canon T3i. This is when my photography career started. I started off shooting local scenery and random female friends who wanted their photos taken then I slowly branched out to girls on IG (who would often hit me with their rates or just straight up ignore me). After years of watching tutorials on Youtube and Google and teaching myself editing techniques, I got my first chance to shoot with an agency model – Makaela Heard @itsmakaelayaheard. She doesn’t even know how much she did for me but I did a shoot with her and my stylist friend Valerie @therealval.g and Wilhelmina ended up using the photos for her online book. This gave me a connection with Wilhelmina and gave me a chance to test shoot with more and more agency signed models. I reached out to the James Tu, the studio manager at PacSun at the time and was initially denied since all their positions were full. I was shooting full time for a local brand for a super, super low salary when a few months later, James reached out to me to grab lunch and let me know he’d been eying my work on Instagram and thought I’d be a good candidate for the new open position. After another period of time, HR reached out to me and I was officially hired as an in-house photographer for PacSun (celebrated by going to Disneyland haha).

The last part of my story thus far happens at PacSun. I met my current girlfriend Micah during a photoshoot where she was the model and I was the photographer assistant. We connected super well and eventually started dating. I had a few other models at the time who thought I was a model on set for PacSun and were always a bit surprised when I told them I was the photographer. With some pushing from Micah and some good luck, I got signed to my first modeling agency, Brigeid Models & NTA Models in LA. I spent my first year with them and got to work with brands such as Nike, Adidas, Converse, North Face, & more. Now I’m currently signed to IMD Inc, Wilhelmina in Los Angeles, I LOVE in Milan & Dragonfly in Dallas.

To this day, I am grinding & always working on my clothing brand Rêveuse Los Angeles (www.reveuselosangeles.com), do freelance photography (www.ivantaged.com) and model full time!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has definitely not always been a smooth road. I was a business major in College and wasn’t fully sure what I wanted to do with my life. I spent years taking classes that weren’t very interesting or beneficial to me just to get my degree though I knew this was help me and please my parents in the long run. I was lucky enough to meet people along the way who inspired me and also have supportive parents who let me pursue photography, modeling, and fashion. I was rejected a million times by IG models, brands, etc. who didn’t like my work at the time and people would also tell me that my brand’s designs were trash or never going to sell (which I admit they weren’t the best back then). You definitely have to keep pushing and believe in yourself to get any traction while chasing your goals. Even as a model, I’m often told that I’m not tall enough, I don’t have the look or I need to lose weight and get leaner. All of these things motivate me and I take everything with a grain of salt. As long as I know what I’m capable of, I’m ready to break all boundaries and maximize my potential while I’m still here.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Ivantaged and Rêveuse Los Angeles – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
My business/company would be a combination of Rêveuse Los Angeles and Ivantaged (my personal branding). I take pride in my versatility and not just being a one trick pony. I am extremely proud of my growth as a photographer, model and a clothing brand owner.

For photography, I specialize in fashion, lifestyle, portraiture but I believe that I can adjust to any circumstance and always create images the clients will love. For my clothing brand, I take a lot of inspiration from everything around me but I would say that Anime is my number one go-to for design inspiration. I love so many things about it but definitely the aesthetic and culture are my favorite. I even have a Spike tattoo on my forearm from Cowboy Bebop.

I’m proud of my self-taught abilities for everything. I’m grateful for everyone along the way who helped me, collaborated with me, or taught me new things but at the end of the day, I know that I’m capable of anything I set my mind to since I got to this point so far with no formal training or classes. Once I’m interested in something, I become obsessed and can spend hours day and night doing research, experimenting and honing my crafts.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
My plans for the future are to continue building and learning as much as I can whether it be new or old projects/skills.

I aim to slowly dive into cut and sew more often for my brand and have been learning the more technical sides of fashion as well as learning more about marketing and increasing the brand awareness.

I recently invested in some home studio equipment so I’ve been learning more about studio lighting and shooting more work indoors with controlled lighting. I also plan on collaborating more with full teams and putting out a lot more editorial work. I recently just found out that my first published photoshoot was a cover story for PUMP magazine.

As for modeling, I’m going to continue living a healthy lifestyle and hope to work with more clients or have more consistent clients. I have the most amazing team at IMD & Wilhelmina where I’m based and I couldn’t be more excited for the future.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.reveuselosangeles.com | www.ivantaged.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/ivantaged | www.instagram.com/reveuselosangeles | www.instagram.com/byivantaged

Image Credit:
Shuba Magazine Cover: Dorian Qi, Nike: Thalia Gochez, Adidas: Micaiah Carter, All other photos shot by Ivan Wang

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