This holiday season, we’re doing things a little differently. While Remezcla is always dedicated to boosting Latine-owned businesses, this year, we wanted to do more; we wanted to give back to our community. That’s why we teamed up with 10 exciting and influential Latine fashion brands to create a capsule collection in an effort to raise money for immigrant rights group Make the Road New York.
About a month ago, we started reaching out to creatives – including Willy Chavarria, Equihua and Sanchez Kane – who understand that immigrants are a core part of this country. We asked each designer to come up with their own interpretation of the words “sin fronteras.” The designs may vary – some broke down physical barriers, while others highlighted how free we can be sin fronteras – but together, they form one strong message: We’re stronger without borders.
Sin Fronteras x MTRNY, our collaboration, combines their illustrations into one design for a collection that’s never before been seen in the Latine space. We screen printed the design, which is influenced by the colors of Make the Road New York’s logo, onto T-shirts and hoodies, which are available in black or white. The T-shirts are $40 and the hoodies are $95. 100% of the net proceeds will go directly to Make the Road New York, a non-profit that fights for immigrants through organizing, survival services, policy innovation and more.
Below, learn more about the brands that have joined us in this ambitious project and what sin fronteras means to them.
Sin Fronteras x MTRNY drops Monday, December 16 at 1 p.m. ET. Shop the tees and hoodies here.
1
Amor Prohibido LA
Bryan Escareño began Amor Prohibido LA to represent his culture from his perspective and experiences. ” I did a play on our logo and font with… ‘sin fronteras’ overlaying a swarm of monarch butterflies,” Escareño says. “Monarch butterflies migrate from Morelia, Mexico to Northern California. I imagine each migrant coming to the land of opportunity wanting to spread their wings like a beautiful butterfly. Each detainee is butterfly in their cocoon waiting to spread their wings.”
2
Equihua
Los Angeles brand Equihua tells stories through clothing. So when designer Brenda Equihua took on this challenge, she thought about what borders mean beyond a physical barrier. “Borders are also things we cannot see,” she tells us. “They can exist in our minds. I thought about the ways in which language can empower us. I used the logo concept of ‘ingles sin barreras’ to form the words ‘sin fronteras’ to speak on the duality of the immigrant experience, the integration into a new society and the preservation of identity.
3
Meltdown
Meltdown is a collective in Mexico City made up of visual artists, animators, producers and designers creating in several fields, including music, art and fashion. In Meltdown’s illustration, the words sin fronteras includes a wall that represents the very real one that already exists between San Diego and Tijuana. Behind the words is a sun, standing in for hope and the future.
“Liberty is a universal right that allows us to live our lives knowing that no one can decide our [future],” the brand says. “Free will is in charge of taking us to unexpected places to meet other people and create community. Sin fronteras means having unlimited freedom.”
4
Nepantla, USA
Nepantla, USA is an East Austin artist-run studio and gallery. For Claudia Aparicio Gamundi and Francisco Garcia, living without borders is “the ultimate dream.” The duo’s design includes letters in varying widths. “No matter how thick, tall, skinny your [wall] is,” Claudia says, “it will not stop us nor divide us.”
5
Never Made
Never Made is the alias of Francisco Reyes, Jr., an LA-based artist with more than a decade of experience. With his illustration, Reyes juxtaposed “pretty typography with a sinister element lurking between the lines.”
For Reyes, the words “sin fronteras” recall the injustices happening at the border. “It also means that no person should be given boundaries by another person to adhere to,” Reyes says. “We should all be able to reach our true potential without any figurative or literal boundaries.”
6
Sánchez-Kane
Hailing from Mexico, Bárbara Sánchez-Kane is a visual artist working with performance and installation arts and apparel. The brand, which is influenced by contemporary Mexican culture, turns the male and female binary on its head.
For her illustration, Sánchez-Kane thought about what it means to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. “We can be blind [on] what is happening in the world,” Sánchez-Kane says. “We shouldn’t be separating loved ones and family.”
7
Tamara Santibañez
Multidisciplinary artist Tamara Santibañez has built a following through her tattoo work. For her contribution to the collection, she chose something “classic and graceful,” so that she could “keep the message clear and legible while bringing beauty to the sentiment.”
8
Tony Delfino
Mexico City brand Tony Delfino has been around since 2008. While it started with a hobby, it has grown since. The brand’s graphic features the phrase “sin fronteras” behind a partially torn wall to show that removing some of the bricks “can be the change.”
9
Willy Chavarria
Willy Chavarria is a New York fashion designer who believes that he should use his skillset to inspire change. He regularly references his Mexican-American heritage and social issues in his work.
10
Young Ultra
Young Ultra is a four-year-old Mexico City-based brand that uses clothing to express itself. For its illustration, Young Ultra tried to hand-draw as much as possible to come up with something that was visceral. For the brand, sin fronteras is “a call to take down the physical, mental, digital and spiritual borders that stop us from being free and seeking that freedom for all.”