Bad Bunny’s stylist is making fashion fun again.

GR:
To start, can you take us through your career and how you got to this point?
SP:
I've always liked dressing myself, and that's where it really always starts with stylists, I think. I was bartending and working at restaurant gigs, stores. I always kind of knew that I wanted to do something in the fashion world. Being from Guam, a really small island, I always knew that I wanted to do something bigger than myself.
One day I just got tired of it. I was like, "I'm just going to move to <a href="www.google.com?q=la" target="_blank">LA</a>. I really have no direction on how I'm going to do it out there, but this is definitely something I want to do." My friend at the time was managing a fashion showroom. They put me in as an intern, so I wasn't getting paid. They were like, "Your job is to schedule stylists to come in." At the time, I loved it. I was able to meet new people every day.
I became the showroom manager, and eventually knew that I just wanted to be on the other side of the fence. I started asking stylists questions, and I really wanted to try my hand at it. Finally somebody gave me an opportunity. Another stylist couldn't show up for the shoot [for a boy band] named PrettyMuch. That was my first styling gig. Over time, I started working with other people like SiR, from Top Dawg Entertainment. That’s where I started getting experience.
I was [also] a sales associate at Bodega. Over time I started doing PR for them, seeding, making sure artists were getting all of the clothing. That's how I met Bad Bunny. I would give him free clothing every time that he was in town. I was building some relationships with people on the team. Those guys are like family to me now.
At that time, I never once thought, "I want to be Bad Bunny's stylist." Of course I wanted to do that, but that wasn't in my plans. It was very genuine, and I just really liked [what I was doing]. And then, one day, yeah, I'm working at my three jobs, and I get a call and they're like, "Yo, do you want to style Bad?" I said yes. I woke up to a plane ticket, and it's history from there.
GR:
Non-stop ever since.
SP:
I got one opportunity for it, and thank god I didn't blow it. I was on the plane the following week.
GR:
And was that first job the 2019 VMAs?
SP:
Yep.
GR:
Wow. Was fashion always a part of your life? What was it like coming up for you?
SP:
It definitely was. Even being born in Guam, my mom, same thing—she worked at retail stores. Nike, Gap, until I was a teenager. She likes fashion too, so she would always dress me. That was kind of her hobby. My mom was only 16 when she had me. It was like a kid raising a kid, so I was interested in all of the same things that my parents were. My dad was super into alternative rock. My mom was super into fashion. I didn't really grow up typically watching cartoons and stuff like other kids; I was watching MTV Jams and music videos. I was always just fascinated with that world, you know?
Being from Guam, being able to look at the States, and just thinking, "Oh, man, I would love to live in somewhere like California or New York." It's still an eye-opener just to be able to do exactly what I do today. And sometimes I gotta take a step back and just be like, "Wow." I come from a really, really small place, and to be able to do what I do now and the position that I'm in, I just feel so blessed.

GR:
What an epic story, just how you guys ended up working together so organically and now you've defined his aesthetic.&nbsp;
SP:
Honestly, I've never worked with someone so well because of our chemistry together. I don't speak Spanish. I'm learning to speak Spanish right now. What I realized about working with Bad Bunny is that we have a chemistry and I don't necessarily have to speak the same language. We have respect for each other's craft. If I have a good idea, he'll go with it. If he has a better one, we're going to go with that. And it's cool to work with someone that has his own fashion sense and that he knows himself just as well as I know myself; we're both confident in our craft.
GR:
Early on, did you have an Oh, shit moment, realizing the enormity of what you were working on?&nbsp;
SP:
I think honestly it was the whole first year. When I went to the VMAs, and they had a chauffeur for me when I got there… from the small things of just having my own hotel room, to less than a year later, styling him for the Super Bowl.
That whole year with every single thing we did, I feel it was obvious on my face that I had never done this before. I think the way that I was able to do it is because our team is such a family, and they were able to make me feel comfortable. If everybody was eating, they were making sure that I was eating. If I didn't understand something in the conversation, I might be five minutes late, but they'll reach back and be like, "Yo, we just said this." I'm a little late to the joke, but they made me feel comfortable the whole time.
GR:
It has to be kind of nice, too, that you guys started working together at such a juncture in his career, and with similar trajectories—this nexus moment for both of you.
SP:
He was definitely on the rise, but [it’s been great] just being able to go with him to all of these events, and being able to style him time and time again. Every time we would do something new, you could think of the wildest thing and what really pushed me is that he would be like, ‘Nah, let's go bigger.’ I would just be like, ‘Man, that's pretty damn big.’

