BOSS IN SPACE—Christmas windows at the KaDeWe in Berlin. All images courtesy BOSS.
For eight years, Justin Teodoro happily and successfully weaved his way through the whirlwind world of fashion as a designer working for the likes of Tuleh, Cynthia Steffe, and Kenneth Cole. Despite earning tangible respect and acclaim within the industry, a voice in the back of his mind remained, persistently calling him to return to a creative passion he’d had since his childhood: drawing. Teodoro saw the opportunity to merge his two passions of art and fashion into illustration and hasn’t looked back since. The illustrator, who calls New York home, is known for taking a paired-down approach to drawing, with a tone that is whimsically light-hearted and firmly positive in its outlook.
After the difficult year that 2020 has been, a dose of positivity is exactly what’s needed and Teodoro’s signature measure of zeal is encapsulated in the current holiday collection from BOSS. Heart and star symbols feature prominently throughout the collection evoking a simple but important theme: positivity. Teodoro spoke about the art of storytelling through illustration, how he went about marrying creative passions together, and art’s ability to provide refuge from the world’s difficulties.
Based on the general aesthetic and timing of this collaboration, can you describe in a few words what does the holiday season means to you, beyond the commercialised aspect of Christmas?
For me, holidays represent family and togetherness. Bringing people together has always been important to me and is a guaranteed way of creating good memories. Nowadays, I think it’s crucial to spread positivity, and this is the energy we wanted to encapsulate with the BOSS collaboration.
What was the process like collaborating with BOSS?
I was approached about this collaboration last year, so I worked on everything in advance and the process was magically smooth as a result of that. When we discussed what we wanted from the collaboration, we spoke at length about wanting something colourful and positive—that was very much the aim from the inception of the creative process. I like to use my art to express myself, but it’s even more important to me that the work retains a sentiment of hopefulness.
Hope and positivity appear to recur in your thought process: at the risk of sounding cynical, what makes you hopeful given the present situation?
I’ve taken a lot of hope from watching how people have come together in these tough times: I noticed a greater degree of widespread kindness between people, I’ve witnessed neighbours offering each other assistance, even if it is something as small as buying groceries for those in need. Truthfully, I’ve never encountered this spirit before.
Let’s speak a little bit about your background—how did you get into illustration and what drew you to the medium?
I’ve always been drawing since when I was a little kid. I think it was the first way I started expressing myself creatively. I remember drawing with my older cousin when I was four or five years old and then growing up surrounded by my mother’s art books and fashion magazines. Art has always played a very central role in my life, it feels very integral to who I am.
To be an artist by profession requires a certain degree of bravery, what was your experience like bringing art into your professional life?
Understanding who you want to be and what you want to do is never an easy process, especially if you’re aiming to become an artist. It’s kind of weird. There was nothing else I wanted to do, but still, it took me a while to be brave enough to really embrace art as a vocation.
Was there a precise moment where you realised you wanted to be an artist or was it a more gradual realisation?
I remember coming to New York on a family trip when I was fourteen and just falling in love with the city. It was such an inspiring experience it made me realise that I wanted to be within a creative ecosystem. The hard part is getting there—it’s taken me fifteen years to get where I am now.
What’s your relationship like with fashion?
Initially, fashion provided me with a great way to escape into a world of fantasy. I then chose to actually try pursuing a proper career in fashion and that’s when I first moved to New York. I worked as a designer for about eight years—I’ve done amazing things with amazing people. It was a wonderful experience that definitely set the foundation for how I approach work in general. It helped me to develop an incredible skill set.
How did you juggle both fashion and illustration and what was the motivation for not continuing to pursue fashion?
Over the last few years, I started drawing again. I did it just for myself, as a way of offering new perspectives. Initially, I kept the two very separate, working on fashion during the day and drawing by night. Then I had an internal conversation with myself, trying to establish what my future held. At that moment I understood that being a designer wasn’t the right direction, and it took me rediscovering the passion I had for drawing to see that. I think towards the end, I felt a bit burned out by the inevitable chaos of the fashion industry.
Berlin is a city with a strong tradition of tagging and graffiti, so I can’t help noticing how handwriting is a characteristic motif of your style. Do you take inspiration from Berlin’s rich history of street art?
To be honest, I think handwriting is something that I took mainly from my time in the fashion industry—I was always annotating my designs. The thought of using particularly stylised calligraphy never really occurred to me—it looked quick and nasty to me, but funnily enough, it’s now become part of my illustration process. I like how it adds another level of storytelling to my work.
Why did you choose the heart and star as central motifs for this campaign with BOSS?
The team at BOSS and I had a conversation about which symbol we could use that reflected the type of positivity that we had initially set our sights on. I came up with a couple of sketches and ideas and the heart was an element that remained constant throughout these conversations. It’s part of my style. The stars add a sense of imagination and dreams.
Though they are simple, they are effective at capturing the essence of what we wanted to get across.
In what ways would you say that your philosophy and aesthetic overlap with BOSS?
I really appreciated the relationship we developed over the course of this process, especially because I felt intimidated at the beginning with the idea of the whole campaign knowing that these would be going in the KaDeWe store windows in Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. What I love about the world of fashion is that it’s never a one-man show.
You mentioned that imagination was another core point for your campaign. Given the current predicament we find ourselves in, do you see imagination as a pure tool for escapism and detachment from reality, or as an actual way to help restructuring?
Art can definitely provide the necessary escapism that we need—images can help us evoke feelings that are difficult to only describe in words.
Explore the BOSS x Justin Teodoro collection here. The BOSS IN SPACE window campaign was exclusively designed for The KaDeWe Group and can be found at KaDeWe in Berlin, Alsterhaus in Hamburg and Oberpollinger in Munich until the end of the year.