Sebastian

PPS: What do you do? What are you passionate about?  

Sebastián: I feel like, quite recently, ever since I started working more with clothing and people, I’ve really gotten into understanding what makes people dress up. You know, what styles they’re looking for when they shop. I’m interested in outfits that tell a story. Some people dress for convenience, like for work or certain places, but I believe dressing up can be a kind of spectacle.  

PPS: Dressing like a spectacle?  

Sebastián: Yeah, exactly! It’s like you’re putting on a show for the world. This perspective has been guiding my work lately. I’m really passionate about knitwear and creating a universe around clothing. I’ve always been interested in photography, too—how fashion can be multidisciplinary. I love mixing different elements to create images, fantasies, and creative universes. I’m also really passionate about art, and most of my references come from that.  

PPS: Is art what drives your work?  

Sebastián: Yeah, definitely. It’s not just about the type of person I want to dress, but also how certain artists inspire me. Lately, I’ve been really into minimalism and artists from the 50s, 60s, and 70s who worked with raw materials, colors, and shapes. Visually, that drives me. With knitwear, I can shape things in a way that really resonates with me.  

PPS: Wow, how did you land on knitwear, though?  

Sebastián: I find it fascinating how a single yard can create a whole piece of clothing. There’s also this Greek mythology story about Arachne that always captivated me. The whole concept of using just two needles to create something is amazing. I love working directly with the yarn rather than buying pre-made fabric. It feels more personal.  

PPS: It’s definitely a big craft, putting in that much time and manual labor. 

Sebastián: Exactly! Plus, it has this domestic quality. My knitting machine is from the 80s, designed for women at home to produce clothing. It connects to that history of women crafting in their homes.  

PPS: What does that mean to you?

Sebastián: To me, it means it comes with a certain solitude, something that feels private, like a space you create for yourself while doing something lovely. I also love the fact that it's so mathematical.

PPS: In terms of your relationship to fashion, how has it changed throughout your life? 

Sebastián: I feel like it’s always been kind of the same. Obviously, not entirely, but it comes from a place of asking who I am. I remember being in high school and having a clear memory of buying things and acknowledging that there was a community around it. I remember my aunt, who was in university at the time, telling me about converse shoes, stripes, skeletons, long sleeves, and layering.

PPS: Emo kid!

Sebastián: Yeah, I’ve always had this memory. Since I was a kid, I was drawn to those types of clothing, and then I moved into something else. I feel like, as a Cancer—one of the signs of the moon—I’ve always gone through phases with the way I dress, driven by questions like, “What do I want to be? How do I want to present myself?”

PPS: Does that change depending on the context you’re in? Or is it more like a period where you think, "Okay, for this fall, I’m dressing like this"? Does it change drastically depending on your environment?

Sebastián: Yeah, it definitely changed a lot after I moved to Europe. The quality of clothing you can find here, the diversity, and the freedom of being in a place where I’m not judged as much—it all contributes. In a city that allows me to dress up, it’s different. In Colombia, there’s nowhere to go where you’d dress up like you do here. There’s something about culture and lifestyle. Here, there are places to go where people wear blazers, and it’s normal. Wearing a blazer in Colombia is crazy.

Unless you work in a bank or somewhere that requires a suit, people in Colombia aren’t really dressing that way. It’s more about flowy dresses, jeans, polos, or T-shirts. If you’re going to the club, it’s a super short spandex dress—that's the vibe.

PPS: Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.

Sebastián: Being here has shown me so many possibilities. I started off a certain way, and it has matured into something more constant. It changes, though. Sometimes I feel like I want to look a little more aggressive, other times more serious, or even a bit more maximalist, just putting things together. I still have those phases, but there’s a common thread binding it all together.

PPS: How do you think you’re perceived if you were to go back home with your current style?

Sebastián: I feel like... well, I was there in August. People definitely look at me. But I love that.

PPS: Speaking of self-expression and adapting to your mood and identity, do you have any favorite designers at the moment who inspire you? A designer that feels connected to what you’re trying to do?

Sebastián: Yeah, for sure. I would say JW Anderson. It might be a common response, but I really feel he understands fashion—not just fashion, but clothing the way I think about it. His knitwear is really good. It’s so playful.

PPS: It is! He plays with scale.

Sebastián: Exactly! Sometimes it feels like he’s styling in a super dadaist way. There’s something about how he puts things together. It’s very conceptual but also focuses on gestures—not like Galliano’s grand deficiency. It’s more about taking a detail of clothing and expanding on it, and I really like that about him.

PPS: Do you have any other favorites?

Sebastián: Stefan Cook from London. He's a menswear designer. Really cool. I love what he does with menswear, the draping. It's very Margiela-ish in the way he plays with how we dress up, how clothing looks with layers. Comme des Garçons, like Rei Kawakubo, is an obsession for me. I love to collect Comme des Garçons.

PPS: You mean vintage archive Comme des Garçons?

