Java.Mar.2016

Photos by Matt Martian
“It was a huge learning experience, doing it all ourselves,”
she says. “We got to learn a lot about the
business side of things.” That was only the first step,
professionally, though. Aispuro sought other, bigger
opportunities in the industry.
In 2009, she moved to New York City. A couple of
years later her cousin followed, and they continued
building their clothing business. They sold items in a
boutique in Williamsburg called Treehouse, on Grand
Avenue in Brooklyn. She says they also sold at a coop
space in Brooklyn while simultaneously selling at
Nostra Style House in Phoenix (formerly owned by
Angelica Gonzalez).
While running their start-up business, Aispuro also
worked fashion internships and ran around between
various other jobs. First, she interned at Betsey
Johnson and then at Marquesa, she says. She also
worked at a children’s clothing company and handled
corporate clients, such as Wal-Mart, and other
department stores. She tried to absorb every aspect
of the industry she could through her work experience—from
design and planning to finally selling.
She’d moved to New York on a whim but decided
to stay and keep it going for a while. While living in
Greenpoint, she noticed the neighborhood undergoing
14 JAVA
MAGAZINE
a sudden, massive influx of young creatives. “It got
over-saturated and kind of crazy. I didn’t know which
direction I was going.”
After a few years of pouring in all of their heart, time
and money, Aispuro’s cousin decided she wanted to
leave the business. “We kind of broke up—not as
cousins, but as business partners.” Aispuro moved
back to Arizona and her cousin followed shortly after,
but for her own reasons.
“I feel like I always need to be creating or working
on something,” Aispuro says. “Otherwise, I would go
crazy.” Shortly after she got back to Phoenix, she felt
the timing was right to start her own business.
In New York, Aispuro went to FIT and completed a
certificate in sustainable design. Taking what she
learned and what bothered her about the “gigantic
fashion industry,” she formulated a new line: Leonor
Aispuro Private Collection. At first people who knew
her from Arte Puro were confused or reluctant to
embrace the idea that she was designing solo. But
she wanted to make it clear that this was her independent
line, so she gave it her own name.
A lot of the other students from her program were
working in corporate fashion, for companies like
Ralph Lauren and Tiffany’s. They were looking for
ways to change the corporate structure, or were completely
turned off and were seeking other alternatives.
“In Europe they are more aware of sustainability
and small-scale production. I feel like in the U.S.
it’s taking a little longer,” Aispuro says. She predicts
that sustainable fashion will spread worldwide, but it
may be a slow movement.
“One thing I learned is that it’s impossible to be 100
percent sustainable,” she says. This is especially true
in Phoenix, where places to buy supplies are limited.
But Aispuro tries to buy from other local businesses
whenever she can, and she has become very interested
in working with natural dyes and earth-friendly
processes. She also plans to do whatever she can not
to outsource any of her work.
“I got so turned off by mass production and what
most people think fashion is. After seeing how things
were done, I got kind of depressed. I get that it’s a
business,” she says. “But for me, at the end of the
day, it’s more than that. I guess I tend to think more
long term.”
Aispuro says it’s been healthy and reinvigorating to
have the time to go at her own pace and make her
own path. “It’s hard to explain at times. People just
don’t understand unless they are going through it