Liam Ciavarelli is a 20 year old clothing designer creating hand-made, one-of-a kind pieces in Los Angeles, California. From working at a local ice cream shop to working with Tyler, the Creator, Liam’s recognition as an artist has grown considerably within the last couple of years.
Liam’s interest in experimenting with fashion goes as far back as he can remember, and he recalls having “some pretty outrageous outfits in elementary school.” At about the age of 17, Liam became interested in customizing clothes and making things for himself. Today, he specializes in giving vintage pieces a new look through a combination of screen printing, stenciling, and hand painting. But what separates his brand from the slew of other screen print centered designers is the deliberately haphazard technique he employs to make his designs a reality.
Q: How would you describe the process that goes into each Liam Ciavarelli piece?
“I think I have a unique approach to screen printing that not a lot of people are doing, most people use screen printing as a very precise way of transferring a graphic onto a garment. I think there is so much more that can be done with it, and for me, most of the time the ‘art’ of it is not in the graphic I’m printing but the process itself. I like to experiment with it in as many ways as I can, I try to forget about perfection and precision and focus more on expression and overall composition of the piece I’m working on. Though there are definitely a few people doing something similar to me, I think it’s rare to see someone using screen printing for something other than mass production of shitty graphic tees.”
Q: What inspires the designs you put on your clothes?
“I’d say the biggest influence in my work is old advertisements from the 40’s-60’s, I’m kind of exposing myself here but I actually have no real talent in illustration, all the graphics I use are things I’ve found in old magazines, books, posters, etc., then I will scan them, edit them to my liking and burn a screen with them that I can use to print on clothes.”
Q: What kind of message are you trying to convey with your clothes?
“The thing I try to convey the most with my clothes would be uneasiness, or anxiety. But there really is no message, I try to write the most cryptic, meaningless poems or phrases that I can and put that on my clothes. A lot of the time I will even use a random sentence or word generator and string them together into something that only mildly makes sense, and some people really find meaning in them, which I think is fun. Skulls and guns are great tools for communicating that unease and anxiety that I mentioned earlier, but mostly, they are trendy and provocative, they catch people’s eyes, and it’s not much deeper than that.”
Liam sources the shirts, pants, and jackets sold under the label Liam Ciavaralli from various second-hand stores around LA. He enjoys working with vintage because it allows him to provide a higher quality garment at a more reasonable price, which he says is an obvious choice. When designing graphics to embellish these vintage pieces, Liam feels most comfortable working with tangible objects like comics and magazines. However, on one recent occasion, Liam stepped outside his creative comfort zone to design for Tyler, the Creator’s brand Golf Wang. This process was a bit difficult, Liam explained, because Golf heavily relied on digital tools, which he did not normally work with. Regardless of the initial obstacles, Liam managed to create an eye-catching design for the Kissing Faces Chino Pant (pictured below), which Golf released in February 2020.
When asked how the opportunity to work with Tyler, the Creator came about, Liam explained “I met Tyler randomly a few times at local shows and parties and things. I guess we have some mutual friends so it wasn’t super uncommon to see him around like that. One day he hit me up and asked if I wanted to come design some stuff for Golf and I said ‘yes of course!’ It was super fun and welcoming working there.”
Since working with a highly coveted brand like Golf, Liam has gained confidence in himself as a designer and quit working at the ice cream shop to make selling clothes his full time job. In the future, Liam looks forward to growing as an artist and being able to afford more resources so that he can work and design with less restrictions.
But Liam’s artistic capability isn’t limited to just making clothes, he also plays drums in the band Playdate. The band’s Spotify bio reads “high school band forever”, which accurately describes their nostalgic, yet refreshing, sound. As a fashion and music creative, Liam Ciavarelli shows remarkable talent and SHEESH! looks forward to seeing what’s next from him.
Shop Liam Ciavarelli at liamciavarelli.com
