Established in 2015, Clandestina is creating a more sustainable, fair, and ethical fashion industry.

&quot;We are designers and artists. We are entrepreneurs and creators. We are women, and men, and anything in between. We are LGBTQIA+, we are of every race, and background, and beliefs. Plus, we&#39;re funny. Hilarious, in fact. Super, super funny.&nbsp;&acute;Cause on this island there&acute;s more fun than inhabitants.&quot;

Defying all odds, <a href="https://clandestina.co/" target="_blank">Clandestina</a> is Cuba&#39;s first-ever independent fashion brand.&nbsp;Established in 2015, the Havana-based collective of mainly female artists&nbsp;and creators produce 99% pure Cuban design. Creating&nbsp;whatever and whenever they can, the team has a store/studio in Havana and is now available globally via an online shop.

Clandestina is huge when it comes to female leadership. However, even though&nbsp;the founders are women, and there have always been more women than men involved in the project,&nbsp;Clandestina is gender-neutral. Ideas, energy, creativity, and design are&nbsp;what matters,&nbsp;and those things don&rsquo;t have gender!

Believing&nbsp;in a more sustainable, fair, and ethical fashion industry, Clandestina&nbsp;reuses and repurposes clothing and many other materials opting for upcycling and zero waste.&nbsp;This brand is doing good on so many fronts.&nbsp;The creative artists and designers behind the brand&nbsp;are inspiring and have a lot to say about this groundbreaking endeavor.&nbsp;

How does the LGBTQIA+ community inspire you all?

Havana is a very liberal city. The Cubans in general very much enjoy life! Which includes dancing having sex and of course food; everything that makes life good. The youngest generation in Cuba is all about open relations and non-gender approaches. And Clandestina is a part of that new generation vibe and vision. So naturally, we are about non-gender approaches, free love, and support all kinds of emotional relations and love. And all kinds of genders or non-gender&hellip; it does not matter.

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Did you work on any&nbsp;exciting projects for Pride?&nbsp;

(Idania) designed a special poster to celebrate Pride in Cuba. It is very colorful with a delicate flower rising from the ground and shining like a sun. The flower represents Cuban lesbians, delicate but very strong too. Also, we have a collaboration with TomboyX, a Seattle based underwear brand, which is super focused on the LGBTQIA+ community. We designed a special t-shirt for them with a graphic that says: Resistir &amp;amp; Fight on.

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How do you define your company community?

We are kind of family with a very different range of expectations, backgrounds, and ways of living: from LGBTQIA+ activists to a very Cuban macho raise in a very macho family. But our principals at Clandestina all stem from this community we built where all people are fully respected. It does not matter if someone is blue or green if she/he is coming from the moon. We are trying to build a new Cuba in a real-time, where everybody can find a place to stay and to be active in building their own way of living.

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Are there any goals you are striving for?

To bring Cuban design to a global stage, and keep the brand values even when we are scaling our production.

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What messages do you hope to give to your customers and supporters?

&nbsp;Be in love. Have sex and enjoy life. It does not matter with who and when. Just feel free to do whatever you want that makes you happy.

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How would you describe the styles you embody in your products?

&nbsp;We are very coherent with the Cuban way of life. We upcycle out of necessity because in Cuba if you want to be trendy you have to customize and repurpose your wardrobe all the time. There are no stores where you can buy new stuff. So is a lot of DIY. We love this concept and most of our products are inspired in this idea of resiliency and resourcefulness. Also, we use a lot of colors to create a kind of tropical streetwear that has a sense of humor, good vibes, and energy&hellip;

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How do you mix traditional Cuban culture with your products?

&nbsp;We are the heirs of a very intense legacy; a mix of revolutionary concepts, socialism, glamorous days past, sugar cane, music, and Caribbean vibe. It&rsquo;s a very contradictory legacy. We mostly use our graphics to express these contradictions. Resistir y vencer, Y sin embargo te quiero. Bananas, Mangos, Russian cars&hellip;

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If you could describe Clandestina in a mood/vibe what would it be?

Unstoppable/Never give up but with a sense of humor and good vibe.

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Did the lack of contemporary fashion and brand availability present in Cuba inspire Clandestina to go global?

Cuba is going global. There are many Cubans around the world, contributing in a very different way to a global community. We are not an insulated island anymore. The new Cuba is not just a geographical country. We are part of the world, so we are global. And we want to be on a global stage.

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Please tell us about your intentions behind eco-friendly clothing?

We are a brand born in a country where the socialist legacy is immense. The socialist countries have very good things and very bad things. We think about the market in terms of covering human needs, not covering the market itself needs. So, we produce what we know our community needs, in a very eco and zero waste way.

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How did you get involved with eco-friendly manufacturing practices?

Out of necessity, is how the thing is done in Cuba.

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Now that you&rsquo;ve achieved a global platform, do you have further goals for your brand?

Yes, to put the Cuban design on a global stage!

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Now that you&rsquo;ve opened an online store, do you think you&rsquo;ll expand to more physical locations overseas?

Not yet. We are trying to think differently, most of the time testing and trying to adapt ourselves to the needs of our brand, thinking in terms of collections, and production. We are very much thinking about our core values and defending them.

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Where do you see Clandestina in 10 years?

In a more and more open Cuba, with a huge community following the brand and consuming very cool designs made by Cuban designers; more and more global. A cool eco-brand that keeps the values of the brand.

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How long have you been working on creating a global web platform and what did that entail?

We opened in 2017. Since then we&rsquo;ve been learning a lot about digital marketing in a country with very restricted access to the Internet. This is a contradiction that sometimes gives you a new way of thinking. We are selling unique pieces online. This work is quite difficult because is not easy to scale. It is so dedicated. You need to spend a lot of time and effort on each piece. Not only on designing and producing, but also on photographing, correction, etc. And we are selling at a very affordable price. It&#39;s not something everyone would get into because there is a lot of work. But we do. And we very much love to do it.

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Assuming you faced many challenges due to the US embargo, how did you surpass this?&nbsp;

Sense of humor, never giving up, a bunch of HOPE and believing in our brand.

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Since Clandestina is transcending geographical boundaries by uniting Cuba with countries through arts and fashion utilizing web 2.0 platforms, how do you think this will impact Cuban international relations?&nbsp;

In a very simple way: Actually, we can!!!

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Say Hello to Cuba's First Independent Fashion Brand

L'OFFICIEL USA December 2024 - Julianne Moore Cover

Say Hello to Cuba's First Independent Fashion Brand

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