Sebastián: Yeah, love it.

PPS: Agree. Do you feel like your relationship to fashion has changed? You talked a bit about how your consumer habits have changed since moving to Europe. Is there anything about fashion that makes you nostalgic, or are you more excited about the future?

Sebastián: I don't know. I'm generally a pessimistic person, but I try not to be. Right now, fashion feels very product-based, repetitive, not very exciting. There aren't many creative ideas on how people dress or want to dress.

PPS: Do you mean it's commercial or lacks inspiration?

Sebastián: It's commercial and too referential, too nostalgic.

PPS: Why do you think that is?

Sebastián: I don't know. All these revivals, like Y2K or '90s fashion, have been looping for a while now.

PPS: Is that something you don't participate in?

Sebastián: No, of course I do, but I try not to. I feel like...

PPS: It's hard to find something completely isolated from any reference or era. There's always going to be an element reminiscent of something else.

Sebastián: Totally. A good reference is appreciated. It's just when it becomes repetitive that it gets boring. I feel like people are obsessed with uniforms.

PPS: Everything is a "core" now.

Sebastián: Exactly, more so than uniforms, it's all about the cores now. I don't vibe with that.

PPS: How do you decide what to buy? Do you follow your instincts, or do you take your time to research what motivates a purchase for you? I mean, you mentioned collecting CDG. Do you mostly research specific items?

Sebastián: Yeah, I go for specific items. Depending on how my closet is looking, I look for certain pieces. Or maybe if I see something very dramatic, more of a statement piece, I might get it even if it doesn’t fit with a lot of things in my wardrobe. At some point, it’s about what I’m wearing and what I want to wear.

PPS: In terms of the designers you shop from, is it mostly established designers, emerging designers, luxury, vintage, or even fast fashion? Do you have a split in how you make those choices?

Sebastián: I feel like right now it’s emerging designers. Obviously, I’ll get some basic pieces from fast fashion stores, but it’s mostly vintage.

PPS: Do any examples of how fashion shapes culture come to mind?

Sebastián: I feel like the biggest example of fashion shaping pop culture is Madonna. I’m a big fan. The way she shaped how people dress and the direction of fashion is amazing. I’m really interested in the connection between pop culture and fashion—how certain figures in pop culture can influence fashion. Fashion by itself isn’t enough; you need someone to carry it.

PPS: A personality that embodies it and becomes an icon.

Sebastián: Yeah, it’s a whole ecosystem of people and industries.

PPS: What’s the most “you” think you can wear, and why? Do you have a signature look or garment?

Sebastián: Yeah, okay, I love — some silly shoes. My signature is definitely the five-finger shoes. I love a silly shoe—an ugly shoe. The uglier, the better, in an interesting way.

PPS: I know what you mean! Like quirky, huge pants?

Sebastián: Yeah, huge pants, huge shorts—volume, volume, volume on the lower part of my body. I’ve been really into huge blazers—nice materials, different shapes. I sometimes like to mix in a bit of streetwear or something really colorful.

PPS: How do you incorporate streetwear into your wardrobe?

Sebastián: I feel like it’s about looking at real life on the street, embracing a bit of rawness in the look. There’s also a quirkiness or cartoonish element to streetwear.

PPS: If you had the power to influence one single thing about the world of fashion or culture, what would it be?

Sebastián: Oh my god, that’s a big one! There are so many things I could say.

PPS: What’s most important to you?

Sebastián: I definitely feel that sustainability is important. It makes you think about what you wear, how you wear it, and how much you’re buying. There’s also the excessive need for big productions and shows that aren’t necessary. Sometimes, you can just do a lookbook.

PPS: Are you saying fashion shows are obsolete?

Sebastián: Not at all, but they need to be meaningful. They should say something; the collection has to feel real in a way. Brands are swinging for engagement and trying to get people there for Instagram or whatever reason. It works for them, but sometimes it feels like there’s just too much of everything in fashion.

PPS: So it’s about scaling down and putting more thought into what you produce.

Sebastián: People need to dress. People want to dress. They want to have style, even though they don't have money to buy huge brands with small productions. But something about the overconsumption, overproduction of things in the world, I don't know. It's kind of messed up. 

PPS: Would you like to have your own brand in the future?

Sebastián: Yeah, I'd love to. I don't know if it will necessarily be a fashion brand, in the sense of how we typically perceive a fashion brand. But yes, having a product, designing stuff, objects like that—I would love to.

PPS: You're doing that already!

Sebastián: I need to figure it out better... and monetize, monetize, monetize.

PPS: Make it actually work, designer. That brings me to my last question, what are you manifesting at the moment? 

Sebastián: Manifesting?!

PPS: I heard you talk about signs, so I don't put it past you. I know you believe in that.

Sebastián: I'm manifesting being even more disciplined, working harder, trying to make my ideas a reality and experiment. Period. Yeah, that's what I want.

PPS: I believe it. Thank you!