Meet Joseph Combs | Fashion Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with joseph Combs and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Joseph, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
When it comes to “why” I chose a career in the creative or artistic fields, I would say it came down to a variety of reasons all collectively leading me down one road. I was born with a birth defect of my cerebellum and it prohibited me from playing sports or doing a lot of strenuous activity. Around the age of five my mother put me in beginning painting classes to start learning classical painting and to distract me from the things I couldn’t do. My entire life in the arts all stems from painting. I remember being a child sitting in the grass painting with instructors at this beautiful recreational building right next to a lake. From that point forward art always was a piece of my life and I firmly believe it saved me from a childhood of depression and a lack of belonging. I knew nearly every artist under the sun before the age of 12. I knew Basquiat for painting Hollywood Africans and warrior. I knew the message behind Pop Art and Warhol’s Movement. I knew the reason for Fridas great sadness and what happened with Diego Rivera. Art always made me feel alive, the intensity for me at such a young age to digest the divinity of posthumous artist’s and how they become glorified one day. How one day they finally get the credit they deserved while alive.
At around 13 I remember I was actually in an art class, the teacher would play music videos on a projector while we were doing our work and suddenly Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance music video came on. I remember, this was truly the moment in my life I identified fashion as an art . I remember watching this video thinking “wow, how did someone make these pieces”. We all know the red lace outfit she set on fire wearing or the Alien-like body suit that forever changed fashion history. That day I went home and watched the video over and over and over again. Lady Gaga described shortly after filming the music video that the music videos garments were entirely designed by Alexander McQueen. Who some believe to be one of the most monumental designers in history. I continued to explore fashion and his work. Piece after piece, everything he made that was on Tumblr at the time or graced the pages of Harpers Bazaar, made me feel something I had never felt. I felt like I embodied him in a way. I felt like at that young age I understood his message, what he was trying to convey to the audience. I also related so much to the darkness and suffrage within his work to my own life at that moment of time, coming into my sexuality, while still being young and awkward, trapped.

From this point forward in my life I started to see fashion so differently, not just clothing but a message. I followed Gaga’s career so in-depth, she opened the door to every designer to me. At fifteen I knew who Ferragamo, Miuccia Prada, and Thierry Mugler were. I burried my nose so deep in fashion text books from the local book stores that for the first time in my life i knew where I was going. I went from being a nearly suicidal teenager, to telling myself, “keep calm, the best is yet to come, they don’t understand you now, but one day they will. Somewhere in my psyche, at this moment in time one day I’d be designing couture, or shooting my collection at Miami Swim Week, that I would one day become something great. It was at this point in my life I knew I wanted to be a fashion designer, no matter what it took.

Creative careers can be extremely difficult to be successful in, but I believe with authenticity and giving the world a greater message, something people can relate to, forms a truly good artist and creative. In fashion, I knew there were going to be so many hurdles and challenges to overcome but the outcome is always far greater than the issues at hand. Just knowing that 30+ women in the United States own one of my purses or wear one of my dresses to an event is the greatest gift to my life. That is what I’ve worked so hard for, to be a designer embedded within the fabric of fashion history. To give women garments that they will cherish and love forever, creating a legacy behind my name for my family.
pursuing a career in the arts was throwing myself to the wolves, but I always knew I’d one day lead the pack and that day still is to come for me. I think life is so glorious, truly, I’ve learned to live my life daily like I could die at any moment. I refuse beyond measure, to ever work in an industry or do something with my life that doesn’t make me feel alive. That doesn’t fulfill my inner child. My greatest fear is to be on my death bed one day and imagine everything I didn’t do because I was scared or worried about rejection or afraid of failure, I refuse to do or be anything other than Gilardi, the designer. No matter where I go or how big I ever get, I will always be that little boy sitting in the grass trying to find his meaning in the world through art.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?

Gilardi, I chose the brand name Gilardi when I was probably 16 years old. I remember telling myself how cool it would be to see it on a label or spanned across a bag. Gilardi was my grandmother’s last name when she came to this country from Sicily Italy in the 1900s. The brand is in homage to her as well as my grandmother on my mother’s side. She came from Krakow Poland. Right now Actually, I am aggressively going through the process of manufacturing my dresses in Poland, in her honor. Considering that Polish last name of hers was like 12 characters long and complete gibberish to Americans. That even attempting to make people try to pronounce it would be painful to listen.

I see these two enigmatic, warm, courageous women in my life as pieces within my soul. I see everything I do in my career as an honor to the two. Two ladies who stemmed from suffrage, who never really had a lot of glorious, beautiful moments in their lives. Two women who went through so much in their earthly lives, who need to be celebrated, who I see Gilardi as my gift to them, that the world is beginning to see our family on a global stage in fashion. My dad’s mother left us at 50 years old, and my mom’s mother left us at 64. I see their lives as unfinished paintings, for me as the grandson, I see it as my job to fill in all the uncolored spaces, to complete it.