GR:
Has there ever been any look where he was like, ‘No, that's too much’?
SP:
Let me think about that... No.
GR:
He's just always down.
SP:
After “Yo Perreo Sola” [whose video features Bad Bunny dressed as a woman], I was like, ‘All right, we're clearly working with someone that has no boundaries and is down to do anything.’ I feel like as a stylist, or in whatever field, you want to work with someone that's down to push the envelope.
GR:
How, if at all, does his identity as a Puerto Rican artist play into the work that you do with him? Do you think about that when you're styling him?
SP:
Yeah. I think in the beginning, I didn't. That was just me just not really knowing that whole world as far as Latin music. Now that I am more educated in it and seeing how much he does for his island and for Latin people as a whole, I want to help him push forward with that. The people [on his team] teach me something new every single day. If I can do anything to help push the culture forward then that's what I want to do.
GR:
I think it's also really cool how as an artist he's willing to play with ideas of masculinity.
SP:
As far as him wearing a kilt and a skirt and being able to dress like a girl [in “Yo Perreo Sola”], I think that we're doing more with our clothing than we think—we're not just making him look fresh for music videos. We're really fighting battles for a lot of people. We do it very strategically. I think that it's given me more purpose as a stylist, and it's made me honestly just appreciate the craft way more.
GR:
You mentioned watching MTV as a kid, but what are your other big style influences?
SP:
Dennis Rodman. Kurt Cobain. Jimi Hendrix. Bruce Lee. I love anything he was wearing in his movies. Honestly, a lot of it is my surroundings. My dad was in the military, so I grew up in Guam, but I lived in Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Alaska. Seeing different parts of the US, and now being able to travel the world. Style is just a whole language in itself. We don't have to speak the same language to know style, and that's something really cool.
GR:
How has your collaborative process with Bad Bunny evolved since you started working together and there's that established trust now?
SP:
The moment I got the job, he never treated me like I had to fill in any shoes. Being open-minded, he never let go of himself as far as if I brought something that he didn't like, it took a little bit of time for him to be like, "I wouldn't typically wear this, but I think I want to do this." And we still do that to this day. I think if anything, there's less words now than before. It just takes the art form to a completely different place than where I thought it was going.
GR:
What have been the most gratifying moments for you in terms of seeing a look that you put together come to life?
SP:
Honestly, I just have to say the Super Bowl. Just being able to be on that field was the coolest thing in the world. And it was also the most stressful time of my life. Like I said, that was a little bit less than a year of me styling Bad, and I remember just thinking, "This is too big for me." I got the news. I was so excited, but it was a double-edged sword because I was also like, "Who am I to be able to style [for the Super Bowl]? " Michael Jackson's been in the Super Bowl, you know what I'm saying? For me, that was the most special outfit that I ever created, period.
GR:
What went into creating that fit?
SP:
Whenever [Bad] told me about the outfit, he was pretty much just, "It's got to be big. It's got to be shiny. We [have] to go the biggest that we've ever gone." At one point, he had something that had glass all over it, so it was kind of reflective, like a mirror. There were a couple of moments where he was pretty much dressed like a human disco ball. And then, I paired up with Max from Last Heirs, and he was just like, "Yo, let's just go straight crystals everywhere." So we put thousands of crystals on this jacket, [and] it took literally until the day before rehearsal, where he had to fly from Europe all the way to Miami just to drop it off.
I'd never seen this outfit in person. I didn't know if it was going to fit. It was just like, “Well, when it gets here, this is the outfit.” Everybody was really scared at that moment, especially me. But luckily, it showed up, and it fit perfectly as if it was meant to be, and he rocked the show.
GR:
I still remember that moment seeing it for the first time live. It was so impactful.
SP:
Definitely. Especially for him to be doing it on the side of J.Lo and Shakira. Nobody wants to look bad in front of J.Lo.
GR:
Words to live by! How would you describe the way that you engage with fashion? I get the impression you don't necessarily think about fashion in terms of what's going down the runway right now.&nbsp;
SP:
I have total respect for people that watch every single runway show that comes out. That's not really how I do things. Like I said, I get inspiration from the people around me. I think whenever I do start to think of outfits, I think of past music videos. I think working in retail too, having so much brand knowledge when it comes to a moodboard and people telling me what to do, I know what the brands represent. To me, a brand story, that's an easy way for me to be like, "Okay, well, I get the vibe of this just because I know what brand to use." And that's just how it starts.
Honestly, I think we just do things more off feeling than anything. We go with our gut, and we do it with confidence.

