Life & Work with Corie Gattis

Today we’d like to introduce you to Corie Gattis.

Corie, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born and raised in a small town in North Carolina called Burlington. My father is an artist and my mother works in the medical field. When I graduated high school, I moved to Charlotte to attend college at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. I majored in Anthropology and Biology because I wanted to work in animal science. After graduating college, I realized that in order to use my degree, I would have to relocate to the west coast because that is the hub for Biotech. In the meantime of graduating college in 2015 and moving to the west coast in 2017, I started the brand Vital Vices in 2016. This at first was just a personal project for me because I always loved clothes and needed a creative outlet to get the ideas in my head into physical form. The first t-shirts I made were just personals but everyone was asking me about them so I made more just for my friends, then people started asking my friends about the shirts and where they were getting them so it pushed me and gave me the confidence to make things on a larger scale for other people to be able to purchase the pieces.

When I relocated to The Bay, I had to redo everything and find local print shops, find my market, do my research, etc. It was tough but I loved it because it gave me the opportunity to take a step back and see where I wanted to take the brand. In 2018/2019, after being in the bay for a year and getting myself adjusted, I picked back up where I left off with the brand and started to push things harder. But I wanted to take things up a notch and start creating cut x sew garments instead of just printing design on to blanks. This is when things really started to snowball and pickup for the brand because I added more value into the garments and really started designing garments. Now as a brand all of our garments are cut x sewn and we work hand in hand with various manufacturers to bring our designs to life. This is still just the beginning for the brand because we have not done any collaborations or pop-up shows yet but still get a great amount of support and have great loyal customers who support the brand for what it is and we love that. It is now 2022 and we are getting for our first launch of the new year, planning out collaborations and eyeing a really dope pop-up event for this year.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It definitely has not been a smooth road but I love that. It makes the journey more enjoyable (to me). I wouldn’t want it any other way. Because when we reach our goals and get to where we want to be as a brand, we will look back and cherish the hard times, the obstacles and things we learned along the way. Some of the struggles I’ve faced were relocating from North Carolina to California on my own where I didn’t know anyone and having to find my way out here and network. We are fully independently funded, ran by myself who runs all aspects of the brand (marketing, design, product shots, shipping, etc.). These aren’t bad obstacles though, these are all things you have to do, I feel like, to really grow your brand. You have to know every aspect of your brand and be able to do everything for your brand to nourish it to get to where you want it.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My 9-5 job is an In-Vivo Senior Research Associate for a STEM Cell Research company by the name of SANA Biotechnology. What my day to day job consists of is running animal experiments for the company. I am most proud of staying committed and actually finding a job that I love that is really making a difference in the world while still running a brand. I always knew from a young age that I wanted to work with animals and be in the science field so it is really cool to be living out what I always wanted to and being able to do it in one of the best places in the world (San Francisco).

In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
As for the fashion industry where I see it going in the next 5-10 years is complete reconstruction of the “BIG NAMES and FACES” at these big fashion houses and we thank Virgil Abloh for that. I think there will be a surge of fresh faces at these big fashion houses and the lines between streetwear and high fashion will continue to get blurred (which I love). We are already seeing this with Rhugi being appointed as creative director of Bally and NIGO becoming creative director at KENZO. Both of these brands are household names and it will be really interesting to see the refresh they go through with the appointment of such amazing creatives as I’ve mentioned above.

I also think the fashion industry is trying to be more sustainable and trying to produce less waste which I love. Some brands are reworking old garments and releasing them or taking old vintage pieces and combining them with other garments to reduce waste. I think that will continue to be a focus in the industry as well.

As for trends/changes, I think fashion is a recycle of old ideas continuously and I don’t think that is a bad thing. Brands re-use trends from the 70s, 80s, 90s, etc. and update them to fit differently or combined with new age ideas and I love that.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.vitalvices.com
• Instagram: @vitalvices @gattis_
• Twitter: @gattis_