first look: midnight
What were you doing when you were 19?
First Look: Midnight
I don't know what any of you guys were doing at the age of 19, but I was waiting tables trying to put myself through business school with no idea of what the next step would be. When I received an e-mail from teenage entrepreneur Shane Gonzales AKA
last week, the first thing I did was hop on a call and ask him a multitude of questions. Gonzales walked me through the last couple years of his life, his process, the development of his brand Midnight--all the way up to this week, as he prepares to release his first collection to the world.
The young designer told me he'd moved up to Los Angeles from his home in Temecula to work for artist and
founder Russ Karablin, who has been his biggest mentor. Working for Karablin gave Gonzales a first hand look at how to develop a product range--he explained that his first collection would not only include t-shirts and hats, but some accessories that veer from the norm. Most impressively,
has been entirely funded by the designer, who saved paychecks and patiently built the capital to execute his vision in its entirety.
Starting Wednesday Midnight will offer 20 products, including collaborations with Ebbets Field and Mag-Lite. The clothing, such as t-shirts, longsleeves, hoodies, bucket hats, and fitted hats, are all cut and sewn in Los Angeles. The lookbook, some of which is above, will be available to view in its entirety later today on the
. The campaign features the ever ubiquitous
, was shot by photographer
, and produced by, you guessed it, Gonzalez himself.
Purchase the inaugural season of Midnight starting Wednesday
and follow the brand on Twitter
and Instagram
. Follow Shane Gonzales on Twitter
and if you hit him up, be patient--if it takes him a minute to get back, after all he's 19, he has a job, and now he's running his own clothing brand.
