Jessica Kawilarang

Imagine walking into a specialized boutique store, eyes grazing the featured items that are individually displayed, choosing that specific item that catches your eye, and having the employee come out of the back room with a nicely packaged box. As you open the lid, you pull back the custom tissue paper that matches your item, and unveil a premium quality fitted that is polished with a unique graphic design, a typical fitted sticker proclaiming atypical statements like “It’s Deeper Than Design” and “Originators of the fullcolor custom fitted”, and a black tag with “ADDING IMAGINATION TO YOUR WARDROBE” in gold foil letters.

All of this is based on the imagination and man-power of Lamar Gibbs, current Pacific senior, who founded William-Esquire, or WLLMESQ, in February 2008. From the idea, to design, to getting parts of the fitted manufactured overseas, and finally to being handassembled back in the States, each cap is produced solely by the working of Lamar (he even uses an industrial sewing machine). One aspect of the hat that I found especially intriguing was how the simple tag inside the hat, displaying only the logo, was able to be pulled out even longer, to also display an additional description of the brand.

With a love of fashion, a desire to own his own clothing line at the age of 10,and previously considering himself to be the young Russel Simmons, Lamar’s major in graphic design added the finishing touches to launching a creative line of custom fitteds, all with a graphic design influence. In addition, he draws inspiration from artist and designer, Johnny Cupcakes, whose unique display of t-shirts in the store often confuse people on whether they have stepped into a bakery rather than apparel store. What he admires about Johnny Cupcakes is not only the heavy, unique graphic influence, but also how each item is showcased rather than simply hung around the store, and later packaged with such care and detail. Therefore, the experience of the brand is present and special from the moment you step into the store, to finally walking out of it with your packaged goods. In other words, everything is based off of imagination.

With the hopes to have his hats stand out for being completely handmade, made to order, and holding a high bar for quality, WLLMESQ hopes to provide people with a new creative route in their clothing. Although currently aiming for males the age of 12-25 as his main market, he is still continuing to look at everything for inspiration (including materials and patterns, especially lace, used by Victoria’s Secret) to one day expand to women’s fitteds.

Currently, WLLMESQ is still in the process of creating more prototypes for his line, but make sure to keep an eye our for bold-design fitteds at www.WLLMESQ.com.

Published in : Lifestyles, Volume 101: Issue 31