GR:
I think that that confidence comes through in all of it. What emerging young designers are you really amped on?
SP:
I love what Guillermo [Andrade]'s doing from FourTwoFour right now. He's just upping the quality on everything that he's ever done, taking his brand to the next level. I like Liberal Youth Ministry. Antonio, he's definitely, I've said it time and time again, he's one of my favorite designers ever.&nbsp;
GR:
So your new line, CNTRA—you mentioned that the pandemic helped spur its creation?
SP:
To be honest with you, I thought that I wasn't going to have a job. I needed another source of income, but also, I knew I was going to spend a lot of time in the house. Coming off the road at such a high right after the Super Bowl, right after doing the music video for “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxDo0jFfRJ0">Bichiyal</a>,” in Tokyo—I finally found my rhythm creatively. I just wanted to get out as much as possible creatively. I was talking to my friend, Alex Campbell, my partner with CNTRA, and I was like, "Man, I think this would be a good time to start a brand."
We're about to drop [the line] soon, and it’s taken a whole year to do; it's really just been such a great experience even though everything has been trial and error. It's been a great way for us to really be able to keep being creative at this time.&nbsp;
GR:
When you first started creating these pieces, were you designing with someone in mind?
SP:
We're superly heavily influenced by late '90s alternative rock, and then early 2000s hardcore rap like 50 Cent, stuff like that. But, I mean, to be honest with you, we were just making stuff that we liked, that we thought was missing in the fashion world and what we wanted to see. I really grabbed a lot of inspiration just from everything that we were doing with Bad Bunny at the time.
We grab inspiration from so many cultures, TV shows, bands. We knew that the possibilities were endless, and we didn't have to be stuck in a box. That was just the number one struggle for CNTRA as a collective, the designers and myself. We never wanted to be in a box. And I think that's something that we were able to stay away from with CNTRA.

GR:
I love that you mention WWF, and you've got the metal-y graphics...It's almost like you're a kid channel surfing, and you've got all these sick influences, bits and pieces of these different cultures.&nbsp;
SP:
That's exactly what it is, actually. We might get [the inspiration] from WWF, but it's like we're definitely flipping it in a new way and putting it on up-to-date garments. [We don’t] just put ‘Kane’ on a t-shirt or something like that, we actually put a lot of effort into the designs. I think that's why I think our brand is able to go toe-to-toe with a lot of more higher end brands, because our quality is higher end.

GR:
If you had to pick one CNTRA piece that's the piece for you, what is it?
SP:
We have a leather Kane jacket, and we call it the Kane jacket because it's inspired off of Kane from, at the time, WWF. It’s this top and bottom leather set. It just looks like, when you walk into somewhere, you're ready to choke-slam somebody on a table or something like that. I like those pieces that you put on and you feel like you're your alter ego. I feel like that's what I am when I wear that jacket.

Featured Brands

Collections

Categories

New Releases

Upcoming Releases

GREATEST: Storm Pablo

STORM PABLO'S TOP 10