When was the last time you thought about where you clothing came from or who grew your lunch? If you are Stephanie Syjuco, you probably think about it daily. A formally trained artist and sculptor, she is also the creator of the infamous indie clothing line Anti-Factory. In a very short time, AF has become an underground favorite for people all over the country. The focus of her work; whether it be gallery pieces, her clothing line, or her new Counterfeit Crochet Handbag project; is on capitalism and those that intentionally work against it, such as bootleggers, knock-offs, and other re-worked clothing lines. Read on to find out a bit more about her connection to the Philippines, being comfortable as an environmentalist, the story behind her new CCH project, and more.

I know you were born in the Philippines, how long were you there before coming to the Bay Area?

For about the first 3 years, and then we moved to the States; my connection to the country is pretty tenuous. I don’t have a lot of solid memories, but it has become a bit of a psychological tie. It is this idea that you are from this whole other place that is completely different from the US economy, consumption and production, which influences my work.

I was curious about that because a lot of your projects have a basis around capitalism and I wondered if because you were born in the Philippines, that was what started your interested in that subject.

Definitely, definitely; I have been back there a couple times as an adult and there is a shock when traveling anywhere outside of a 1st-world country. Just the idea that people who don’t have the money but a faced with looking at the goods of capitalism, like high-end expensive products, they’ll find other way to get around it. As opposed to buying it, they’ll make the items themselves and sell them, which I think is really hilarious. There is a certain sense of ingenuity and personal creativity in that way, and people don’t give them enough credit for that. Counterfeiting is so resistant – it is a great resistance movement. It’s funny how it has become so politicized, such as funding terrorism, and there is a certain truth to that, but the resistance behind it is very genuine.

Which connects these folks to many other resistance movements that we know about here in the States, such as the women’s movement, but I don’t think a lot of people look at it that way. So many think it’s simply political and that they are just trying to steal money from those rich companies.

Exactly, or “how sad, those cheap knock offs look so terrible.” They trigger a kind of psychological relationship with people, which is what [those companies] are looking for.

You are a teacher at a local college, and you create your clothing line Anti-Factory [stephaniesyjuco.com/antifactory/], as well as you have the Counterfeit Crochet Project [stephaniesyjuco.com/crochetbags.html] going on. Is there anything else that you have had bubbling in the back of your mind that you haven’t had the time to get to?

All of my works started with my art practice, which started long before Anti-Factory. I went to art school for sculpture and graduated about 11 years ago now. Between then and now, it has been all about how to try and support the artwork and make the artwork happen. I also worked for eight years as a graphic designer at the Exploratorium museum [exploratorium.edu]. So I did professional commercial art during the day, then I would go to my studio at night and work on whatever. I would do gallery shows as well. Anti-Factory started off as an art project. It had nothing to do with fashion or starting a business. In a similar way, I think the Counterfeit Crochet Project [has developed the same way]. I get emails from a lot of people who are very much a part of the crafty online community, and I started out as an outsider to it.

It has been an interesting convergency because of the difference between “high art” and “low art” that people make distinctions. Crafts are usually seen as the “low art”, compared to the “high”, fine art that you see in galleries. Anything that has too much knitting or sewing is seen as low brow art. I kinda feel like I am straddling those two extreme worlds; sometimes they meet and sometimes they don’t. It’s really weird. Lately, with Counterfeit Crochet Project, it has been interesting to get attention for that instead of Anti-Factory. I don’t see myself as a fashion designer or crotchetier. For me, they are just outlets for this larger project. I’m not sure if that answer’s your question – what was the question again [laughing]?

Oh no, it’s a good thing – I welcome the rambling. The question was if you had any other projects that you have thought about but not started.

Oh gosh, that is a good question. In another fantasy world, if I had more time, I think it would be really really fun to run some kind of arts organization, such as having an alternative gallery space. As much as I love making the work, I also love supporting it. One of the reasons I started Anti-Factory is because I love working with the DIY stores. I want to support them and support those small businesses. So, the whole idea of giving back and letting other people have the attention by giving them an outlet interests me. I think part of it is also connected to teaching at an arts school, where you put in a lot of attention and time to the students. You just want to keep doing that, but at the same time, it is a huge time suck.

It would be fun to run some sort of weird crazy, hippy commune. I have no idea how to survive in the wilderness, but it would be a fun adventure.

