The beauty behind our barbed wire is that anything can happen. I think it’s important to have a safe place where you can do it all. It’s also really important to have an atmosphere that’s inspiring and creatively encouraging. We only invite good vibes, we freestyle most of the time, and we don’t operate off routine or set plans. We keep it pretty fluid and we tend to operate at odd hours because we’re on a global schedule. Our shop isn’t open to the public, as we’re selective with the types of energies that enter our space. More than roadblocks, we’ve been on detours. We’ve encountered danger zones and dead ends; we’ve had to climb fences, tear down walls, gut buildings, and abandon ships. We don’t advise anyone to follow the path we’ve paved, as it’s way too dangerous. You truly have to be mentally strong to surpass the difficulties that we’ve faced, yet we wouldn’t change any of the process, as what we’ve experienced has really kept us humble.

We’d love to learn more about your creative process, from clothing design to parties and partnerships; when you’re seeking inspiration, to whom and to where do you look?
We’ve always been inspired by our experience of not fitting into a scene in Los Angeles; so really, the inspiration has always come from being “other”. How we’ve lived, what we’ve seen, and what we’ve experienced by being born and raised in LA is truly the framework to our inspiration. Not following the crowd, not always believing the hype; this extends into our designs, the kinds of events we throw, and who we team up with. It also helps that we’re really selective with who we collaborate with; if it isn’t interesting to us or have an element of real, it gets dismissed. We’re also procrastinators and work well under pressure, so a lot of the creative process involves getting down to the wire.

We’re bootleg bougie. We been doing this. We start trends and end them. We can help other brands kill the game, too.

Freak City is a fave of some pretty amazing trendsetters in the industry, from M.I.A. to Sita Abellan (you were even shouted out in a song on Lil B’s new record). Who are some of your favorite fans right now and who would you love to see rocking Freak City in the future?
Based recognize based. Lil B is the homie, so are Sita and Maya. We don’t really look at people as fans, more as friends. We love Gwallah Gang, Simi & Haze, and Rebecca & Fiona to name a few, but really all of our friends are our favorites. It’d be dope to dress Cardi B and Snoop Dogg and we would love to direct a music video for Ninja and Yolandi. We’d like to work on bigger projects, like design for a major fashion house like Gucci or alongside Marc Jacobs, create a furniture collection for Ikea, and even direct and style movies and orchestrate their soundtracks. We’ve broken a lot of boundaries and don’t want to limit ourselves to only what we’ve become known for.

It was an amazing experience. Being able to have creative control within the MOCA was a lot fun. It was pretty intimate, a team of just five of us put it all together within two days. We created a retail art environment that encouraged guests to interact with our pop-up shop in which we replicated a mainstream type of consumerism. We made a coupon flyer and installed shopping carts and baskets that, from a distance, looked like a hybrid bargain store (LO Price), but we were actually presenting original fashion pieces (Hi Fashion). Our favorite part was when some guests were confused and/or offended. 

We were only given three weeks notice, so it was pretty chaotic, stressful, a lot of fun, but definitely a learning experience. We didn’t realize how much work goes into putting a runway show together. We flew to Mexico City with over twenty pairs of shoes and got questioned by the TSA about the handcuffs. We basically had to freestyle on the date of the show, as we didn’t have all of our models that we had requested prior to; one of the agents kept bringing us models and we had to choose them on the spot. There was a lot going on, our entire makeup concept got lost in translation, but we did the best we could with incredibly limited time and we somehow presented our fashion felons successfully. We had our good friend do the visuals and Justin put the soundtrack together. The models had the most fun walking our show because we allowed them to have fun rather than take it so seriously. We dug deeper in terms of what we’ve dealt with in life and presented it in a controversial way, using the runway more as an art exhibit. We didn’t want to show the audience what they wanted or expected to see from Freak City, but rather what we had to see growing up. We shocked the audience and later on received a lot of flack for our inmate looks. We’re really grateful to our friends, Axel and Omar, and to Mercedes Benz for inviting us.

It’s our most used platform in terms of connecting with our following, and it’s helped us connect with like minds across the world and that has a lot of relevance. It’s become one of our more used sources for news. We watched the Mayweather vs Conor McGregor fight live on Instagram, we’ve seen numerous fashion wars and seen a lot of call-out culture incidents live on Instagram, so it’s more entertaining and realer than what gets broadcast on television. We appreciate the @Veteranas_and_rucas feed, for sharing photos of the OG cultura. But because most of our friends are artists who we respect and admire, it wouldn’t be fair to name favorites! 

Alpine Village for treasure hunting, of course! The Huntington Library and the Arboretum are also both beautiful places we enjoy escaping to.

One of our favorite parties that we worked on was with Lil B. It was so epic, fans lined up for an entire block that wrapped around to the end of the alley, and the walls were literally dripping with sweat –  it was crazy. The event we did with Line app, Rae Sremmurd and Fade to Mind was also a favorite because it had an interactive live chat room projected during the party. I think the best video shoots had to be “Nothin On Ya” with Gucci Mane, he loved our place and our Freak City beats; and with Stones Throw Records when they shot the “Faden Away” with Dam Funk and Snoop. 

It’s been a long time coming, but we are currently working on an official Freak City Collection. We’ve done the t-shirt thing and we’ve always offered very limited runs of custom and rare one offs, but we’re working on developing fabrics and really implementing our design skills to the game. We’ve also been in discussion about a children’s line and in talks about opening our second location…

What does MISSBISH mean to you and who’s your MISSBISH?
MISSBISH, to me, is fearless female energy; that woman who makes moves, gets shit done, and doesn’t ask for permission but for forgiveness. She’s a lover, a fighter, a giver, an entrepreneur, a voice, but most importantly a leader and a positive role model to all genders. So to me, I think all of us women who are contributing to the greater change in the world are MISSBISHes.

Photos by: Angelo Vasquez