Tattoo culture inspires streetwear clothing line
Feb. 21—ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Cameron and Justin Vigil are writing their own story.
It's one full of imagination and color.
The Las Cruces siblings are the masterminds behind the clothing brand Always Red E.
The brothers produce the streetwear — each piece has their signature red "E" on it.
Turns out it's a two-man job.
"My brother and I are hands on with each step of the process," Vigil says. "From the designs to the actual screen printing, it's all done in-house."
The Vigils worked together to build their website and do social media and marketing.
"We do the sewing and screen printing," he says. "We ship the packages from our place too."
In fact, Justin Vigil recently left his day job to turn all of his attention to the clothing line.
For a few items that are embroidered, the Vigils will use a third party.
"Until we get our own machine," Vigil says. "In due time."
The idea for the clothing line has been swirling in Cameron Vigil's head for years.
He's been a tattoo artist for 12 years and felt like he could reach more people with a clothing line with his designs on it.
Each day Cameron Vigil will sit down with his iPad and come up with the designs.
The influence is pulled from growing up in Las Cruces and tattoo culture.
Some of the designs include three crosses on a T-shirt, which represents Las Cruces.
Or "Las Cruces" will appear in graffiti-style on the shirt.
"A lot of the designs are heavily influenced by graffiti," Vigil says. "We have this fondness of the letter style. The new designs I've been coming up with have some quail or horned toads, as well as a native bow and arrow. I try to incorporate the plant and animal life through my art."
The Vigils also hit another milestone as they opened their first storefront inside The Parallel Axis, located at 400 S. Compress, Suite K, in Las Cruces.
Vigil says it's great to have a store for visitors to shop.
"We would take any opportunity to head out to the small markets and set up a booth," Vigil says. "We were also planning to have a booth at every tattoo convention in the Southwest. The pandemic stalled all of those plans. So we decided to take the next step and have a permanent home for our work."
The clothing line has received a lot of support from Las Crucens, and the Vigil's dad, Udell, can be seen around town wearing their apparel.
"We have friends tell us they see our dad in town wearing the shirts," Vigil says. "We've also seen people around town wearing it and it's humbling. We're bringing our style to the masses and it's really special."
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To view items created by Las Cruces siblings Cameron and Justin Vigil, click here.
