Rene Lopez’s Cool Custom Clothes

Rene Lopez is a sophomore at Fresno State with a style all his own. His small internet Business, Rene Customs, is primarily run on his instagram.

There, Lopez takes custom orders and makes his own designs for T-shirts and sneakers.

“I started when I was in high school,” Lopez says. “I drew on a pair of my shoes with a sharpie and at first I thought it was cool, then I thought, what have I done to my shoes?”

Through research on YouTube, Lopez taught himself how to not only paint shoes properly but also screen-print on T-shirts. His most popular design is one of a faceless Virgin Mary.

“I wanted everyone to be able to picture their mother’s face on the virgin, so it’s like, that’s your mom basically when you’re looking at it.”

Fashion Inc. president Sarah Delgado took one look at Lopez’s designs and immediately identified with the style.

“It’s that like, Chicano, Latino streetwear,” Delgado said. It’s a classic style commonly found among Mexican-American artists.

“It’s cool to see guys step away from that machismo,” Delgado said about the implications of a male designer taking an interest in fashion.

Lipez seems uninhibited by any gender norms or social expectations of him. He’s just a young artist expressing himself and taking joy in the process.