If you want something done right, you usually have to do it yourself. And if that something is a streetwear brand, you might as well name it after yourself, too. That’s what Charlie from Chrle. did. And while some helping hands are always welcome when getting your business off the ground, Chrle. feels like a singular vision and story. He’s worked with plenty of other brands as part of a greater team effort, but there is only one way to keep Chrle., well, Charlie.
“I’m giving pieces of myself to the world,” Charlie says. “I’m sharing personal things through graphics and cut-and-sew. There’s so much range in what I can do for myself and then there’s also what’s best for the brand. But I’d rather just roll the dice on what I really feel good about, even if I take a hit. I think as long as the story is true, people can’t question it.”
Charlie and I sat down for a couple of hours at The Hundreds HQ to discuss his brand and its direction, as well as his inspirations and a range of other topics. We talked about Charlie’s extensive work for YG’s 4hunnid brand, a partnership that works because the decorated rapper cares about storytelling with his brand, too.
“I forget that he’s YG,” Charlie says.
Charlie has contributed to 4hunnid in both logistical and creative capacities, and recently, YG returned the favor and did some work for Charlie’s brand, modeling Winter pieces from Chrle. alongside fellow LA artist Nano. The lookbook, which makes its debut here, was shot by David Rivera, who has done a number of shoots for Chrle. and paints the brand in a very timeless light, simultaneously showcasing the bold branding and Charlie’s story.
After profiling a streetwear OG in Brooklyn Dom recently and seeing the family tree of brands that came from the first generation in the ‘90s, it was really rewarding to speak with someone like Charlie, who got his start in that next generation in the early-2000s, to hear a different perspective. Charlie’s first gig in the industry was an internship for Diamond Supply Co. in 2007 when he was just 15-years-old, but his vision started long before high school and the boom that was happening on Fairfax at the time.
“Early on, I thought I was going to be a cartoonist growing up,” Charlie says. “I realized the talent I had, and that gave me a stronger direction as to where I could take it. By the time I hit high school, an AP Art class gave me a strong sense of what I wanted to do. That really opened my eyes to everything. At that time, streetwear was still foreign to people. Even hearing the name streetwear on Hypebeast, it was still one of those things that was emerging. But it was growing so fast. I was just that kid soaking up everything around me–you had The Hundreds, Diamond Supply Co., and Supreme all right there.”
Charlie was raised in South Central until his family moved to Koreatown during his freshman year, a culture clash that impacted him greatly going forward. Pulling from these two pieces of his past, Charlie’s surrounding environment and the people he formed relationships with became a catalyst for his art.
“I always tell what’s happening around me,” Charlie told me. “For Chrle., it’s about the kid who saw so much within his neighborhood, the one who witnessed all the change within the city. It’s just about telling those stories with the brand.”
Charlie compares himself to another great storyteller, in how he channels the people that came before him.
“I want to tackle all those special moments that made an impact on me as a kid growing up in Los Angeles,” he says. “Almost like Nas in a way. He always says this quote, ‘I was never a drug dealer but I tell their stories.’”
From the time he started as an intern at Diamond, Charlie was picking up game everywhere he could. He says the tools he learned in those early years have been invaluable as he’s built his own brand and others along the way.
“I’m on this journey,” he says of his hands-on education in streetwear. “I came from that era, even though I was young, and had to learn a lot of other things as far as the business goes. You can’t just be a creative, and you need a strong group of supporters around you.”
Though at first glance, Chrle.’s design aesthetic seems understated and more color-driven than graphic-heavy, Charlie’s influences are primarily from the cartoon world. His biggest influences in his formative years were FoxTrot, Garfield, the Looney Tunes, and Hanna-Barbera creations. Then, he graduated to anime, studying Dragon Ball Z, Cowboy Bebop, and Fooly Cooly. He even dabbled in adult cartoons like the raunchy ‘70s feature, Fritz the Cat.
Charlie was creating art that conveyed his message, and he was garnering attention for it, though not always from the intended audience.
“I just knew my talents were different than the kids next to me because my teacher would tell me, my parents would tell me,” Charlie says. “At the parent meetings, I would get in trouble. ‘Hey, your kid is fucking terrible at math but he’s an amazing artist.’ I was really just that kid. The fashion came in as soon as I picked up a skateboard. I came from playing basketball and soccer and I was just kind of over it. Moving to Ktown introduced me to skating and a whole different world of fashion. I was a fan of Erik Ellington’s style from Emerica. You know, seeing the oversized dirty button-up, his hair sweating out, the shoe string belt in his pants–it fucked me up.”