Your line Anti-Factory is very specific about using recycled and extra manufacturers fabrics. Because of that, do you considered yourself an environmentalist?

Oh totally. I think it is just as much about environmentalism as it is about labor issues, and to a certain extent, the economy. I can’t site the statistics but a huge percentage our landfill is based on clothing. Apart from the labor practices, just milling and making all that fabric is a huge pollutant. I just didn’t want to make more stuff to add to that. I think it started to branch out because of my artwork. I started feeling really badly about making these huge instillations out of foam core, which is a highly non-biodegradable medium. I would build these things, and afterwards they would have to be destroyed and put into a landfill. How could I be making work that was critiquing these political and social systems, and yet I was contributing to it? So, I was trying to find what would be the cleanest way of producing and manufacturing, and the most low-impact.

Obviously, there is a certain draw and market for that because items are in your online store for less than 6 hours before they are sold.

There are so many people that do reconstructive clothing and it’s just a matter of positioning. They are all doing essentially the same thing that I am doing if you think about effect. Before even starting Anti-Factory, I would look at what others were doing and think “you are sending out a big political message, don’t you know that?” I don’t want anyone to think that what I am doing is special or unique, but I am a bit more upfront about my message. By no means am I the only one doing the recycled clothing thing though.

On the flip side, have you ever gone to Urban Outfitters, where they have that area of reconstructed clothing? It is sort of like, ideally I know this is a good thing, but it just seems so wrong. It’s nice to have a one-on-one relationship between the producer and the consumer. I wish we had something like Preloved [preloved.ca] here in the States. It seems like such a great model for a business, and nothing like that seems to have taken off here. The closest thing that we have here is Project Alabama [projectalabama.com], but that is still a high end brand. In terms of my own price points, I try to keep a balance between their crazy prices and those that you see in malls, where most of the clothes were made in a sweatshop. Overtly high prices seem so elitist, most do it just to keep regular people and small businesses out of the market.

So far, in your Counterfeit Crochet Project, you have had Chanel, Gucci, and Dior examples made. Are there any other luxury brands that you would love to see in the project?

I have a page on the project’s site where a list the names of those that are working on the project, along with pictures of the original bag that they made. I’m still waiting for a number of bags that have been started to be finished, since the project just started in April, so it’s still really fresh. I think people are realizing that it is taking them longer than they thought, they have to wing it. So far, from what has been trickling in, I have seen some amazing Chloe and Fendi bags. A woman in Tokyo is working on an entire Louis Vuitton luggage set, which includes a wallet, bag, belt … etc. She has said that, in Tokyo, Louis Vuitton is out of control; everyone has one. She thought that it would be hilarious to walk around with this thing. That’s something that I’m really looking forward to.

I’ve been tracking where the project gets blogged and who’s talking about it. I know one person wrote about wanting to do the project, but having no interest in high-end designer bags. The truth is that I don’t covet them either. I don’t own any high-end designer anything. I have a weird relationship with it where I’m not caught up in that world, but I want to relate with it and make fun of it. We’re just following a long train of others who have been copying and counterfeiting, though not as good. These are meant to be bad, un-perfect, blatant copies.

For many years, the DIY movement was an underground thing. Should we be looking at capitalism or the society that we have chosen to create as the cause of standardization in the economy?

That’s kind of a catch-22 isn’t it? We have brands like Free People and others who are mimicking this handmade, rouge-edge aesthetic, and now it is super-chic. Can that be seen as a triumph for the DIY world or will it be part of its downfall? Maybe that it why I became so interested in the Counterfeit Crochet Handbag project; it’s just so wrong-looking! It has that aesthetic of the DIY and handmade, but it’s not following any sort of embroidery tradition. We’re using that crochet medium to badly simulate something else, and being very blatant about it. These are not really nostalgic looking items.

I’m not sure if that answered the question. You get these people who do really wonderful things with theorizing really interestingly about capitalism, like Betsy Greer [craftivism.com]; she is a super smart woman. If you go online to a site like craftster.org, and all everyone wants to do is make are these cutesy little things. It seems that, in the crafty community, there is a divide on just how far to take things. There’s room for everything, just like in fine art, and I wish that the people who practice crafts would be more upfront and aware that what they are participating in is really resistant-style movement. There is a lot of power in that.

[Scans can be seen here]