Dimitri Rios is a designer creating work under the name UNIVERSE, a brand name but also a mission statement to aim for the universe. Rooted in Houston, Texas, coming from a Mexican household, he is now based in Brooklyn, New York. His work exists in the avant-garde, experimental world with emphasis on exaggeration, length, sharp lines, contrast, and couture.
What is the starting point? Where does a design begin for you?
Sometimes designs pop into my head, sometimes I literally imagine what I want, what would be cool, and then work backwards on how to get there. Like, I zoom out and think, ok I want a metal garment, ok how will it look, then more comes up. A lot of ‚what if‘ scenarios. What if something extended off the back that held a globe? What if the garment could collapse and turn into a single strip? I like to keep things broad and a little blurry in my mind, staying open to any innovation or possibility that might emerge. The more planned out and concrete it is, the less inspiring it is. I hate having it all planned out. It’s also all about what would fit into the world of UNIVERSE. If not through that method, then through draping. Draping is magical.
What conceptual influences find their way into your designs?
Inspired by Mugler’s methodology. The word ‚Mugler‘ is an adjunctive, methodology, and feeling now. But overall, anything space, quantum physics, my Mexican heritage, growing up in Texas, fantasy, length, exaggeration, sharpness, lines, linear, broad notions of scale and physical space.
These are broad or personal things. Sometimes the fashion process is too influenced by others! There are too many references! My own shapes I draw play a major inspiration too, in which my peers titled them „Dimitri Shapes,“ but I would call them ‚Rios‘ (rivers) or neurons, or couturization (a term I coined and will market, wait). I look at them and see stages, silhouettes, animals, hope, happiness, garments, collections, rivers, galaxies, universes. They literally evolve from mistakes of my pen, so mistakes heavily influence me! It’s an enlightening philosophy.
What excites you about New York, and how do you experience the city?
I am still finding the excitement about New York every day if I’m being honest. Not that there’s none, it just comes and goes in different things. I am still quite new here, so I sometimes ask the same question. I just got my first apartment, which is so exciting. To me, right now, it is a place of new experiences and work. Hopefully, it will evolve.
You have also worked in exhibition design and curated collections in a spatial context. How does this curatorial, spatial perspective influence your design work?
I often think about my work in terms of its final stage or purpose within an exhibition context, because I see fashion as art. I’d love to curate many more spaces that involve garments or works that are purely meant to display, shaped around the idea of the human body. I always love length, exaggeration, more, more, more, and exhibit spaces allow that to be executed properly. Even outside the context of fashion, I would love to create exhibits and galleries across all media til I die.
Metallic Intimidation is your senior thesis collection at Marist University and explores the idea of transformation. Tell me more about it.
The collection is based on the idea of a fantasy welder who is tired of the rules of the metalworking world and decides to reinvent it. I created a manual of new design codes, all based on a single strip of metal and the many ways it can be transformed. It can be bent, extended, repeated, and reshaped into different forms. I was fascinated by how much potential can exist in one simple strip of metal. It reflects my own experience of growing up in Texas, navigating that environment, and eventually embracing my queerness and creativity. At the same time, I was wondering about what my life would have been like if I had grown up as a typical Mexican kid. I challenged myself and proved I can still do that, but through my design language.
Creatively, I always want extremes as a way to counterbalance the early repression; I want to take up as much space as possible, meant to intimidate and pierce. It is like an armor to the vulnerable, a protection. Metallic Intimidation is a display of my design language as well as a challenge of material and structure. Hell, who’s using stainless steel as fabric?
You worked at Christian Siriano, a house known for its commitment to inclusivity. What did that experience concretely leave behind in your work?
I really enjoyed my time at Christian Siriano because of his team. They are such great people. I am so grateful to Dani Thompson, the Design Director, for giving me that opportunity. I learned so much about the things fashion school teaches you that you DON’T have to do, and the things they don’t teach you that go down in a real atelier. I now know the industry way of doing things. I also trust myself more, and my peers trust me more, too. From a brand perspective, I really got to see how a brand operates and works with celebrities, events, and runway shows. The fashion shows were truly my favorite! I could be a part of one every day of my life!
What do you most love to wear yourself?
I am a future performance artist ready to hatch, let that be known. I enjoy creating complete looks in which I am also the model. I like to wear colored hair extensions behind my ears, only black or white clothing, high contrast, and custom garments. I believe the designer should reflect their work. I never understood how that could not be the case. I thought it was a must that you have to reflect on how crazy your designs are through you. I am working towards my look being my performance art, so stay tuned. That was always my original goal and still is. I mean, that goal is what led me down this fashion path.
What are you currently working on?
I’m working on the other metal pieces that didn’t make it into the collection. I’m also trying to bring it into a 360° universe campaign. Right now, I’m also focusing on music (another priority), writing songs, a short film, posters, and campaign work. There’s quite a lot 🙂
Dimitri Rios – www.instagram.com/universewantslove/, dimitririosportfolio.cargo.site
