Manifesto

"ETHOS" the VERYRARE™ credo: interpretations to be regarded as lifestyle benchmarks for the youth in the current and next generations :: what each piece encapsulates + how we will stay true to who we are and what we represent in 21 points.

1. worn winning: VERYRARE™ statement pieces are to be put on during crucial moments of your life, giving you energy and confidence • because it was made FOR YOU specifically & • because it took us blood, sweat and tears to make, literally ~ we've transferred our souls, research & history in them, and incorporated references & aesthetics we deemed eternal i.e (very)rare fusions of avant-garde, inside jokery, lux, art and leisure, creating a perfect equilibrium of comfort, wit, style, and elegance. all pieces inherently designed to be worn for the here-and-now | now and then | | veryrare instants | garments to rock/flex while standing on the balconies of the world wonders, or high up on tables in nightclubs, in moshpits, advertising agencies, art studios, netflix-&-chill couches, boxing clubs, museums, poolsides [...] applying youth culture and artwear, utilitywear & techwear tailoring techniques to Art-inspired statement pieces, VERYRARE™ offers pieces for wearing when the days’ exertions are commencing, and the night has begun | no in-betweens | | those magical moments, marked by their sense of ease and heady anticipation, can be the most decadent part of the day | | | it’s a combination that belies the rich/dual art & commerce heritage of VERYRARE™’s founder Raf Reyes | artwear for walking living legends, for the ones who don’t take no for an answer, for the ever-growing (in all spheres of their unique personalities), for the crazy ones in the 1997 Apple-ad sense of the term, and most specifically for the very rare individuals out there like me doing things that apparently make no sense on the moment but retrospectively will | | we made ‘it’/V®️R®® ours, make it yours.

2. YOU in mind: at our core, we prioritize the needs and satisfaction of our customers (we call them family membVRs) — we constantly strive to understand and anticipate ur preferences, ensuring that every piece of clothing we design and every service we offer is aligned with ur desires and expectations :: our brand is built on the principle of putting the customer first, always.

3. antagonisms: thematics, visuals, perspectives & POVs blend elaborately — like the ying and the yang – in the works³' authenticity (anti-counterfeiting measures, certifications, signatures, holographic labelling/encryption, SSL security) & fun (pretty self-explanatory).

4. openness to what’s new out there: NFC technology, cultural imagery + standpoints & practices, ways of treating distribution/sales more evenly/humanly, lowkier materials/textures, high-level production techniques, new retail ways etc ~ uncompromising on the timelessness and collector craze constituting VERYRARE’s DNA, and the OG feeling ~ testifying | | testimonies | basically.

5. feels like Christmas (already?!): a veryrare "GOODIE GALORE" like you’ve never seen :: custom-made extras, stickers, temporary tattoos and more (depending of your rank/order n°)... all complimentary/on the house | cuz we love you ❤️ [...] still waiting for any one other brand out there playing Santa like us though.

6. ART: our obsession ~ life is Art, Art is life for us @VERYRARE™. Raf breathes it and (re)presents it ~ so do the clothes --- soon after ordering VERYRARE™ both a • unique sticker sheets (art made by Raf — museum-quality & 3D-dimensional) and • custom V®️R®® art-EFACTS extras of all sorts ⇄ VERYRARE artwear’s for the everyday if you live life like an art form, and/or simply for those sporadic/evanescent moments that feel like Art ~ the very instants /instances that give spice to life, and make ‘IT’ beautiful.

7. ARTWEAR: all our pieces are individually designed and loved ⇄ hand-finess'd ⇄ created as fine, pure, expressive Art ⇄ that means the medium is the message, and all our items ultimately ooze expressive vibrancy & represent/stand for some-thing, be it specific thematics for very rare audiences :: de facto, they’re all meant to say something, they all aim at picking/choosing sides eventually ⇄ like Art does ⇄ you just have to have 'the look/eye/vision' to see 'it' i.e all the pieces/layers of the garment’s visuals assembling like in a puzzle, the easter eggs carefully placed in the designs, the nod to bigger/grander things. encrypted in our core DNA is the rejection of the idea that V®️R®® is just streetwear or 'wear' in general: VERYRARE™ is a lifestyle blanket, a mindset lining rooted in both dreams and reality --- to be found in every line and paths — to catch all the wilfulness of "it" :: wilfulness as the trait of being prone to disobedience and lack of discipline, of being hard to influence or control ⇄ fractiousness ⇄ deliberate and stubborn unruliness and resistance to guidance or discipline ⇄ contrariness/antagonism ⇄ intractability.