Passionate and invested in skating and music’s influence on streetwear, the direction Pharrell and Nigo took with Billionaire Boys Club was pivotal for Charlie.
“It became so much more than skating,” he said of the culture shift. “Now, it’s becoming more of a fashion statement. Just to see how some riders are putting their outfits together and then, boom, here come Pharrell and Nigo. I was all-in. My teacher senior year, Mrs. Kim, she was like, ‘yeah, I don’t know about painting, and your shading is okay, but as far as graphics, you should be a graphic designer!’ She’s the one who kind of gave me direction and showed me how to apply myself.
Complimenting a strong creative side with a healthy dose of business acumen was an essential learning process for Charlie and one that gave his brand legs early on as he avoided certain pitfalls that plague other upstart brands.
“At the end of the day, you have to put down the paintbrush and put on the suit and tie eventually,” Charlie explained. “You can’t be creative 24/7.”
“I think it’s for the greater good. If I’m a creative and keep kicking off these designs here and there and there’s no foundation beneath it, then where is this really going? I understand the balance of both.”
And it has worked for Chrle.. While many brands struggle out of the gate, Charlie found success with the first piece he created under the brand name. While working at a friend’s shop, he grew tired of the repetitive designs they were putting out and began making suggestions. They told him he should start something of his own. So, he did.
“Fuck it. I’m going to start it, take the hit and put my face on it. I’m not going to try to create some other name, I just would rather use my name and just go from there,” Charlie said. “The tee that I did, it was pretty funny, it was a shirt that said ‘Nah Puff, that’s a Benz.’ It was just pulling from the hip-hop culture that really exposed me to everything.”
The shirt was flying, proving to Charlie that his designs didn’t need graphics to resonate with his audience. The 20-something-year-old Mase quote in Times New Roman hit home new fans of Chrle. and it gave Charlie the momentum to carry forward and keep creating.
The brand has evolved since then, seeing Charlie’s graphic and cut-and-sew vision materialize, as well as his ability to convey a message. Take this latest editorial shoot with YG and Nano, for example. It’s red and blue and so are the main characters, but the story isn’t about red and blue. It’s about LA. It’s about a community coming together.
“The story is what really takes the wheel,” Charlie says. “The majority of the time I’m just riding shotgun. Once the story is there, we’re going forward with that. If we’re talking about Los Angeles, what are we talking about? What are those things and how do we create around that and how can those who aren’t from here understand it as well. For me, Chrle. is about my upbringing and what I saw, so I’m starting from there, growing and telling other stories that had an impact on me, too. Everyone has a chapter.”
Including YG. The two have worked together on a bevvy of projects over the past few years, sometimes staying up until five in the morning going over ideas and just talking about life or music. At first, Charlie was introduced to the multi-platinum artist through a mutual friend, Gavin, who was the creative director for 4hunnid.
“YG needed help with his designs,” Charlie told me. “I tapped in with Gav and I let them know ‘hey you if you guys are looking for somebody…’ and fortunately, they tapped my shoulder, loved what they saw in my portfolio, and YG went crazy for it.”
“For the last three years, we’ve been rocking together, from the fashion show for his album rollout to Barney’s knocking on our door. It’s been really good.”
About the inspiration for the shoot with YG, Charlie said, “He knew where I was coming from when I was telling him about the photo rollout and why I chose him and his boy Nano, his day one friend. I chose these two, one in blue, one in red. One’s a crip and one’s a blood, of course, but I’m not trying to tell that narrative. I’m trying to display the brotherhood between these two people from different sets. Technically, they’re enemies, but look beyond that. They made a huge impact on me without even knowing because I was that kid watching before even meeting them. That’s what I was sharing with him at his crib a few weeks ago and he said, ‘Say no more.’ [Laughs] He had this big smile on his face.”
Chrle. gained significant momentum in 2019 and, beginning with this campaign, plan to build on that trajectory in 2020. After appearing at the brand’s first ComplexCon last year, Charlie aims to level up even more this year so his story can reach even more people around the world.
“The challenge, of course, is that you wear all the hats,” Charlie says. “I have a couple of runners and I have two dudes that do all the shipping but other than that it’s up to me to figure out the business side of things. I know I can knock out designs for a 30-piece collection but it doesn’t make sense if the business isn’t there. From social media to the website, every little detail of visual communication. As long as you have strong preparation, things fall in place. It makes me feel good to know that I’m on the right path and just have to keep going.”
