Today we’d like to introduce you to Victor Wilde.
Hi Victor, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
Well, I started experimenting with art and sewing when I was about seven years old. The first piece of art I made was a traffic cone covered in car enamel paint that I found in my grandfather’s garage. Most of which wound up in the driveway. Grandpa wasn’t very thrilled, but he wasn’t exactly mad enough to tell me not to be creative and make a mess. The second thing I made was an owl that I hand-sewn with some buttons, pillow stuffing, and my mother’s leggings, and I never stopped, nor will I. I consider myself to be a multimedia artist. This includes performance, writing, film, painting, drawing, fashion design, poetry, music, and sculpture, and I just bought a rug-tufting gun, so let’s see how that goes. My clothing brand, Bohemian Society, is just 20 years old this year. When I first started, I didn’t know how to make clothing because I didn’t go to school or study it. I actually learned how to make clothing through a Craigslist ad. A woman answered my ad, which was basically saying help, I don’t know what I’m doing. She picked me up on ninth and Spring and showed me where a patternmaker was, a seamstress a screen printer, etc. She drop me off on the same corner and said, “Good luck.” That was my education. I started by using T-shirts and blazers as canvases that I would print, rip, burn, pin, patch, cut, etc. After a while, I taught myself how to sew, but most of my pieces are made by seamstress or seamster. Within the first few weeks of making my original collection, they were being sold on Robertson in the window of Lisa Klein, which was at the time a big celebrity store. About a month after that I was given a spot by Davis factor in Mercedes Benz fashion week at Smashbox. Within two weeks, I designed and executed over 100 pieces. The show was a success, but there were no buyers. So, I didn’t want what any entrepreneur would do, and I called a local industry magazine called California Apparel News half-jokingly demanding that they do a story about me. Sure enough, they did. That story was seen by a store in Soho, and they wanted to see my merchandise, so I packed a suitcase or two because I was going to New York anyway for the holidays and I wrote a large with that store. After that, I took those suitcases around, like a traveling salesman, and wrote a few more orders in New York City. As they say, the rest is history. The first order sold out in four hours.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Being a completely independent artist is always challenging, but anything worth doing isn’t easy. Obviously, one big hurdle is getting funding, but when you don’t have a lot of funding or money. You get very creative. There’s many ways to be in the game, a rich mans game at that. Without being monetarily rich man’s game of that, without being monetarily rich you just have to be creative, and you get through it and here I am 20 years later. I’ve had many brands based their entire aesthetic on my own, but nobody can do what I do the way I do it because no one is me.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I suppose I am most well-known for my Fashion work, but as I mentioned, before, I am a multimedia artist, I approach Fashion or Art or writing or anything in the same manner, creatively and to me it’s all art. Which sets me apart is that I am myself. I am very much into being who I am, and I am very comfortable being who I am. I bring that spirit into my work, and empower the person that wears it or sees it or touches it I’m very good at entertaining and creating an experience and creating a feeling that people appreciate and won’t soon forget.
What does success mean to you?
I love a doctored quote i say of Salvador Dali, which goes, “I don’t make money I am money.” My work is always punching way above its weight. I am fortunate enough to be in the game 20 years completely independent. To me, success is what you make it, but being able to do what you want when you want where you want to be is freedom, and freedom is success.
Contact Info:
- Website: TheBohemianSociety.com
- Instagram: @bohemian_society
- Facebook: Bohemian Society
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/victor-wilde-1?ref=clipboard&p=i&c=1&si=4CB7FB94E4B140E1BD4743BCECFA2CA4&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
