Inspired by a used copy of the 2007 Japanese runway collections mag and the need for clothing to wear to my then-new creative agency dayjob in LA, Tryharder Wear became my primary creative outlet. With fabrics sourced from the downtown garment district and a couple of Janome machines, I made clothing every night after work so I’d have something to wear the next day — and pushed myself to further what I could pull off with a shoestring budget, no formal textiles training, limited hours, a sewing machine and a serger.

I’ve continued this practice through to today, minus the constraints of nightly production to wear to work the next day. But the marque’s core remains the same: avant-inspired one-offs made just for close friends and me, in the wee hours of the night, at my same two machines.

Thus, the wearable art and push-yourself ethic of Tryharder.