8. HUMAN SCALE + SIZE: going forward, VERYRARE™ will firmly try and keep the human element/the 'proximity touch' in its DNA for as long as it can :: we’re close-by no matter what. Reproducing + democratizing the feeling of getting an invitation to runways or whatever events or gifts for the Paris Fashion Week for instance ⇄ these kinds of things.

9. rarity/exclusivity: Raf was 21 when he started VERYRARE™ (he’s now 27) ~ so all our designs/visuals are limited to 21 drops of 21 units ₁ ↗️ ²¹ ↕️ ²¹ [...] that won’t change | ever | | |.

10. collaboration: some clauses still apply like for collabs, stockists, department/concept stores, and global digital/luxury retailers, simply because at the moment of the typing/writing of this manifesto (which won’t change for years to come), VERYRARE™ starts from scratch and it'd be freakin' cool to get signed by contractors for cool projects ~ 

11. a portal to another world: V®️R®® is rooted in Archive, photography/film, taste & culture-making, and general archival thought processes — we will always find some rare aspect of some culture out there (that is tasteful/worth sharing/building on) and study it | we point | | we shoot | | | we print ~ 35mm kodak/fujifilm and xerox +++ presenting/exposing stuff from our angle | like we like | | the VERYRARE™ c/o Raf Reyes brand acknowledges past positions, magnifies snapshots of it [...] and then further puts in the effort to bridge their past, present, and future ~ we make narratives [neural noise] ___ while writing these lines, I (Raf’s speaking/typing here) can already see haters [...] so-called connoisseurs & self-appointed experts looming around the corner, ready to fire arson and spill their snaky poison on V®️R®® ~ I won’t let that happen | | | you know the saying “criticism is easy but art is difficult” ⇄ Basquiat said it better :: SAMO© SAME OLD.

12. fuck haters: legit | | if you’re a hater and you’re reading this, find smth/someone else to hate on | | | it’s all love here <333 — we’re tryna elevate each other here | mutual elevation | | and have transcendental experiences together ⇄ one ride ⇄ a rare ride | | | wherever that’ll lead us ~ memories for life.

13. family: since inception, V®️R®® starts with RAF, his big brother and his best friends federating around a way to change the status quo :: getting it all together [...] in that same rental cramped crib | | | if you cop V®️R®® ~ you adhere to open-mindedness :: we inextricably become homies. brothers and sisters ⇄ Gs | equals | | accepting everybody from all ways/walks of life, whatever the color of their skin or their sexual orientation or specific physical/mental/psychological condition :: unity is strength, knowledge’s power, attitude is everything :: VERYRARE™ | | | as One | representing | | Humanity | | | everybody eats... [...] at V®️R®® all/everything boils down to the ‘community’/ the collective [...] the brand may still be young, but both pop-ups, events & bonding XP-riences are/will be all the rage at VERYRARE™ :: just putting it here for further purposes/if anyone starts questioning the direction of the brand/saying "oh he/they should’ve done this and that" kinds of things//you know///and if you didn’t now you do.

14. pricing: V®️R®®’s differentiating point is not price (and will never be price) like all the above points showcased | | | we’re not Walmart | | or CostCo | our price may go up in the future to support big endeavors that need big financial influxes ⇄ it’s like with what Virgil said with his brand Off-White in his book 'Artwork' when he has people complaining over and about the pieces' price :: the hard truth is that it has to cover runways, billboards, events, pop-ups, direction, craziness, goodies, art stationery, and staff (just to quote some)... [...] they all gotta expand eventually... cuz that’s the VERYRARE way baby | | | they say choosing to become an entrepreneur is crazy :: it’s true [...] if you’re reading this, I’m humbly asking you to please respect that, and be happy for us: that we take the betterment of the brand seriously, and that we wanna bring you an even better, more distinctive experience ⇄ nothing but the best ~ yano.

15. seeking higher paths: CREATION plus +INNOVATION at the forefront of our pieces: we assemble the pieces in unique ways and give them a tasteful, artsy twist known to few.

16. community: despite being a worldwide brand from inception, we are deeply committed to cultivating a sense of family and community among our customers — we believe in creating strong, inclusive connections that transcend geographical boundaries, nurturing a global 'family' where everyone feels valued and connected ⇄ our brand is not just about fashion :: it's about bringing people together and fostering a sense of belonging in our diverse, global community.

