An extension of the South Los Angeles creative agency Commonwealth Projects, Total Luxury Spa prides itself in challenging the essence of streetwear while still falling within the category. Founded by creative director and entrepreneur Daniel Desure, the label strives to “educate and expand audience mindsets through fictional and non-fictional narratives,” all while making a conscious effort to give back and better the health of our community. With ample digital presence and designs that nod to LA’s past via vintage-looking fonts and graphics, Total Luxury Spa is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the realms of streetwear and sustainable fashion movement.

 

Out today is their 5th collection titled Liquid State — a sustainability-focused range full of comfy streetwear staples we all gravitate towards during this time of all-pervasive social distancing and WFH. Paying respect to our most fundamental earthly life force, water, Liquid State explores the universal connection between humanity and nature, and the need to maintain this delicate balance in the universe while considering its immediate South Los Angeles environment as a microcosm of a larger global reality.

 

“While our bodies consist of 60% water, in 2020 more than 35% of the world’s population still doesn’t have access to clean water, a vital resource for all known forms of life. It only takes one small change in an ecosystem to bring about catastrophic change. “

 

In light of the launch, VMAN spoke with TLS founder Daniel Desure about his latest collection, the current state of sustainability in fashion and where he hopes to take his brand moving forward. Read the exclusive statement and full interview with the sustainable streetwear designer below, and shop the eco-friendly range via their e-comm shop and select retailers including The Webster, SSENSE and Dover Street Market worldwide.

For as long as we’ve been making t-shirts, the quality, construction, and weight have been just as important to us as the messages behind our graphics. As we’ve refined our products, we’ve learned just how much waste our industry makes, which got us thinking specifically about our own footprint. This led us to develop an initiative that aligns our graphic messages with our garment production and creates a more sustainable business and manufacturing practice moving forward. Rather than only offset our carbon footprint, we’re changing our production methods to simply create less waste, period. This is one of our first of many steps toward a more environmentally sustainable practice.

 

After lots of hard work, we’ve redesigned our cherished tees using a domestically- produced 100% recycled cotton jersey. Both these new short-sleeve and long-sleeve tees are a 1-for-1 match with the TLS quality and feel you already know and love. We’ll be using these from here on out.

 

Protect the Source

 

 

V Magazine Provoking critical thinking and bringing audiences into imagined worlds is part of the Total Luxury Spa ethos. What do you want people to think or feel when they wear garments from the “Liquid State” range?

 

Daniel Desure With all of our initiatives, we hope people become a bit more empathetic. In the case of the Liquid State collection, we hope people start looking at their purchasing habits a bit differently, what goes into the products they’re purchasing, and how those products impact our planet. Overall paying closer attention to our natural resources and how those resources are quickly depleting.

 

V As per your mission statement, Liquid State explores the universal connection between humanity and nature, as well as the need to maintain this delicate balance in the universe. What does this human-nature relationship mean to you personally? How would you define or explain it?

 

DD There’s a larger connection between all living things that I think we take for granted, myself included. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the everyday, but when we connect with others around us, when we connect to nature, we not only cultivate a stronger love within ourselves but discover that love has a direct way of tapping into a larger life force. When we care about life around us, life has a stronger love for itself and creates a larger universal bond between all things.

 

V How long ago did you start working on this collection? What gave you the idea for this project?

 

DD I’ve had the idea of doing something around water as a natural resource and commodity ever since I heard the head of Nestlé say “Water is NOT a human right.” Coming from one of the largest water bottling companies in the world, that was a crazy statement to read. From there, I started researching hydro-politics, which sent me down a wormhole and eventually led to this collection.

 

 

V For Liquid State, you developed an exclusive 100% recycled jersey that you use to manufacture all of your short and long sleeve t-shirts. Why was it important for you to take this extra step in the direction of sustainability?

 

DD With anything we put out into the world, we never want to simply be talking about it. We want to practice it so that others can then say “I can do that too” or “I didn’t know that, and if they can do it, maybe I/we can do it”, or “how can I get involved?” I think there’s a lot of virtue-signaling these days and a lot of shouting, and it’s really about doing the work and exploring new ways of working that help others and the planet. It would have been ridiculous for us to talk about all these environmental issues and not changed our own ways.

 

We changed our product packaging to be 100% plant-based, we changed all of our production methods on short- and long-sleeves to 100% recycled and we released a shower timer to help cut down on water consumption. This isn’t to say we can’t do more — we’re going to try and get better and better with each collection, and hopefully, others will follow.

 

V When it comes to sustainability in fashion, what are some of the things that most fashion houses and manufacturers could improve on today?

 

DD I think the biggest and first step is the packaging. Single-use plastics are simply the worst, and there are alternatives out there right now.

 

The second step would be looking into recycled materials. I know this isn’t easy but for big brands, it’s going to be a must in the next few years. People will start demanding it, so why not be the first ones out there?

 

 

V What are some of the things that consumers should pay attention to if they want to shop more sustainably?

 

DD There’s a lot of sustainable “talk” right now. A lot of brands are talking about carbon offset — which isn’t negative — but why not simply cut down on the carbon footprint first by using materials that aren’t as harmful as the ones being used now? I think being more conscious about our purchases is going to be an everyday practice soon. Who knows — maybe there will be a rating system on how sustainable the brand is very soon. I think it’s important to be conscious of the language around a brand/product vs. the actual production methods of that product.

 

V For you personally, what was the most challenging about working on this collection?

 

DD Liquid State was a massive learning curve. Wanting to do something and then actually changing our production methods is always going to be challenging. Wanting a very specific look and feel from the products, like our previous designs, but making them recycled took a lot of hard work.

 

V And the most rewarding one?

 

DD I personally love learning from it and how others are responding to it. We posted something on Instagram about changing our packaging methods to be plant-based, and we had about 120-150 people and brands reach out to us and ask us for the info on how we did it — and we were happy to share that info. For the first time in forever, we actually welcome people to copy what we’re doing.

 

V This range also includes a limited-edition T-shirt that will support a charitable cause. Could you tell us a bit more about that?

 

DD Friends of the LA River and Ram Dass Love Serve Remember Foundation are the two we’re supporting on this collection. Friends of the LA River is doing incredible work to not only educate people on the history of the LA River, but they’re also doing the real work of creating an equitable, publically accessible and ecologically sustainable space around the River. We created a special shirt with them, and all the proceeds from that shirt will go towards their initiative. Ram Dass LSR Foundations is something we’ve always aspired to be more like, it is an incredible resource for spiritual learning.

 

V Where do you see Total Luxury Spa and yourself going in the next few years? How do you square that with where the industry is going as a whole?

 

DD We hope we can do more as we grow. Effect changes in the industry and also change and learn ourselves along the way. We hope to do larger partnerships that make sense, so that we can have greater effect in numbers and hopefully create a more equitable, empathetic and sustainable space.