Life & Work with Lalayena Peralta of Las Vegas

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lalayena Peralta

Hi Lalayena , so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My journey started very early on. I want to say when I was 8 years old. I always knew I wanted to do something fashion based. At a very early age I was always drawing, creating my own clothes, trying to wear items in other ways that made them more versatile. I can remember just always being a creative in any way shape or form. Those creative passions then led me to getting recognized in high school and winning the “best dressed” award, still keeping that creative flow alive and only grew stronger from there. I then took my passion to college at Cal State Los Angeles where I ended up graduating with my bachelors in Fashion Design and Merchandising.

Throughout my college years (I want to say as early as my freshman year), I actually began freelancing as a stylist for various clothing brands. It started for primarily women’s wear, when one day I was reached out to by a mens wear clothing brand. A streetwear mens line to be exact, asking to style for them, and I hadn’t worked with mens clothing ever, but menswear had always intrigued me more than women’s wear for some odd reason. I agreed to the gig, showed up on set, my creative mindset instantly started flowing with ease. It was like I knew exactly at that moment that, that style was where my calling belonged to. I love styling as a whole, but at that moment I just knew, I felt, that menswear was where I was really passionate about. Streetwear to be exact. From that shoot I styled at, I slowly began picking up more gigs for streetwear brands. My freelancing side job ended up helping me to land a job on Fairfax with a menswear line and I continued to work both my stylist job and on Fairfax for some time.

During those years of freelancing, working on Fairfax, and still going to college, I attempted to launch my first clothing brand. It was a chic women’s wear line, This was also before I had styled for menswear at the time, so I thought that was the direction I had wanted to go. Purchased all the items for it, had the shoots for it, but something in me didn’t feel right nor confident, so I never launched it, I didn’t allow that to stop me though. I knew I was meant to be in the fashion industry and have my own line so a year later (when I heavily got into fitness and was a competitive bodybuilder), I attempted to launch my own fitness wear line by starting out with hats, Same scenario happened where I made all the product, created the marketing for it, and again, still didn’t launch it because it just didn’t feel right.

I am big on energies, intuition, and I knew my passion for fashion was there, but couldn’t quite pinpoint what exactly was missing to get me there to feel like “this is right where I belong”. I ended up taking a huge, like HUGE break from anything fashion related to see where my mind, creativity, led me. After having my daughter back in 2o22, I felt even more lost, until one day while she was sleeping, I decided to just pick up my IPad pen and just started sketching. My daughter was and is still my biggest reminder to hold onto that inner child that I have, that we all should still have, and that’s what pushed me to just create something, anything to feel creative again, because for a second I had felt like I lost myself. So, late that night I started sketching again(like old times), and drawing clothing, and I started drawing menswear, streetwear. It was at that moment I had that initial feeling like before, “this is where my calling is”, and I decided to launch my own streetwear brand the following year 2023 Over Thinkers Club. I have sold out of items for the last 3 collections I have released, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

I am now currently working on collection 04 for my brand and I finally feel like this is where my passion belongs to. It took some time to get here (2 failed brands and a lost identity), but it was all worth it. Sometimes you have to fall (fall hard) in order to have a greater comeback, There is no rush, if you’re passionate about something, don’t lose sight of it.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Oh it has been one hell of a road. 2 failed brands and then completely feeling like I was lost. I didn’t know who I was or where I belonged for a long time, especially after having a baby. I felt more confused and hopeless than ever. It’s not that I felt like giving up, I DID at one point give up. I mentally hit a low where I thought, “maybe fashion isn’t for me or my calling”. But thankfully for my daughter, she was a solid reminder that I still had that inner child creative in me still there, needing to express herself. I feel like sometimes we just need to step away from the bigger picture to really see what we’re missing. And what I thought was “missing” all along was there in front of me. Fashion is my calling, my home, my passion, and to not lose sight of that.

So shoutout to my daughter for that beautiful reminder.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I own a unisex streetwear brand called Over Thinkers Club. It is based out of Las Vegas, but the idea actually grew from my hometown, Los Angeles, which is where I was born and raised. I feel like LA is really home to a ton of streetwear brands and thats where my love for that style roots from. I styled for various fashion shows, menswear lines, and gratefully a few celebrities,

About 3 years ago I moved to Las Vegas and soon saw how diverse and culture driven it is here. With how much culture is here in Vegas, I noticed there weren’t many streetwear brands out here that really represented this city and I really felt like it was a city that deserved to be more put out there (fashion wise) because of the diversity that is here. So when I created my brand, I really wanted to highlight Las Vegas, very similar to how LA has a lot of fashion brands that are home to that city, Las Vegas deserved its own home designed streetwear brand, and I really wanted to capture this concept with my brand, Over Thinkers Club.

I am most proud of the marketing of the brand. A ton of thought process goes into the marketing, the branding, the video and photo concepts, I feel like a lot of my creativity goes into the marketing (aside from the designs) when capturing the life of the brand. The persona of the brand. I love creative directing for the brand. I get so in detail, down to choosing the right song and even down to a specific part of a song to really captivate whatever mood and tone I am trying to set for each collections marketing videos. It truly excites me!

What sets OTC apart from the rest is that the brand is heavy on community, culture, and youth. The brand really exemplifies those 3 things. In all, streetwear to me is a lifestyle, a way of living, expressing your true, deep, inner self, and with those 3 aspects, a person is able to really hone in on who they are which is what the brand represents. It’s for all ages, all ethnic backgrounds, all people.

What are your plans for the future?
I am currently working on collection 04 and 05 for OTC. I can’t say too much about what it will be based around, but these last 2 collections for this year are going to be huge and I truly cannot wait to release them and the visuals, and marketing for it. So stay tuned!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://overthinkersclub.shop/
• Instagram: @overthinkersclubclothing and @pandafitchick

Image Credits
Skye Akari
Nick Powers
Jane Powers
Scarpace