works in progress…
stilinksi modern design house is a vision almost 8 years in the making before it was ever presented to the world.
this journey began in 2016, when i visited yellowfish sushi house in san antonio, texas. it was there i first saw the name on the back of a maroon hoodie on top of the number 24 (my old high school number, shout out kobe bean).
but i had not run into some random athletic polish person with a cool last name. after looking it up, as a young researcher does, i discovered this person was actually wearing merch from a tv show.
although i’d never seen teen wolf, i was familiar with the show due to its popularity at the time. i just knew the name had a ring to it and stuck with me ever since. many years later, a friend of mine i met in the uk said it sounded posh and that was all the validation i needed.
but it wasn’t just the name that stuck with me. it was the color, maroon, which has always been one of my favorites.
upon looking up the word maroon (again, as a young researcher does) i came to find that the word is also used to refer to leaving (someone) trapped or stranded.
it could also be used to describe a member of any of various communities in parts of the caribbean who descended from escaped slaves.
in the 18th century jamaican maroons fought two wars against the british settlers, both of which ended with the independence of the maroons.
source https://www.fashionghana.com/site/nanny-of-the-maroons/
these findings would inform the essence of the stilinski brand early on. originally, i was thinking more along the lines of a sustainable and socially impactful clothing line. but as time passed it has evolved into something much more. a community touching many different avenues with the audacious goal of bringing tangible, transformative, positive change to the world in our life time.
we, the forgotten ones. the voiceless ones. the ones left behind. left for dead. coming together as one. as freedom fighters. to protect that which we have left.
a legacy of pride, resilience, and persistence. a refusal to accept a forecast of doom. a call to become warriors dedicated to the preservation of a land and a culture. dedicated to the preservation of a people and their dreams. dedicated to the preservation of hope.
but as much as our fight is for preservation, our dreams are what keep us forever pushing forward. while we do not subscribe to the western philosophy of constant growth, we do believe that there is almost always room for improvement, and most certainly from where we stand today.
the three dots, among their many other entendres, represent our gaze toward a boundless future. our promise to keep moving forward… stilinski is a movement revealing that the revolutionaries are actually the majority.
recognizing that the change we want is achievable.
organizing around the knowledge that we can do better
and the determination that we must.
i find it fitting that in 2024, this vision is finally unfolding and this movement is gaining momentum. the full moon is rising.
we are, simply put, what comes next…