As a designer, I think I see fashion at a different angle than most do. I do not want to create underappreciated, single-use garments that don’t live to tell a story. I think that is why it took me a while to find my corner in fashion, to find what I wanted to design. I think single-use fashion not only lacks intimacy, but it lacks ethics, sustainably speaking and it lacks diversity. When someone is wearing Gilardi they are wearing a piece of a collection that came from the heart, that came from emotions and raw energy, from a place of passion really. I believe in so many ways I am a traditionalist when it comes to my career as a designer. I feel like I try to emulate the life of early designers and their careers rather than thinking “global brand”. I believe that’s why there’s a significant difference in the quality of today’s clothing versus the clothing our parents wore, nothing was yet mass-produced.

Nothing about my life was or has ever been easy to tell you the truth. One thing I admire about myself is I am relentless and I won’t stop no matter what happens. There have been a few times now where I’ve thought to myself “This may be completely unobtainable”, to become a realtor or go to law school. Fashion School was tumultuous, to say the least. I was accepted into what is considered an Ivy League fashion school here in America on a full ride. When I began attending after a year I was made aware that my scholarship had become null and void because I wasn’t a full-time student. I then was bombarded by the school to “drop out or begin owing roughly $5,000 a month…. for the two classes I was in. I dropped out and went into a complete depression. Within two months I gained twenty pounds and completely lost sight of what was important.

Thankfully the next semester my mother suggested that I enroll in a local college that has a critically acclaimed fashion program where I then obtained two degrees from. I want every young person who dreams of being a designer to know, you do not need to attend the best schools in the country. You will not get a job at Vogue or Prada or Miu Miu just because you went to FIT or FIDM or SAIC. In fact, we are lucky in fashion if we get a job in our field at all.
This is the most tight-lipped, self-glorifying industry that I believe anyone can be a part of. I think in fashion its truly about finding your corner and meeting your tribe because no one is going to hand you your career on a platter.
I followed two major brands across the USA for Bridal fashion week. I was responsible for steaming the dresses, the brands social media and talking to buyers. Doing this “assistant job”, led me to meeting magazine editors, designers, buyers for Kleinfeld’s, Nordstrom’s, Bergdorf’s and some very prominent figures in the bridal fashion world. If I had said no to this offer due to it’s pay and what it entailed, I would have never met some of the people I now know. When starting in fashion I firmly believe we have to start small.
I swept the floors and pressed fabric in a textile mill here in Chicago two summers ago, the same woman who owns that textile mill is now giving me fabric at wholesale and is launching my charity fashion show this summer. Fashion is about hard work and networking to be completely honest. to any young person, take any job or internship you can find and run with it. Don’t worry about money right now because money will come. meet people, sell yourself, sell your work. Become a force to be reckoned with.
I finished fashion school during the pandemic, at that point in time I was manufacturing my own eight piece collection and selling it 100% online through Etsy and Instagram. After a year of not spending a penny on marketing, I sold $5,500 in products and five large influencers had one of my pieces all over North and Latin America. It didn’t mean much to me that sales weren’t more, I knew at this moment in my life it was a gift to have any exposure at all. I think that’s what’s so important for starting designers. I will never forget one of my favorite professors in fashion school telling me “Joseph, don’t start selling pieces when your sewing is perfect, start selling now because no one is ever perfect, and by the time your sewing’s perfect you’ll be 50”. take risks, reach out, imagine the greatest thing in the world happening to you for your business and your are already half way there.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
My best friend comes to visit me, I am planning some of the greatest days she ever had in Chicago. I’d start off by taking her to Maison Parisienne a French Café in Lincoln Park for breakfast.
for lunch, we ride divvy bikes around Lake Michigan and have a picnic at Adler Planetarium.
For Dinner, we go to Lyra Greek In Chicago’s Fulton Market District.
After that, I take her to Halsted and we bar hop all my favorite bars and clubs in boystown and we dance till
our feet are throbbing.
Then at about 3:30 Am, we go to my favorite twenty-four-hour Mexican restaurant three blocks away and have
tacos and sober up before going to bed.
The next day we go to North Avenue Beach in the heart of Lake Shore Drive where we are completely surrounded by the beautiful buildings and Lake Michigan. For lunch, we go to Chinatown and hop into any hole in the wall and have the most amazing lunch.
in the afternoon we spend the evening walking the halls of the Art Institute of Chicago admiring some of the greatest art pieces in history.
For dinner, we go to Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder and have the famous pizza from 1972.
After that, we conclude our night at the Drifter where we step into a roaring 20’s speakeasy and watch a scandalous burlesque show.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My shoutout for sure goes to my amazing parents who helped me tremendously throughout my journey as a designer and throughout college. I would love to shout out my amazing friend and businesswoman Lauren Barrett of Ardore Marketing. Lauren has been there for so years of my life now and has always supported me and helped me grow.

Website: Gilardi.co

Instagram: Gilardiatelier