17. timelessness & seasonlessness: seasonlessness as, like, themes or collections /series ⇄ as Raf does on his fine art side already actually (cf. 'Fiery Figures' series or 'To Usher The New, The Old Has To Be Put To Rest' collection) ~ the last thing we wish for is for the pieces to be thrown away a year after purchase... we’re purposely putting the grind and effort in the selection, curation and assemblage/design of a wide range of themes and concepts :: rendering them in never-before-seen arrangements so that it will still look freakin’ awesome in 50 years time ⇄ timelessness as staying relevant, the V®️R®® way ⇄ potentially decades [...] timelessness as middle-fingering fashion diktats... as being undefined by today’s breakneck fashion laws, churn and pace of design + speed of production 🏭 :: at the heart of what we stand for is the black-sheep mentality or the notion that there may be something to react against ~ contemporary perceptions to play with and against, depending :: a chance to participate in the resetting of the fashion industry and fully seize the opportunity to reshape it | | | the taste, tone and quality of the materials used in every VERYRARE™ piece are altogether a bulwark against fast-fashion diktats and streetwear and hypewear deliquescence/going mainstream ⇄ think about it | VERYRARE™ was launched in June 2020, right within Covid 19’s storm/global crisis/apocalyptic strike: all over media, clamoring no one was safe | | | well, faith in what we do protects us from that sort/type of messy evil, and more.

18. purpose moves us: VERYRARE™’s big/all-encompassing line could be summed up as "our purpose is to unite the world a little more/do our part through art to create a woke planet, active communities, and an equal vibing field for all" ⇄ our manifesto isn’t static — it lives and breathes ⇄ we don’t just claim to believe these values :: we actually live them out on a daily basis.

19. VERYRARE™ branded themes/imagery, and visuals: in spite of always leaving room for making potential/needed strides (see point n° 3/4), still, V®️R®®’s core system of symbols revolves well around some of Raf’s most defining topics ⇄ you can thus expect some imagery to come up more often than others e.g games/gambling, travel, Wonder-land, Neverland, mythology, Art, Japonisme, illusion, dream, pills, punk, grunge, freak, fiction ⇄ reality, movies, animality/VERYRARE™ mascots, spirits, skeletons, antagonisms old ⇄ new and/or life/light ⇄ death/dark, music, rap, rage… VERYRARE™’s symbolism/conceptual umbrella is dynamic ⇄ V®️R®®’s future is fluid | | flow identity | like the OG MTV, Google and IBM’s logos’ systems + evolution.

20. the V®️R®® take on ‘colors for Life’: color code and vibe/storyline/influences that got Raf into creating the brand in the first place: VERYRARE™ derives artistic inspiration from daily life, designing the clothes as an attempt to express and explore the colors of Life itself ⇄ I’m using the white tee as a blank canvas for culture and for what you and I vibrate/resonate to ⇄ VERYRARE™ comes to life in a red and black palette that simultaneously evokes typical London Brick Lane, passion, telephone calls, Las Vegas neon vice city, infrared-ized Banaue rice terraces, muay-thai fighters’ blurred/bloodied sights, night vision, thermal cameras :: altogether accented with balancing/freshening notes of neutral white, swabs of silver, and pops of pastel :: V®️R®® re-interprets timeless environments of a luxurious Parisian art deco heritage, the Rex Club Paris’ interiors & facade, the sunbaked terracotta of North Africa & the Salt Lake Natron of Tanzania, red cherry Prunus sakura trees blossoming at Mount Fuji’s bordering lakes & Tokyo’s "Hie Shrine’s peaceful aura/atmosphere prone to meditation" ~ a modern reimagining of the eclectic 21st-century creative multi-hyphenate aesthetic [...] designed to remind you of your very own block’s most recognizable features, your local neighborhood art museum/souvenir shop, or a crisp shot of sake &/or pint of high-ethanol'd Red Horse beer in the evening at El Nido’s mythical Republica Sunset Bar’s terrace with a view [...] by adding a vivacity of color to the mix, VERYRARE ℅ Raf Reyes keeps the brand youthful and easily inserted into a plethora of daily artful living ~ contemporary-visual-culture-inspired silhouettes are refined but relaxed, and presented in soft & crisp cotton, light linen, and washed-out/acid-treated denim.

21. rules: #1 never reveal what V®️R®® truly means | #2 still, sprinkle and shroud the mix with/in mystery | | #3 synonyms, semicolons, slashes, syntax, hyphens, punctuation, mathematical symbols | | | #4 when in doubt, refer to rule #1.